Statistic Approach Based on “Monte-Carlo Simulation” to Calculate Inspection Reliability for Multiple Site Damage

Changes in aircraft design concepts in recent years from “Safe-Life / Fail-Safe” to “Damage-Tolerance” have significantly increased the importance of the role of Nondestructive Inspections (NDI) and have placed a far greater importance on the effectiveness of NDI techniques and their ability to detect defects. To calculate inspection reliabilities based on probability of detection (POD) of the inspection method and “Multiple Site Damage” (MSD) (or “Widespread Fatigue Damage”) assumptions for the defects, an approach to use a “Monte-Carlo Simulation” is described and results for crack inspection of aircraft lap joints are presented