Nondestructive reliability monitoring method for adhesively bonded structures whose sensitivity is improved by using piezoelectric or conductive materials

Abstract

A method is disclosed for testing bonded part integrity of bonded structures with increased sensitivity and in a nondestructive manner. The method includes the steps of: mixing a piezoelectric material or an electrically conductive material with an adhesive agent, curing the adhesive agent in between bonding target objects, electrically connecting the bonding target objects to one another, causing an electric current to flow through the bonding target objects to measure a quantity of electric charges flowing between the bonding target objects, and determining existence of bonding damage between the bonding target objects and the adhesive agent based on the quantity of electric charges and predicting a remaining life span of the bonded structures based on a data indicating a correlation between the quantity of electric charges and a predetermined fatigue life.