Application of ultrasound technique to evaluate contact condition on the faying surface of riveted joints

Contact area and pressure distributions on the faying surfaces of riveted joints are critical to fretting fatigue crack. However, these contact conditions are hard to evaluate by experimental methods. This study proposed an application of ultrasound technique to quantify contact area and pressure distribution on the faying surface of riveted joints. This ultrasound method consists of the ultrasonic reflection map measurement of the faying surface, and a parallel calibration procedure to establish the relationship between ultrasonic reflection and contact pressure. In this way, the contact area and pressure distributions of riveted joints installed with different riveting forces were investigated. The results show that the contact pressure increases rapidly with the squeeze force, while the contact area spreads slightly at the same time. The mean pressure profiles of the ultrasonic results were compared with the results of a finite element model for the riveted joints. The comparison shows that the mean pressure profiles are consistent with the numerical results.