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This paper describes how Fluorescent Penetrant Inspection (FPI) was used in the past, how it is used now and how it will be used in the future. The United States Air Force (USAF) and Pratt & Whitney (P&W) now use a fully-automated FPI process with manual visual inspection. With direction and funding provided by the USAF/Aeronautical System Center (ASC), these fully-automated FPI processors, located at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas were developed, manufactured, installed, qualified and put into operation by Pratt & Whitney. This paper will cover the following: the Qualification and Acceptance Tests which include test objectives, test articles, test facility, test equipment, test results, and training.

In the present study, an experimental investigation was conducted to characterize a hot-air-based anti-/de-icing system for the icing protection of aero-engine inlet guide vanes(IGVs). The experimental study was conducted in a unique icing research tunnel available at Iowa State University (i.e., ISU-IRT). A hollowed IGV model embedded with U-shaped hot-air flowing conduit was designed and manufactured for the experimental investigations. During the experiments, while a high-speed imaging system was used to record the dynamic ice accretion or anti-/de-icing process over the surface of the IGV model for the test cases without and with the hot-air supply system being turned on, the corresponding surface temperature distributions on the IGV model were measured quantitatively by using a row of embedded thermocouples.