Fielding a Structural Health Monitoring System on Legacy Military Aircraft = a Business Perspective

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

An important trend in the sustainment of military aircraft is the transition from preventative maintenance to condition based maintenance (CBM). For CBM, it is essential that the actual system condition can be measured and the measured condition can be reliably extrapolated to a convenient moment in the future in order to facilitate the planning process while maintaining flight safety. Much research effort is currently being made for the development of technologies that enable CBM, including structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. Great progress has already been made in sensors, sensor networks, data acquisition, models and algorithms, data fusion/mining techniques, etc. However, the transition of these technologies into service is very slow. This is because business cases are difficult to define and the certification of the SHM systems is very challenging. This paper describes a possibility for fielding a SHM system on legacy military aircraft with a minimum amount of certification issues and with a good prospect of a positive return on investment. For appropriate areas in the airframe the application of SHM will reconcile the fail-safety and slow crack growth damage tolerance approaches that can be used for safeguarding the continuing airworthiness of these areas, combining the benefits of both approaches and eliminating the drawbacks.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Structural Integrity Concepts of Military Aircraft
• 3. Potential SHM Business Case
• 4. Conclusion
• References

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 C. F. Tiffany, "Threats to aircraft structural safety, including a compendium of selected structural accidents/incidents" Aeronautical Systems Center

2 J. B. De Jonge, "The requirement of damage tolerance; an analysis of damage tolerance requirements with specific reference to MIL-A-83444" NLR 1976

3 U. S. Department of Defense, "Revised damage tolerance requirements for slow crack growth design concepts for metallic structures, USAF Structures Bulletin EN-SB-08-002"

4 U. S. Department of Defense, "Revised damage tolerance requirements for fail-safe metallic structures, USAF Structures Bulletin EN-SB-08-001, Revision A"

5 D. Roach, "Real time crack detection using mountable comparative vacuum monitoring sensors" 국제구조공학회 5 (5): 317-328, 2009

6 M. E. Ibrahim, "Monitoring of fatigue cracks using permanently-mounted conformable eddy current sensors" 33 : 2009

7 N. Goldfine, "MWM®-array electromagnetic techniques for crack sizing, weld assessment, thickness measurement, and mechanical damage profilometry" JENTEK Sensors, Inc 2012

8 M. J. Bos, "Load monitoring and structural health monitoring within the Royal Netherlands Air Force, NLR Technical Publication NLR-TP-2013-479"

9 U.S. Department of Defense, "In-service inspection flaw assumptions for metallic structures, USAF Structures Bulletin EN-SB-08-012, Revision C"

10 K. Jones, "Challenges and lessons learned from conformal eddy current probe acquisition and implementatio" 2012

11 K. Pipe, "Barriers to implementation of CBM" NATO

12 S. McMillan, "Alleviating maintenance burden; converting F-16 fleet management from slow crack growth to fail-safety" 2012

13 U. S. Department of Defense, "Airplane Damage Tolerance Requirements" MIL 1974

14 U. S. Department of Defense, "Aircraft Structures. Joint Service Specification Guide"

15 F. P. Grooteman, "A stochastic approach to determine lifetimes and inspection schemes for aircraft components" 30 (30): 138-149, 2008