Changes in Structural Health Monitoring System Capability Due to Aircraft Environmental Factors
Abstract
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) promises to decrease the maintenance cost and increase the availability of aging aircraft fleets by fundamentally changing the way structural inspections are performed. But this promise can only be realized through the consistent and predictable performance of a SHM system throughout the entire remaining life of an aircraft. A design of experiments approach is used to build and execute an experiment to determine the effect of one aircraft environmental factor (cyclic strain) on a common SHM technology (PZT-based sensors). Analysis of results shows the sensors to be significantly affected by cyclic strain, and that the effects can be estimated using a power equation model. A ?probability of detection (POD) degradation model? is also developed by extending existing nondestructive evaluation (NDE) POD analysis techniques. This model demonstrates how changes in sensor performance due to an aircraft environmental factor can be used to estimate the change in overall performance of the SHM system and provides a common framework to predict changes in SHM system performance over the remaining life of an aircraft.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA504996
Entities
People
- Jeffrey D. Kuhn
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology