Wiring System Diagnostic Techniques for Legacy Aircraft
Abstract
As aircraft continue to age, managing the overall wiring system is becoming an important issue. Over time, the accumulation of stresses from the operational environment, installation, and maintenance can induce wiring failures. In both design and maintenance, wiring is usually treated more as a commodity than a subsystem. A systematic process for managing wiring is only now just emerging. A major challenge is the development of wiring diagnostic equipment. The diagnosing and repairing of wiring failures can cause extensive downtimes for aircraft. Interconnection failures cannot be easily identified since most test equipment is designed to locate failures in avionics and not the connector or wiring. Additionally, wiring failures tend to be intermittent in nature and can take considerable time to isolate. Significant reduction in maintenance costs can occur by moving from unscheduled maintenance to a scheduled, preventative, or opportunistic maintenance philosophy based on the ability to isolate and repair degraded electrical systems. This paper will address the wiring system maintenance issues and concerns, field maintenance diagnostic requirements (needs), and compare available diagnostic tools in terms of utility, ease of use, and setup time.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADP014076
Entities
People
- Adam L. Decker
- David H. Johnson
- Dwayne Dicks
- Edward L White
- Joseph J. D'angelo Jr.
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory