PURPOSE, OBJECTIVE, AND BACKGROUND OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED: AIRCRAFT STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEMS,…

Public award description

PURPOSE, OBJECTIVE, AND BACKGROUND OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED: AIRCRAFT STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEMS, CURRENTLY UNDER DEVELOPMENT, CAN DETECT AN ACOUSTIC EMISSION (AE) SUCH AS AN IMPACT OR STRUCTURAL FRACTURE OR TEAR THAT CAN POTENTIALLY DAMAGE WING OR FUSELAGE STRUCTURE, BUT NOT THE LOCATION AND NATURE OF THE EVENT GENERATING THE AE. IF AN EVENT IS RECORDED, THE STRUCTURE MUST BE SCANNED WITH A NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (NDE) TECHNOLOGY TO PINPOINT THE DAMAGE LOCATION AND NATURE AFTER THE PLANE IS BACK IN THE HANGER. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN AE RESPONSE DETERMINATION TECHNOLOGY HAVE SHOWN POTENTIAL FOR REAL TIME DETERMINATION OF THE LOCATION AND NATURE OF THE EVENT RESULTING IN AN ACOUSTIC EMISSION. THIS COULD ENABLE REAL TIME IN-FLIGHT DECISIONS ABOUT THE CONTINUED AIRWORTHINESS OF THE AIRCRAFT AND WOULD BE A SIGNIFICANT ADVANCE IN STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING. THE PURPOSE OF THIS TASK IS TO UTILIZE THE WORK DONE IN DETERMINING THE STRAIN AND DISPLACEMENT RESPONSE TO AN INTERNAL BREAKAGE IN AN ISOTROPIC PLATE TO DETERMINE THE NATURE AND LOCATION OF THE BREAKAGE BY MATCHING MEASURED AND CALCULATED RESPONSES. WITH THE SOURCE OF THE CALCULATED DISTURBANCE KNOWN, A MATCHING MEASURED RESPONSE WOULD POINT TO A SIMILAR SOURCE TYPE. THIS IS THE INVERSE PROBLEM TO THE DETERMINATION OF RESPONSE FROM DAMAGE. IT WILL ENABLE REAL-TIME DETERMINATION OF DAMAGE ON AN AIRCRAFT FROM THE MONITORING OF ACOUSTIC EMISSION SIGNALS VIA AN ARRAY OF FUSELAGE OR WING MOUNTED SENSORS AND RECORDING DEVICES. IT WILL ALSO BE A NECESSARY INTERMEDIATE BUILDING BLOCK TO ADDRESSING THE SAME PROBLEM FOR A COMPOSITE STRUCTURE IN THE FUTURE.