This application relates to structural health management, and more particularly to a method for monitoring a health of a structure.
Rotary-wing aircraft and other structures may be routinely subjected to operational conditions which may result in stress and vibration. Since the components of the structure may have a measurable and predictable life cycle, prediction of component deterioration so as to anticipate a potential failure facilitates prolonged operations. Early detection of potential failures or fractures within a structural component provides the ability to perform preventative maintenance and avoid potential component failure.
Manual inspection is one method of monitoring structural health. More recently, some aircraft have incorporated Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (“HUMS”) to monitor the health of critical components and collect operational flight data utilizing on-board accelerometers, sensors, and avionic systems.
A method according to one non-limiting embodiment includes performing a first damage prediction with a computational model using at least data from a first multitude of damage sensors on a structure, performing a second damage prediction with the computational model using at least data from a second multitude of load sensors associated with the structure, and selectively performing a damage monitoring action in response to the first damage prediction and the second damage prediction to determine a structural health.
A system according to one non-limiting embodiment includes at least one computing device configured to perform a first damage prediction using at least data from a multitude of damage sensors on a structure, a second damage predication using at least data from a multitude of load sensors associated with the structure, so as to selectively perform a damage monitoring action in response to the first damage prediction and the second damage prediction to determine a structural health of the structure.
These and other features of the present application can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description.
a illustrates a first view of an example structure.
b illustrates a second view of the structure of
A multitude of local damage sensors 12 and a multitude of global damage sensors 14 are applied to the structure 30 (see
Data is received from the multitude of local damage sensors 12 (action 102) and data is received from the multitude of global damage sensors 14 (action 103). The local sensor data and global sensor data is then merged (action 104) to form a damage data set 16 (
An initial crack size estimate (action 138) and a damage location estimate (action 140) are performed in response to the first damage prediction (action 106). The initial crack size estimate (action 138) may be calculated using data from the damage data set 16 or from a damage database 24, which contains data regarding crack sizes and other criteria (see
Load data 22 is also received from a multitude of load sensors (action 108). A load sensor is any device for sensing loads in a structure. In one non-limiting embodiment, the load sensors 17 are physical load sensors 18, such as accelerometers or bi-directional strain gauges, applied to the structure 30 (see
A second damage prediction (action 109) is performed in response to the load data 22 from the load sensors 17 (see
If the sensed load does not exceed the maximum allowable load for the structure (action 110), a cycle count for a stress level is incremented in response to the structure experiencing oscillations at the stress level (action 118). It is understood that in this application the term “oscillations” can include vibratory loads and can include dynamic loads. Incrementing the cycle count includes obtaining cycle tracking data 26 from memory, and then updating the cycle tracking data 26 (see
where Kf is a fatigue notch factor;
where Δε is a total strain amplitude in a notch root;
Equations #3 and #4 shown below illustrate how equations #1 and #2 are related, and may be used along with equations #1 and #2
A sum of the ratios for each of the stress levels is then calculated (action 122; for example by Miner's rule) to obtain a cumulative damage index “DI”. A check is then performed to determine if the cumulative damage index meets or exceeds a threshold (action 124). While action 124 illustrates an example threshold of 1, it is understood that other thresholds could be used. The second damage prediction 109 includes actions 110, 118, 120, 122, and 124 (
Referring to
It should be noted that a computing device can be used to implement various functionality of the computational model, such as that attributable to the system 10. In terms of hardware architecture, such a computing device may include the microprocessor 11, memory (as described above), and one or more input and/or output (I/O) device interface(s) that are communicatively coupled via a local interface. The local interface may include, for example but not limited to, one or more buses and/or other wired or wireless connections. The local interface may have additional elements, which are omitted for simplicity, such as controllers, buffers (caches), drivers, repeaters, and receivers to enable communications. Further, the local interface may include address, control, and/or data connections to enable appropriate communications among the aforementioned components.
The microprocessor 11 may be a hardware device for executing software, particularly software stored in memory. The microprocessor may be a custom made or commercially available processor, a central processing unit (CPU), an auxiliary processor among several processors associated with the computing device, a semiconductor based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip or chip set) or generally any device for executing software instructions.
The memory may include any one or combination of volatile memory elements (e.g., random access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, VRAM, etc.)) and/or nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape, CD-ROM, etc.). Moreover, the memory may incorporate electronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. Note that the memory may also have a distributed architecture, where various components are situated remotely from one another, but may be accessed by the processor.
The software in the memory (e.g. the computational model 15) may include one or more separate programs, each of which includes an ordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logical functions. A system component embodied as software may also be construed as a source program, executable program (object code), script, or any other entity comprising a set of instructions to be performed. When constructed as a source program, the program is translated via a compiler, assembler, interpreter, or the like, which may or may not be included within the memory.
The Input/Output devices that may be coupled to system I/O Interface(s) may include input devices, for example but not limited to, a keyboard, mouse, scanner, microphone, camera, proximity device, etc. Further, the Input/Output devices may also include output devices, for example but not limited to, a printer, display, etc. Finally, the Input/Output devices may further include devices that communicate both as inputs and outputs, for instance but not limited to, a modulator/demodulator (modem; for accessing another device, system, or network), a radio frequency (RF) or other transceiver, a telephonic interface, a bridge, a router, etc.
When the computing device is in operation, the microprocessor 11 may be configured to execute software stored within the memory, to communicate data to and from the memory, and to generally control operations of the computing device pursuant to the software. Software in memory, in whole or in part, is read by the processor, perhaps buffered within the processor, and then executed.
In one example, the damage sensors 12 and 14 corresponds to a first tier of a structural health monitoring architecture, the load sensors 17 correspond to a second tier of the structural health monitoring architecture, and the computational model 15 corresponds to a third tier of the structural health monitoring architecture.
Referring to
If the first damage prediction (action 106) detects damage and the second damage prediction (action 109) detects damage, the first damage monitoring action (action 130) is performed. The first damage monitoring action includes performing crack growth tracking (action 142) using an initial crack size estimate (action 138) calculated from the damage data set 16. In one example the crack growth tracking (action 142) may be performed using the NASGRO equation. In another example, the crack growth tracking may be performed using finite element analysis software.
If the first damage prediction (action 106) detects damage and the second damage prediction (action 109) does not detect damage, a second damage monitoring action (action 132) is performed. The second damage monitoring action includes performing crack growth tracking (action 142) using an initial crack size estimate (action 136) from a damage database 24 (see
If the first damage prediction (action 106) does not detect damage and the second damage prediction (action 109) detects damage, then a third damage monitoring action (action 134) is performed. The third damage monitoring action includes incrementing a cycle count (action 118) for a stress level in response to the structure experiencing oscillations at the stress level, and proportionally decreasing an estimated crack size (action 144) based on the cumulative damage index.
If the first damage prediction (action 106) does not detect damage and the second damage prediction (action 109) does not detect damage, then it may be determined that the structure 30 has not experienced damage, and a fourth damage monitoring action (action 136) is performed. The fourth damage monitoring action includes incrementing a cycle count (action 118) for a stress level in response to the structure experiencing oscillations at the stress level.
As discussed above, an estimated crack growth size 144 is compared to a critical crack size for the structure (action 112), and if the estimated crack size does not exceed the critical crack size, then it may be determined that the structure is still healthy, and the estimated crack size is updated (action 114). If the estimated crack size does exceed the critical crack size, the system 10 determines that the structure requires maintenance, and a maintenance request, such as an inspection flag, is triggered (action 116).
Although preferred embodiments of this application have been disclosed, these embodiments are only exemplary, and a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of this application. For that reason, one should study the following claims to determine the true scope and content of this invention.