The Loads and Damage Detection Techniques of a Fleet and Usage Management System (fumstm)

Working closely with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), Smiths has developed a Fleet and Usage Management System (FUMSTM) to enable proactive fleet management and continuous diagnostic and prognostic improvements through a single fusion and decision support platform for helicopters, aeroplanes and engines. This paper presents a suite of FUMSTM algorithms that have been successfully developed and validated for affordable load monitoring and damage detection. The load algorithms use flight parameters to accurately compute component loads/strains and, hence, eliminate the need for fitting aging aircraft with expensive strain gauge systems. The accurate computations of structural loads allow the assessment of the life and condition of critical components to be made using ‘safe-life’ or ‘damagetolerant’ (crack extension) approaches. Through a Smiths/BAE SYSTEMS collaborative programme, these algorithms have been validated using aircraft data covering 15 years of MOD operations. The paper describes recent advances in algorithms that have been configured for damage detection using acoustic emission sensor data. The damage algorithms are being optimised for hardware implementation to support flight-testing of damage detection technologies. The paper also describes some of the FUMSTM fleet management applications; proactive fleet management can be based on derived information such as loads, fatigue, crack extensions, usage indices and operational envelope exceedences; fleet management can also be based on information obtained by interfacing FUMSTM with external logistic/maintenance databases; it can be based on fusing all available information. FUMSTM allows the user to build fleet management applications using available data without the need for re-writing software. The Smiths/MOD Collaborative Efforts Advances in sensing technologies and aircraft data acquisition systems have resulted in the generation of huge aircraft data sets, which can potentially offer improvements in aircraft Management, Affordability, Availability, Airworthiness and Performance (MAAAP). In order to realise these MAAAP improvements, Smiths has worked closely with MOD to evolve a Fleet and Usage Management System (FUMSTM). FUMSTM has emerged as an affordable single framework that can provide automatic trending, fusion, decision-making and intelligent capabilities for developing and verifying diagnostic, prognostic and life management approaches for helicopters, aeroplanes and engines. In the context of MOD objectives, FUMSTM provides a procurement risk control framework to assist with verifying emerging Prognostic Health Management (PHM) approaches using real data and to collect verification evidence for qualification and maintenance credit purposes. The Smiths/MOD FUMSTM activities have been targeted at addressing a number of military needs [1]: • A need for an advanced diagnostics, prognostics and life management platform; • A need for concise prognostic information to track the usage of individual aircraft components/subsystems over their entire lives; • A need for a fusion, mining and automatic trending platform; • A need for an expandable verification platform open for 3rd party tools; • A need for a platform providing diverse applications to a wide range of users and; • A need for a flexible platform providing military benefits during evolution.