With the world aircraft fleets growing exponentially, the maintenance burden on airlines is also becoming overwhelming. One way to counter this is by making systems “smarter” so that they can self-diagnose themselves, help with troubleshooting, and estimate remaining useful life. Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) is the engineering discipline that forms the basis for developing such smart systems. In this course, the basic tenets of PHM will be taught with an emphasis on the practical application of PHM to aerospace systems.
In today's industrial sphere, machines are the key supporting various sectors and their operations. Over time, due to extensive usage, these machines undergo wear and tear, introducing subtle yet consequential faults that may go unnoticed. Given the pervasive dependence on machinery, the early and precise detection of these faults becomes a critical necessity. Detecting faults at an early stage not only prevents expensive downtimes but also significantly improves operational efficiency and safety standards. This research focuses on addressing this crucial need by proposing an effective system for condition monitoring and fault detection, leveraging the capabilities of advanced deep learning techniques. The study delves into the application of five diverse deep learning models—LSTM, Deep LSTM, Bi LSTM, GRU, and 1DCNN—in the context of fault detection in bearings using accelerometer data. Accelerometer data is instrumental in capturing vital vibrations within the machinery.
The paper presents a theoretical framework for the detection and first-level preliminary identification of potential defects on aero-structure components while employing ultrasonic guided wave based structural health monitoring strategies, systems and tools. In particular, we focus our study on ground inspection using laser-Doppler scan of surface velocity field, which can also be partly reconstructed or monitored using point sensors and actuators on-board structurally integrated. Using direct wave field data, we first question the detectability of potential defects of unknown location, size, and detailed features. Defects could be manufacturing defects or variations, which may be acceptable from design and qualification standpoint; however, those may cause significant background signal artifacts in differentiating structure progressive damage or sudden failure like impact-induced damage and fracture.
Abstract Unlike conventional launch vehicles the winged body reusable launch vehicle needs to be tested and evaluated for its functionality during the pre-flight preparation at the runway. The ground based checkout systems for the avionics and actuators performance testing during pre-flight evaluation and actuation are not designed for rapid movement. The new kind of launch vehicle with conventional rocket motor first-stage and winged body upper-stage demands the system testing at Launchpad and at runway. In the developmental flights of the winged body part of the vehicle, the pre-flight testing needs to be carried out extensively at runway. The safety protocol forbids the permanent structure for hosting the checkout system near runway. The alternative is the development of a rapidly deployable and removable checkout system. A design methodology adopting conventional industrial instrumentation systems and maintaining mobility is presented.