Modeling of an aircraft structural health monitoring sensor network for operational impact assessment

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) of aircraft components can improve maintenance operations, potentially reducing costs for inspections, unscheduled maintenance events, and unexpected delays. On the other hand, aircraft safety and net present value can be adversely influenced by false alarms, missed detections, system costs, and weight and power requirements of the SHM system. In order to gain a better understanding into the latter, we present a weight and power model for a sensor network, comprising sensors, interrogators, data collectors, and wiring. We assess the net benefit of using SHM in terms of reduced expenditure as function of network coverage, considering a corresponding potential in reducing the inspection effort.