Networked Modular Technology for Integrated Aircraft Health Monitoring: Application to Rotary Structures

The largest variable cost to aircraft's manufacturers and flying companies is unscheduled maintenance. Therefore, developing efficient and modular PHM system capable to scale different architectures topologies for in flight and on ground health monitoring could be cost effective, since it brings indication and warning prior to damage occurring. In this paper, we propose an innovative diagnostic and prognostic health system based on a combination of modular acquisitions interfaces and processing units. An embedded JTFA (Joined Time-Frequency Analysis) method based on STFT (Short-Time Fourier Transform) or Wigner-Ville transforms are used to extract a relevant signature. The proposed algorithms and PHM system technology are applied for diagnosis of mechanical flows in a high speed rotating gear of a demonstrator machine. A detailed description of data management and rooting from vibration sensors to the processing unit will be exposed. Finally, a proof-of-concept experiment will be designed to demonstrate the integration of all the described system elements to detect any damage or anomaly into the monitored structure.