The US Army and South Carolina Army National Guard have developed an automated vibration monitoring and fault diagnostic tool as part of the Vibration Management Enhancement Program (VMEP). This paper outlines the VMEP system rationale, design and the vibration diagnostic algorithms used to find faults in the helicopter rotors, engines, and drive train. The concepts that differentiate VMEP from traditional Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) implementations are described. Specifics of the system implemented in the Apache and Black Hawk helicopters found in the National Guard are shown. The software architecture used in the on-board component, the ground-based component, and the development station is presented. The data collection effort during the initial field trials is described and examples of vibration test data and algorithm processing results are presented. We believe that the system presented here represents a way of meeting many of the integrated vibration diagnostics goals for Army Aviation.
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