Real-Time Damage Detection in an Airplane Wing During Wind Tunnel Testing Under Realistic Flight Conditions.

Area of Science:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering

Background:

• Composite airplane wings are susceptible to damage, impacting structural integrity.
• Real-time structural health monitoring (SHM) is crucial for aviation safety.
• Existing monitoring systems may lack adaptability to variable damage scenarios.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and test a real-time SHM system for composite airplane wings with adjustable damage.
• To evaluate the system's ability to monitor damage under realistic flight conditions.
• To assess the effectiveness of different data analysis techniques for damage detection.

Main Methods:

• An FBG-based sensing array was implemented to monitor a debonded region in a composite wing.
• Lockable fasteners were used to adjust the damage severity, simulating tunable damage.
• Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Hotelling's T-squared, and Q measures were employed for real-time data analysis.
• Testing was conducted in an industrial wind tunnel under controlled conditions.

Main Results:

• The SHM system successfully identified the initiation and extent of damage.
• The Q measure proved effective in detecting damage, outperforming the T-squared measure.
• The system demonstrated the ability to classify structural health status as normal or abnormal based on predefined criteria.

Conclusions:

• The developed real-time SHM system with tunable damage is effective for monitoring composite airplane wings.
• The Q measure is a promising tool for detecting and quantifying damage in aerospace structures.
• This approach offers a controllable and repeatable method for evaluating SHM system performance under simulated flight conditions.