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A team of researchers, including those from Empa, have developed a system to permanently detect, even in mid-flight, cracks or damage to aircraft.
Strain gauges and optical Bragg gratings monitor damage during bending tests.
Empa
Swiss scientists have developed a technology that could play a decisive role in improving aircraft safety and reducing maintenance costs. Indeed, researchers from the Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research (Empa), in collaboration with English and German teams and Airbus collaborators, have developed a device component monitoring system that allows diagnosis even in full flight.
Indeed, today’s airliners must be inspected at regular intervals to detect any damage and cracks in the cabin, on the wings or the empennage. And, every six to ten years, each jet must spend one to two months in a hangar for a complete check-up which costs several million francs in total. The system developed by the researchers will in the future make it possible to detect and monitor minor damage to an aircraft during flight without it having to be immobilized in a hangar. This will reduce operating costs while improving safety, explains Empa mardi.
Work on Airbus parts
The Swiss laboratory responded in February 2018 to a call for tenders launched as part of the EU’s “Clean Sky 2” program, according to Erwin Hack, project manager at Empa. He explains that the researchers had to study the metal wing of an Airbus A320 damaged during a crash in 1988 and fuselage panels from an Airbus A350, parts mainly stressed by the pressure in the cabin of the aircraft. plane.
“All this with components that are as robust and inexpensive as possible,” he explains. The sensors had to answer several questions in the end: “Is there damage and where is it? What is the nature and severity of the damage and what is the lifespan of the part?” he states.
A module to monitor everything
In the end, the researchers succeeded in creating a small module made up of common and inexpensive components, which at the same time includes several monitoring methods: “Strain measurements with Bragg gauges and sensors, optical monitoring and thermoelastic stress analysis,” explains Empa. The sensor data is then collected in a minicomputer and can be read remotely.
The module is not yet authorized in flight. It will still have to prove its capabilities during tests in the Airbus development laboratories in Toulouse. But the technology is promising. Especially since, thanks to this structural monitoring, the next generation of aircraft could be lighter and therefore more fuel efficient.