While rotorcraft design practices and analytical tools have evolved significantly over the last several decades, the designer still applies additive safety factors and knockdowns in order to maintain a high level of reliability and safety in the presence of numerous uncertainties. The result of existing design methods is a robust structure, but one that is not truly optimized and requires expensive scheduled maintenance inspections to ensure airworthiness despite design conservatism. Several enabling technologies (e.g., health monitoring, regime recognition, loads monitoring, damage detection, improved at-aircraft NDI techniques, crack growth modeling, damage tolerance methods, and probabilistic design methods) have matured over the last decade. Integration of these technologies has remained elusive, but provides the basis for changing the paradigms of current design and maintenance practices, giving the potential for significant improvements in aircraft performance and reductions in life cycle costs. A primary hurdle to their adoption/transition is the lack of an integrated, qualifiable, design and life management approach. To achieve the maximum desired benefit(s), these technologies should be employed together rather than independently. This paper reviews work completed under a joint Army AATD and Sikorsky project to develop an Integrated Rotorcraft Damage Tolerance (IRDT) program that demonstrates a new design, analysis, and qualification approach for fatigue critical metallic airframe components. Incorporating the best features of both safe life and damage tolerance design enabled by embedded structural health monitoring technologies, this new methodology builds upon established practices and identifies the additional considerations necessary to integrate the technologies up-front in the development of next generation rotorcraft to support life management strategies that maximize operational capability and availability of the fleet while effectively managing risk and reducing life cycle costs. The methodology presented also has benefits to legacy aircraft.
An integrated rotorcraft damage tolerance methodology for design, analysis, and qualification of fatigue critical metal airframe structure
Eine integrierte Schadenstoleranzmethode für Entwurf, Analyse und Qualifikation bezüglich Materialermüdung kritischer Metallstrukturen bei Flugzeugzellen
AHS International Annual Forum, 66 ; 534-552
2010
19 Seiten, 37 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 4 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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