Experimental Evaluation of Acoustic Emission Monitoring for Condition-Based Maintenance of Helicopters

摘要

Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring is still relatively new technology in the field of rotating machinery Condition Monitoring (CM). This paper presents experimental study of AE application for CM of a helicopter main rotor swashplate bearing. AE was considered as a complimentary technology to Vibration Monitoring (VM) which is already implemented on most helicopters. Vibration and AE measurements were performed in parallel in order to compare sensitivity of the techniques to seeded faults, and to answer the question whether AE monitoring could complement VM. Results have shown that AE is at least as sensitive as VM to localized bearing faults. Other experiment presented in the paper compares piezoceramic wafer AE sensor to some commercially available AE sensors in order to show its feasibility as a cost effective sensor alternative.