Stress wave acoustics analysis for the ch-46 sea knight rotor system

摘要

Reductions in Navy maintenance budgets and available personnel have dictated the need to transition from time-based to "condition-based" maintenance. Achieving this will require new enabling diagnostic technologies. One such technology, the use of acoustic emission for the early detection of helicopter rotor head dynamic component faults, has been investigated by Honeywell Technology Center for its rotor acoustic monitoring system (RAMS). This ambitious, 38-month, proof-of-concept effort, which was a part of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Air Vehicle Diagnostics System program. culminated in a succesful three-week flight test of the RAMS system at Patuxent River Flight Test Center in September 1997. The flight test results demonstrated that stress-wave acoustic emission technology can detect signals equivalent to small fatigue cracks in rotor head componets and can do so across the rotating articulated rotor head joints and in the presence of other background acoustic noise generated during flight operation.