ZERO-GRAVITY DAMAGE EVALUATION (Z-GraDE)

摘要

In this paper, we present experiments for verification of damage detection technology that were conducted in a 0-g environment. This project was a part of the 1997 NASA Student Flight Opportunities Program in which 23 teams of undergraduate students were chosen to conduct experiments on the NASA KC135 aircraft. A planar truss structure was selected as the test article. Modal tests of various undamaged and damaged configurations of the structure using impact excitation were performed during the flight and on the ground (before and after the flight). This paper presents the details of the concept, flight data, data processing, and modal identification results.