Value Assessment Tools For Hybrid NDE-SHM Life Management Strategies (Preprint)

摘要

A variety of structural health monitoring (SHM) technologies has been proposed in the last few years for enhancing the ability to manage the life of aircraft structures. This work builds upon prior efforts comprising the development and demonstration of a software platform for integrating NDE design and product life management models. Based on probabilistic models of fatigue crack growth, detection, and repair, the demonstration cases show the ability of the method and software to assess the effects that changes in inspection parameters and scheduling can have on time-dependent reliability and maintenance cost objectives. Furthermore, the software facilitates design tradeoff assessment and optimization for goals such as cost, reliability, and system availability. This paper describes the development of probabilistic model components representing SHM systems, to be integrated into a hybrid life management approach where SHM and NDE are complementarily utilized. Example design cases include 1) analysis of near- and long-term costs and benefits of SHM applications, considering time-dependent sensor reliability, to provide insight into the potential opportunities and challenges of SHM applications and 2) assessment of maintenance programs that combine NDE and SHM systems. Two case study examples are presented to illustrate the value of these decision support tools and models.