Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
Online Sensing Techniques for Detection of Aircraft Electrical System Anomalies
Project Description
As 'fly-by-wire' technologies become more prevalent in the aerospace systems, the need to develop innovative monitoring, diagnostic and fault tolerant techniques for the electrical systems is becoming obvious. Among all the possible electrical system failures, two types of failures are considered the most frequent, and hence most critical: intermittent disconnection in connectors, and capacitance failures. Despite the extreme care in the design and quality control in manufacturing and installation of these connectors in avionics and military equipment, there are increasing number of problems associated with the physical connectivity that ranges from intermittent discontinuities, sparks, and breakages. As for the capacitors, the power systems in modem aircrafts, specifically the ones with DC power supply configurations, rely very heavily on banks of capacitors that act as filters. These capacitors (especially of electrolytic type) present high failure rates - with no effective solution for online monitoring available. The proposed research will study detecting fault initiation, fault-to-failure progression, and online monitoring of the critical problems of intermittent disconnection, and capacitance aging and ultimate failures in aircraft power systems. We propose to develop a non-traditional use of wideband differential current sensor to detect capacitor degradation, as well as intermittent disconnection problems. This program is expected to generate useful, accurate and precise diagnostic information impacting the safety and maintenance of critical aircraft power systems.
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Anticipated Benefits
The potential benefits from the successful completion of this program are enormous and will significantly impact the way critical aerospace, power devices, controllers, and other systems are designed, particularly in the power system domains. Examples of key customers that could benefit through use of the developed technologies include: power system manufacturers, commercial airlines, power semiconductor device and drive manufacturers, land and marine propulsion systems, unmanned air vehicles, JSF, future combat systems, industrial actuation systems, and robotic applications. Particularly, the push towards fly-by-wire technology in commercial airlines by manufacturers like Boeing has generated specific requirements on health management performance for which these technologies can provide value by increasing reliability and safety for critical components. Impact has existing contracts with all these potential customers and has an excellent commercialization record. The following NASA and DoD applications present immediate technology transition possibilities for the JSF program, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, UAV platforms, and ground and sea vehicles.
The development of the proposed anomaly and fault detection techniques will directly contribute to NASA's efforts to advance technology in aerospace industry. The proposed technologies are generic in nature and are applicable to future generation aviation platforms, leading to benefits in the form of improved reliability, maintainability, and survivability of safety-critical electrical power and the many applications that rely on the electrical power system. The long-term implications of a successful completion of this program will provide reliability tools for the state-of-the-art technologies in power generation, management, and intelligent control. Several of NASA's NextGen and current activities can take immediate advantage of these technologies. In the short term, the anomaly and degradation detection to be developed in this program can be directly transitioned to ongoing research at the NASA research centers. The adaptable nature of modules presented in this program will allow them to act as design and development tools for a wide variety of NASA applications. More »
The development of the proposed anomaly and fault detection techniques will directly contribute to NASA's efforts to advance technology in aerospace industry. The proposed technologies are generic in nature and are applicable to future generation aviation platforms, leading to benefits in the form of improved reliability, maintainability, and survivability of safety-critical electrical power and the many applications that rely on the electrical power system. The long-term implications of a successful completion of this program will provide reliability tools for the state-of-the-art technologies in power generation, management, and intelligent control. Several of NASA's NextGen and current activities can take immediate advantage of these technologies. In the short term, the anomaly and degradation detection to be developed in this program can be directly transitioned to ongoing research at the NASA research centers. The adaptable nature of modules presented in this program will allow them to act as design and development tools for a wide variety of NASA applications. More »
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation | Lead Organization | Industry | Stratford, Connecticut |
Ames Research Center
(ARC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Moffett Field, California |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
California
-
Connecticut
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This is a historic project that was completed before the creation of TechPort on October 1, 2012. Available data has been included. This record may contain less data than currently active projects.