Dynamic Distributed Fibre Optic Sensing for Environmental and Operational Aircraft Monitoring

Abstract

The Environmental and Operational Conditions (EOC) measurement and compensation in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems for event and damage diagnosis during the aircraft operation is a key aspect to ensure their reliability. In addition, those EOC measurements can be used to support the existing usage and operational loads monitoring systems of Airbus Defence and Space (ADS), enhancing its capabilities. Previous works have been addressed in flat reinforced composite panels in the framework of ADS SHM diagnostic system for events and damages development. This paper faces the complexity of implementing this system in a large composite fuselage structure installing a hybrid SHM system. It is based on the combination of dynamic distributed fibre optic sensors (DFOS) and piezoelectric sensors measurements with the target of diagnose events and damages considering the EOC. The results show the advantage of using hybrid combinations of sensors to ensure the reliability of SHM diagnostic systems in real operation