Electronic Nose Detection of Hydraulic-Oil Fingerprint Contamination in Relevant Aircraft Maintenance Scenarios

Abstract

Modern aircraft structure, by making use of lightweight composite materials based on carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), succeeds in reducing CO2 emissions and transport fuel costs. Nevertheless, its usage cannot leave Non Destructive Tests out to consideration in order to set up a quality assurance procedure of surfaces’ contamination status. Here, we show and compare two different e-nose solutions able to detect and quantify hydraulic-oil fingerprint contamination at significantly low contamination levels occurring during aircraft maintenance operations.