Airframe digital twin technology adaptability assessment and technology demonstration

Abstract

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is currently reviewing and assessing the airframe digital twin (ADT) framework being developed by the United States Air Force (USAF). The goal is to investigate the adaptability and potential application of the ADT for reducing maintenance cost and maximize availability of the existing and future fleets of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). The USAF ADT framework is based on a probabilistic and prognostic individual aircraft tracking approach, which intends to improve the current individual aircraft tracking (IAT) program by quantifying and updating the uncertainties of some IAT parameters in airframe fatigue life assessment. This paper presents the results from recent work at NRC, including: (1) a review and evaluation of the digital twin and digital thread concepts, especially the USAF ADT framework, methods/tool, (2) a brief survey of structural lifing methods and IAT systems of selected RCAF aircraft, (3) a feasibility and adaptability study of the ADT to RCAF aircraft, and (4) the development of NRC ADT technologies, including Bayesian updating algorithms and a demonstration case being developed based on a CF-188 full-scale component test. In conclusion, the NRC review and assessment show that the USAF ADT framework can be adapted to support the RCAF fleets that are managed using IAT-based programs. The NRC models and tools developed from previous projects can be expanded to serve as the core of an ADT framework that can be implemented for RCAF fleets. Some short-term and long-term benefits are identified and discussed in this paper for future research and application.