Abstract
With the aim of increasing the efficiency of maintenance and fuel usage in airplanes, structural health monitoring (SHM) of critical composite structures is increasingly expected and required. The optimized usage of this concept is subject of intensive work in the framework of the EU COST Action CA18203 “Optimising Design for Inspection” (ODIN). In this context, a thorough review of a broad range of energy harvesting (EH) technologies to be potentially used as power sources for the acoustic emission and guided wave propagation sensors of the considered SHM systems, as well as for the respective data elaboration and wireless communication modules, is provided in this work. EH devices based on the usage of kinetic energy, thermal gradients, solar radiation, airflow, and other viable energy sources, proposed so far in the literature, are thus described with a critical review of the respective specific power levels, of their potential placement on airplanes, as well as the consequently necessary power management architectures. The guidelines provided for the selection of the most appropriate EH and power management technologies create the preconditions to develop a new class of autonomous sensor nodes for the in-process, non-destructive SHM of airplane components.
Highlights
The aeronautic industry increasingly relies on composite materials that result in weight reduction and imply complex damage mechanics
A detailed review of the prospective energy harvesting (EH) technologies to be used for powering integrated structural health monitoring (SHM) systems in airplanes, enabling a weight reduction and an increased fuel consumption efficiency, while reducing the MRO costs of aircraft via predictive maintenance, is given in this work as part of the activities carried on in the framework of the EU COST Action CA18203 “Optimising Design for Inspection” (ODIN)
A description of the used SHM technologies, with an estimate of the needed power levels for a wave propagation autonomous in-process SHM sensor node with the coupled data elaboration and wireless data transfer modules, is given first, allowing to determine that in this case powers on the level of several hundred mW would be needed
Summary
The aeronautic industry increasingly relies on composite materials (with the current rates at even 50% of the overall structures’ weight) that result in weight reduction and imply complex damage mechanics. Proposed [44], due to the often varying nature of the power levels attainable from the physical energy sources in aircraft, as well as the above estimated needed power levels for an acoustic-based SHM sensor node with the coupled data elaboration and transmission modules, which could very well reach several hundred mW, a careful investigation of the available EH techniques and their applicability to the case considered has to be made. The design guidelines derived in this work create an important element in determining the preconditions towards a strategic approach to integrate the outlined SHM principles already in the design inception phase of the airplane, considerably raising the technology readiness level (TRL) for a new class of autonomous sensor nodes for in-service SHM inspection of airplane components These will be materialized in the prosecution of the work on the ODIN EU COST Action CA18203, prospectively enabling the first generation of self-sensing aircraft capable of accurate structural prognosis [9]. The very broad list of the most recent references provided at the end of the paper gives to the prospective readers the possibility to deepen their understanding of all the aspects of the treated topics
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