Author: Melvin Domin Mathew

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13:

Asset Management strategies are converting from a reflective/reactive maintenance to preventive and predictive maintenance methods. With the increasing need for higher safety standards and to reduced operational and maintenance costs, the need for methods to diagnose and predict the occurrence of failure is becoming an imminent requirement. With the application of present day technology and non-destructive evaluation and monitoring techniques, this report proposes a framework based on which active diagnosis of the condition of a unit (vehicle/structure) can be monitored towards providing better maintenance practices. In the world of Rotorcrafts Heath and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) have started to catch traction due to the higher safety standards it provides by continuous awareness of internal working and the reduced maintenance and replacement costs assured by this system. A well developed comprehensive system designed for a specific aircraft platform would be able to analyze critical failure modes, analyze usage and conditional data of the entire structure (extrinsic and intrinsic) and provide a prognostic knowledge to the user/operator and owner of the units. Within approved safety margins and threshold levels, a HUMS system can provide cost saving by alerting the maintenance crew when the optimal time to change parts are, avoiding underusing or overusing a component, and also to unexpected failures. This thesis attempts to provide a framework of analysis methodologies and logic flow for a user, engineer, designer or operator to establish a comprehensive HUMS system on a unit so as to ensure the full utilization of present technology. Here Usage-Based Monitoring (UBM) data and Condition-Based Monitoring (CBM) data are collected through sensor networks placed strategically through a Functional Hazard Assessment (FHA) regiment in order to provide the end user and maintenance staff accurate and immediate information on the diagnostics and prognostics of the unit. This allows for better maintenance scheduling, lower labor costs, lower inventory costs and above all safety. Soon an established HUMS system will be mandatory on most large scale-expensive commercial products such as aircrafts, ships, bridges, etc. so as to ensure the safety of its users and in the long run allow the owners to benefit from the inevitable financial savings that it promises.