New Techniques for Vibration Qualification of Vibrating Equipment on Aircraft

All aircraft vibrate and all components are designed, tested and certified to survive these vibration levels over their entire service life. Design standards such as MIL‐STD‐810F (1) and RTCA DO‐160E (2) are often used to obtain the vibration sign‐ off test; but what is the safety margin on these tests? How many hours do they represent on real aircraft? Can the equipment life be extended for aircraft with less damaging usage profiles? Can ‘read‐across’ evidence from one aircraft be used to qualify a component on another without further testing? This paper discusses the latest approaches to the analysis of shock and vibration and shows how vibration tests can be tailored based on measured flight spectra, how different tests can be compared, and how the life of equipment can be adjusted based on operational experience.