Signal Processing Strategies Using Micro-Systems for In Situ Health Monitoring of Aircraft

This paper provides an overview of a recently started project aimed at reducing the high costs associated with periodic prescribed inspections of aircraft structures by the development of an in situ structural health monitoring (SHM) system. The development of the in situ monitoring system is based on the use of advanced sensing and actuating devices such as MEMS and functional materials. This paper highlights candidate signal processing strategies for health monitoring of aircraft structures. In this preliminary work, one of the candidate time-frequency approaches is presented: subband filtering or signal envelope processing. This strategy is implemented on a real-time rapid prototyping system and validated on a simplified aircraft component. Experimental results are presented and provide some indications on the appropriateness of this approach for health monitoring of structures.