VIBRATION BASED HEALTH MONITORING TECHNOLOGIES FOR ROTORCRAFT VEHICLES

Due to their non-destructive nature and their ability to supply extremely useful information on the real time condition of the elected component, HM methods are largely employed in the aeronautical and transport industry. They are specifically used for maintenance purposes, for increasing structural safety and for preventing losses both human and economicwise. Online HM mainly consists in monitoring elected systems or components during flight and then comparing their acquired parameters with the baseline reference values. Through this comparison, the damage to the said system or component can be diagnosed. On-line HM of rotor systems (as helicopter rotors for instances), using a model-based approach, can be complicated due to the difficulties in accurately predicting rotor system behavior. For example, helicopter vibration is very difficult to predict accurately even when using sophisticated aerodynamic and dynamic models, as found in a study com-paring various analysis predictions with flight test data”. That is the main reason why this approach is not the most convenient to be applied. In general, vibration based HM methods rely on the idea that relevant changes in vibration parameters sytem from structural damage, but the correct way to evaluate these changes and the relative correlation to specific faults represent a very challenging item. Within the present paper, a new methodological approach has been developd and tested on an isolated gear box system will be presented as a base for an application on an rotorcrafts vehicle. © 2024 Proceedings of the International Congress on Sound and Vibration. All rights reserved.