A Design of Experiments Approach to Determing Structural Health Monitoring Sensor Durability

Abstract: Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) promises to decrease the main-tenance cost and increase the availability of aging aircraft fleets by fundamentally changing the way structural inspections are performed. But this promise can only be realized through the consistent and predictable performance of a SHM system throughout the entire remaining life of an aircraft. Questions remain concerning the performance, durability and reliability of SHM systems after long-term exposure to the hostile aircraft environment. These questions have been a serious impediment to the large-scale implementation of SHM on legacy fleets. This study uses a de-sign of experiments (DOE) approach to develop a systematic method to determine the durability and performance of a PZT-based SHM sensor subjected to aircraft environmental factors