Damage Detection of Airplane Wings Based on Numerical Modal Analysis

Francisco de Assis Lopes Angelo¹; Reyolando Manoel Lopes Rebello da Fonseca Brasil¹

¹ UFABC - Federal University of ABC

doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2015-0023

Resumo

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has become an essential technique in Aerospace industry. The duration of service lives of such vehicles can be considerably extended by systematic monitoring of small, possibly undetected, damages to their structures. In this paper, we propose ways of monitoring damage in airplane wings via modal analysis by using Finite Element modeling as a first step in this direction. We make comparisons between wing models by adopting an available real wing solid FE elements model and determining its free vibrations frequencies and modes for the undamaged situation. Next, we introduce holes in several places in the wing and new modal analyses are performed. The modal analysis shows that the free vibrations frequencies of a damaged wing are less than those of an undamaged one. We conclude that the damage, depending on its extents, results in changes in the free vibrations frequencies. Based on this we test some numerical indicator based on modal analysis to discover damage.

Palavras-chave: Aerospace Structures; Damage Detection; Modal Analysis; Finite Elements