[7A3] Structural health monitoring (SHM) – A Testia perspective
H Speckmann and A Haridas
Testia GmbH, Germany
With the rapid growth in aviation sector, there has been an increased interest in exploring new tools and methodologies to both significantly improve safety and reduce maintenance and repair expenses. The captivated interests among various stakeholders to employ advanced technologies to meet the requirements of the aviation sector have necessitated the use of newly developed asset monitoring systems to ensure the robustness and reliability of critical structures. Although, Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) methods provide sufficient information about the state of the structure at the time of inspection, the need for continuously monitoring the health of the structure has asserted the use of Structure Health Monitoring (SHM) technologies to maintainmaintain the levels of safety and thereby, reducing the overall costs for operation and maintenance. Although, SHM in the aviation sector has been an active discussion topic over the past few decades, only a few SHM technologies have been able to achieve the required readiness levels for implementation. The limited implementation can be associated with two critical factors, namely, the lack of business cases and the lack of technological breakthroughs. These factors have constrained the effective use of SHM technologies to serve as an active, fully integrated on-line sensor network, which can, in the long run, increase the residual aircraft value ensuring global weight savings. In order to overcome the mentioned constrains, we at Testia employ a unique strategy, which is fundamentally aimed to enhance cross-industry innovation. Being an Airbus company, Testia has always been on the forefront of aerospace inspection technologies. That said, Testia has also played an important role in technology transference from the aviation sector into various other sectors including infrastructure, automotive, wind energy, train and oil & gas. In order to generate innovative solutions and new business-cases for SHM, we at Testia utilize the knowledge and experience gained in deploying solutions in different industries, to drive innovation, maturation and technological advancements. This approach is envisaged to gather momentum in technological adaptation by leveraging the confidence gained in a successful use-case. At Testia, we strive to believe that the vision for SHM in the past, especially for the aviation sector, still remains the vision of the future. We believe our approach based on the cross-industry innovation can result in several new use-cases and technological advancements in SHM in the near-future.
