MASS · Load Monitoring of Aerospace Structures Through Shape Changes

Aerospace structures age and degrade due to regular service usage which fleet operators are tasked with monitoring. Understanding the structural problems that may arise requires a comprehensive vision of the loads supported by the structure, the initial structural conditions, environmental effects on the structural performance, and the material conditions of the components composing the structure. Furthermore, all of these factors can interact, making it difficult to assess the degradation, and more importantly determining the remaining useful structural life. Traditionally, fleet operators monitored and made decisions for their fleet based on an average or typical usage profile, thus neglecting variations within the fleet and within the factors affecting the fleet. The primary objective of this proposal is to Monitor Aerospace Structural Shapes (MASS) in order to compute strain and stress distribution on the structure in real or quasi‐real time.