Wireless Sensor Network for Helicopter Rotor Blade Vibration Monitoring: Requirements Definition and Technological Aspects

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Wireless Sensor Network for Helicopter Rotor Blade Vibration Monitoring: Requirements Definition and Technological Aspects

Sanchez Ramirez, Andrea / Das, Kallol / Loendersloot, Richard / Tinga, Tiedo / Havinga, Paul

The main rotor accounts for the largest vibration source for helicopter fuselage and components. However, accurate blade monitoring has been limited due to the practical restrictions on instrumenting rotating blades. The use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for real time vibration monitoring promises to deliver a significant contribution to rotor performance monitoring and blade damage identification. This paper discusses the main technological challenges for wireless sensor networks for vibration monitoring on helicopter rotor blades. The first part introduces the context of vibration monitoring on helicopters. Secondly, an overview of the main failure modes for rotor and blades is presented. Based on the requirements for failure modes monitoring, a proposition for a multipurpose sensor network is presented. The network aims to monitor rotor performance, blade integrity and damage monitoring at three different scales referred to as macro layer, meso layer and micro layer. The final part presents the requirements for WSNs design in relation with sensing, processing, communication and actuation. Finally power supply aspects are discussed.