A dual use fiber optic technology for enabling health management

Advanced diagnostic and prognostic technology promises to reduce support costs and further improve safety of flight. The ability to detect fault precursors and predict remaining useful life can provide longer periods of uninterrupted operations as well as reduce support costs and improve crew response to degrading conditions. Two major barriers to realizing this potential include the cost of implementation in legacy and new aircraft and the lack of data to develop or mature algorithms. The cost of incorporating the additional sensing, data collection, processing and communications hardware into legacy aircraft is typically prohibitive, particularly if qualification/requalification of hardware and software are required. Boeing and Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing (KMM) developed a dual use technology to enable the low cost and footprint implementation of health management systems. The Chafing Protection System (CHAPS) uses optical fiber within wire bundles to detect and locate the wire chafing. An Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (OTDR) is used to locate the source of the chafing. Boeing has developed technology to also make use of the CHAPS fiber to communicate health management data onboard a vehicle. This technology includes a split ring connector which enables the implementation of a low cost, support critical, high bandwidth data network for health management.1 2