1st International Conference
for CBM in Aerospace

In the past years, the increasing availability of health-monitoring data for aircraft systems has stimulated the development of advanced algorithms for Remaining-Useful-Life (RUL) prognostics. Most such RUL prognostics are developed using a model-based or a machine-learning approach. Few studies, however, integrate these RUL prognostics into maintenance planning. This session aims to present recent progress on the integration of RUL prognostics of aircraft systems into maintenance planning.

Chair: Mihaela Mitici (TU Delft) –  M.A.Mitici@tudelft.nl

The steady increase in data generated by aircraft and underlying concepts such as digital twins are an fundamental prerequisite for failure prediction and vehicle health management. In this context, predictive maintenance strategies represent a potential solution to reduce operating cost and increase the aircraft’s availability. An extended perspective beyond the asset itself and considering the surrounding MRO ecosystem would empower operators and other stakeholders with an even more comprehensive and multidimensional view for smarter decision-making processes. This session aims to address topics which allows for a paradigm shift of traditional decision-making processes in maintenance planning, leading to a globally optimized aircraft operation in terms of robustness, cost-effectiveness and sustainability.

Chair: Kai Wicke (DLR) – Kai.Wicke@dlr.de

The objective of Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) is to perform maintenance based on “the evidence of need” while ensuring safety, reliability, availability, and reduced life cycle costs. The primary evidence is data produced by supporting technologies such as health monitoring systems and related enterprise level business applications such as maintenance data systems and predictive analytics.
Certain sectors of the Civil and Defense aerospace industries are beginning to exploit the application of the supporting technologies to make CBM a mainstream maintenance practice.
This session includes topics related to: (a) ongoing efforts by standards development organizations (SDOs) to help fleet operators, government regulators, and airworthiness organizations understand how to implement CBM as a mainstream business practice, and (b) specific CBM use case implementations and lessons learned at civil and defense organizations.

Topic Area: Maintenance Policies and Strategies
Session Co-organizers: Luis Hernandez (luis@gssllc.net), Joao Malere, David Piotrowski, David Nelson, Kirby Keller

All systems, materials, and structures eventually degrade or get damaged during their lifecycle. The sources of these defects can be varied from environmental conditions to operational usage. There is an assortment of sensor packages and technologies for engineers to choose that can be applied to monitor the influence of these degradation factors. Crucially, the techniques employed to exploit the data collected from the sensor systems have a significant impact on the effectiveness of damage detection and monitoring. The combination of the right sensors with the appropriate prognostic/diagnostic algorithm provides valuable information to the engineer to make the best decision for maintenance action. The goal of this session is to share the state-of-the-art research in these health monitoring techniques and learn from the challenges encountered through real-life applications.

Technical Session Organizer: NLR – Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre

Main coordinator: Vis Dhanisetty (vis.dhanisetty@nlr.nl)

Co-organizers: Marcel Bos (marcel.bos@nlr.nl), Frank Grooteman (frank.grooteman@nlr.nl), and Jason Hwang (jason.hwang@nlr.nl)

In the digital age, the Airframe Digital Twins are gaining momentum as new enablers for future aircraft or aircraft component operational monitoring. Thanks to the combination of engineering and manufacturing data from the airframe and the utilization data from the aircraft, the digital twins could achieve more cost-efficient maintenance without compromises to safety. This technical session aims at presenting and discussing Airframe Digital Twin applications; the latest progress made towards establishing the twins for airframe structures and challenges ahead. 

Organizer/Chair: Derk Daverschot (Airbus) – derk.daverschot@airbus.com