Project description
Inspecting aircraft hydraulic fluids for degradation
Early detection of oil contaminants could improve the service life of hydraulic components in aircrafts. The EU-funded project FluidER is developing a novel in-line sensor that should keep the aircraft’s electro-hydraulic actuator working its best with regular fluid checks. Merging heterogeneous sensors will help identify different types of hydraulic fluid contamination. These include changes in the physicochemical fluid properties (viscosity, density, moisture, colour or temperature) or the presence of particulates and water infiltration. The advanced new tool should reduce wear of hydraulic components by ensuring that their hydraulic fluids are always clean and clear.
Objective
FluidER project aims to deliver fully integrated and autonomous sensor for in-line sensing and diagnosis of aviation hydraulic fluids (HF) used in electro Hydraulic Actuators (EHA). The proposed diagnosis approach is based on the combination of hydraulic fluid physic-chemic parameter sensors and fluid contamination sensors and, with the aim of achieving an early warning of degradation signs, especially in terms of particulate count and water contamination, before the hydraulic fluids exceeds the service limits.
The combination of a set of heterogeneous sensor technologies is motivated by the lack of accuracy achieved by single devices, especially when dealing with multi-source contaminations and when an early identification of degradation evidences is targeted. FluidER proposal merges two types of approaches: (i) Sensors delivering measurements of physical and chemical parameters of the Hydraulic Fluid as the Viscosity, Density, Moisture, Dielectric Constant, Colour or Temperature, and (ii) sensors specifically designed to monitorize different contamination sources as the particulate matter concentration, presence of air or water.
Specifically, FluidER will address the analysis of physical contaminants (metallic and non-metallic particulate count, air bubbles, etc.) through in-line microscopic imaging and machine vision proprietary techniques. Additionally, chemical contaminants (water content, acidity) will be estimated through VIS-IR spectroscopic inspection and chemometric algorithms.
The information obtained from the different sensors will be used to generate a Diagnosis of the status of both, the fluid itself and the EHA equipment, through new health monitoring algorithms.
The different hardware and software components included in the FluidER solution will be gradually tested in different test beds, ranging from controlled laboratory hydraulic test beds to a complete EHA test bed and different standardized aircraft tests.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcolors
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaircraft
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputer vision
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
CS2-IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
20600 Eibar Guipuzcoa
Spain