Papers by Keyword: Aircraft Maintenance

Abstract: This work focuses on the development of an Error Detection Instrument (EDI), applicable in aircraft maintenance operations. Thirteen aircraft maintenance tasks were identified and used to develop the EDI. The EDI was validated by four professionals presently employed in different aviation organizations within and outside Nigeria. The study data was collected via careful observations of two maintenance activities such as landing gear maintenance and engine oil servicing using two trained research assistants. Qualitative data analysis was conducted by comparing collected data against the approved procedures as well as maintenance manual and the result of the study revealed the occurrence of errors during inspection, cleaning/lubrication, training, troubleshooting and documentation tasks. The safety implications of the tracked errors were adequately discussed. It is recommended that the EDI should be incorporated into the maintenance document and quality control process of Approved Maintenance Organizations (AMOs).

Abstract: Honeycomb composite structures widely used in aviation are sturdy and light-weight but they may accumulate water from the atmosphere during aircraft operation. The presence of water in honeycomb cells leads to a higher airplane mass and excessive corrosion of aluminum cores, while the frozen water endangers panel integrity. This work describes the use of infrared thermography for detecting water trapped in aviation honeycomb cells.

Abstract: In this paper, the author looks at certain areas of maintainability prediction process where missteps or misapplications most commonly occur. This research attempts to utilise the aircraft maintenance historical data and information (i.e. feedback information systems). Aircraft feedback information such as Service Difficulty Reporting System (SDRS) and Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) contains various types of information that could be used for future improvement rather than just the failure elements, as well as to help identify the critical and sensitive components that need more attention for further improvement. The study shows that the aircraft maintenance related feedback information systems analyses are very useful for deciding the maintainability effectiveness; these include planning, organizing maintenance and design improvement. There is no doubt that historical data information has the ability to contribute an important role in design activities. The results also show that maintainability is an importance measure that can be used as a guideline for managing efforts made for the improvement of aircraft components.

Abstract: Eddy current testing method has a wide usage in the field of Industry. Especially, aircraft maintenance field has so many applicable areas for this method. In addition, a wide variety of inspections and measurements may be performed easily with the eddy current method. More effective and flexible operation conditions were reached by designing wireless eddy current probe prototype for all aircraft maintenance inspections. Prototype probe design, the advantages of use of this probe in aircraft maintenance applications and inspections performed as wireless were studied in this paper.

Abstract: This paper attempts to utilise aircraft maintenance historical data and information for future aircraft design from the perspective of maintanability. Aircraft feedback information contains various types of information that could be used for future improvement rather than just the failure elements. The study shows that the aircraft maintenance related feedback information systems analyses were very useful for deciding maintainability effectiveness; these include planning, organising maintenance and design improvement. There is no doubt that historical data information has the ability to contribute with an important role in design activities. The results also show that maintainability is an importance measure that can be used as a guideline for managing efforts made for the improvement of aircraft components.

Abstract: The problem of airline maintenance scheduling is considered in this paper. A maintenance-scheduling model that can determine rational maintenance date is established, in this model, while aircraft materials as well as other factors are taken as constraints, and aircraft air-on-ground (AOG) loss is set as goal function. In order to solve the model, Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is utilized by setting the appropriate number of the bees, which can find the optimal solution rapidly. Finally, airline’s practical data is applied to validate the feasibility and practicality of the model and ABC algorithm.

Abstract: An direction expert system for aircraft maintain with expert knowledge graphical building, three layers distributed web service, distance fault diagnosis and gather experience ability is introduced here. It is developed based on Delphi 6.0 utilizing multilayer web service, CLIPS expert system and SQL SERVER database technology.

Abstract: This paper addresses how to discover wind erosion of aircraft components in time and to take appropriate measures to repair and prevent damage, thereby reducing the cost of aircraft maintenance and prolonging aircraft service life. The authors of this paper have extensively compiled and studied civilian aircraft maintenance data in the recent years from Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co. Ltd. In this paper they discuss the aircraft components most susceptible to wind erosion, as well as repair methods and prevention mechanisms. These findings can serve as a reference and a guide to civilian aircraft flight maintenance, repair, and routine inspections.

Abstract: The GA and multi-objective optimization approach is flexible in application and extremely reliable, providing optimal results for all optimization problems attempted. Aircraft engine maintenance using nonlinear analyses. This considerably slows the entire production and maintenance process. There are three approaches for this purpose. GA with a gradient-based method to improve quality enhancements and moderate convergence efficiency; the multi-objective framework will integrate the analysis codes for multiple disciplines, instead of relying on one code to perform the analysis for all disciplines; using optimize a multi-objective model by implementation of GA instead the computationally expensive functions. Results indicate that is to provide a capability to yield a better production and maintenance in much reduced time and cost.

Abstract: The aerospace industry urgently needs environmentally friendly materials and processes for corrosion protection of aluminium alloys in aircraft structures. Until now this has been achieved by hexavalent chromium based compounds in either surface pre-treatments or primers. Due to its carcinogenic properties the use of chromates is restricted and a ban is expected soon. Up to now an all over recognized replacement of chromates is not available for aircraft maintenance, although a lot of research has been done and promising results also exist for some chromium-free conversion coatings and for magnesium rich primers. WIWeB found out in laboratory scale and by flight trials that thin layers of zinc rich primers, if applied with dry film thickness of 10 – 20 µm, can be used successfully to prevent corrosion on aluminium for aircraft. Solvent based as well as water based zinc rich primers have been tested. The major part of the work presented is from further investigations which show, that another great improvement can be achieved, when thin layers of organic adhesion inhibitors like 2-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and 4-t-butylbenzoic acid are applied on the unclad Al 2024 panels, which had been scrubbed with abrasive pads before. This process is followed by the application of the thin film of zinc rich epoxy primer before the usual 2-pack epoxy primer is applied.