AIRCRAFT HARDWARE TESTING

AIRCRAFT HARDWARE TESTING

GANGADHAR BK

EID: E407386, Domain: AERO or FC COE,

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Abstract---Hardware testing is a major part in Aircraft certification with respect to MIL-STD-810 standards and RTCA/DO-160 Testing. This paper gives an overview on how the Hardware testing is done before installing them into Aircraft.

I. INTRODUCTION

Aircraft:
Any machine capable of flying by means of buoyancy or aerodynamic forces, such as a glider, helicopter, or aero plane

Hardware:
In information technology, hardware is the physical aspect of computers, telecommunications, and other devices. The term arose as a way to distinguish the "box" and the electronic circuitry and components of a computer from the program you put in it to make it do things.

Testing:
In general, testing is finding out how well something works. In terms of human beings, testing tells what level of knowledge or skill has been acquired.In Aerospace hardware and software development, testing is used at key checkpoints in the overall process to determine whether objectives are being met.

II GENIRIC OVERVIEW

a. Hardware testing methods

        1. Functionality Testing
        2. Climatic Testing
              a. Altitude Testing
              b. Combined Environment Testing
              c. Fungus Testing
              d. Ice Testing
              e. Immersion Testing,
              f. Rain, Spray and Drip Testing,
              g. Rapid Decompression Testing
              h. Salt Fog and Spray Testing
              i. Sand /Dust Testing
              j. Solar Testing
             k. Temperature and Humidity Testing
        3 Dynamics Testing
             a. Acceleration Testing
             b. Acoustic Noise Testing
             c. Classical Shock Testing
             d. Combined Environment Testing
             e. Lightweight Hammer Shock Testing
             f. Shock Testing
             g. Vibration Testing
             h. Military and Commercial Specification And Standard
        4 EMI/EMC Testing
             a. Conducted Emission Test
             b. Conducted Susceptibility Test
             c. Radiated Emission Test
             d. Radiated Susceptibility Test
        5 Pressure Testing
             a. Reliability/Life/Fatigue Testing
             b. Proof Pressure Cycling
             c. Coating/Corrosion Prevention Test and Evaluation
        6 Thermal Vacuum Testing
             a. Chambers
             b. Vacuum Levels
             c. Test Support

b.Examples of Testing

II a. Boeing Cold Weather Testing
Minimum Temperature = -45 degree
Maximum Temperature = +115 degree

Fig  IIai. Boeing Cold Weather Testing

Fig  IIaii. Boeing Cold Weather Testing

IIb. Vibration Testing Example

Vibration testing can help validate our design to see if it will survive its intended environment. It simulates a variety of transportation scenarios, operating environments, and the effect of external vibration within a storage environment. Boeing vibration testing facility is comprised of 3 electrodynamics shakers capable of providing over 20,000 force pounds performing multiple types of vibration such as sine, random, sine on random, random on random and vibration analysis. They are capable of product vibration in a single as well as multiple axis configurations in order to meet type of testing.

Fig  IIbi. Vibration Testing

Fig  IIbii. Vibration Testing

IIc. Shock and Vibration Testing

Fig  IIc. Shock and vibration testing

IId. Solar Radiation Testing

Labs uses many solar light set up configurations ranging from a one light to a multi light set up in our drive in chamber. This gives us flexibility depending on the coverage needed to meet the size of any test item.

Fig  IId. Solar Radiation Testing

IIe. Wind Testing

Fig  IIe. Wind Testing

IIf. Salt Fog Testing

Accelerated corrosion atmospheres for salt spray testing can be applied to items as large as 16ft by 15ft by 15ft. We have portable chambers that can be configured to a multitude of shapes and sizes to meet all our customers’ needs

Fig  IIf. Salt Fog Testing

IIg. Thermal Vacuum Testing

Fig  IIg. Thermal Vacuum Testing

FTU (Flight control system Test Unit) is one example of Hardware which was used in Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

III. FTU OVERVIEW 

a. Overview

This FTU (fig IIIa) is installed in the cockpit right hand console of the LCA. It is interfaced to Digital Flight control computer (DFCC).

Fig. IIIa. Flight control system Test unit (FTU)

Fig. IIIb. Digital Flight control computer (DFCC).

It is a programmable signal synthesizer i.e. Function generator provided on board. The FTU facilitates the pilot to initiate the generation of synthetic signals of pre- defined characteristics and inject the synthesized signals at points of DFCC for performing flight Testing i.e. Flutter test and Parameter estimation/ system identification (PID) test.

The synthetic signals are predefined and pre programmed on an erasable programmable read only memory.

Output of FTU: 5 Analog channels (LIE, LOE, RIE, ROE and Rudder flutter signal) and 3 Discrete channels (INIT, ABORT1 and ABORT2)

Fig IIIc. Above Diagram shows complete setup of FTU Functionality Testing

FCS Test Unit contains

           1. Power supply Board
           2. Processor Board
           3. Display board
           4. Analog Board
Functioning of FTU can be divided into the following phases:
           a. Power on self test phase(POST)
           b. Test point select phase
           c. Preparation phase
           d. Test in progress phase
           e. Abort phase.

      More info pending..........................

NOTE: Please contact me if you need more information. Due to project confidential i am not putting all data.

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IV. CONCLUSION

We understand various types of Hardware testing Methods like and Functional testing helped us to study overall functionality and features of aircraft FCS Test Unit Hardware. It helps in understanding the a. a. Power on self test phase(POST) ,b. Test point select phase c.Preparation phase , d.Test in progress phase and e. Abort phase.

V. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge my gratitude for presenting this paper and thank all the Laveen S, Pavan J, Shivashankar S(Sc E in ADE), and EPIC CTP Team(Honeywell,India) for their support.

VI. REFERENCES

Books:


Author: S. Desikan and Gopalaswamy Ramesh.


“SOFTWARE TESTING PRINCEIPLE and PRACTICES. “ Pearson Education publication Page # 3-23

Author: M G LIMAYE “ SOFTWARE TESTING


Principle, Technology and tools copyright @2009


Tata McGraw-Hill Education
Author: Ralph D. Kimberlin.


“FLIGHT TESTING OF FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT”
Author: Bernard EtKin and Lloyd Duff Reid


“DYNAMICS OF FLIGHT STABILITY and CONTROL”
Author: Jan Roskam Part 1


“AEROPLANE FLIGHT DYNAMICS AND AUTOMATIC FLIGHT CONTROLS”
“AEROPLANE PERFORMANCE STABILITY and CONTROL” PUBLISHED BY DARcorporation


http://www.darcorp.com/

Papers:


1. Aerospace Ground Test www.pcb.com
2. Aircraft Wheel and Fuselage Testing with Eddy Current and SQUID
NDT.net –September 1998, Vol.3 No.9
US Patent : AIRCRAFT PNEUMATIC SYSTEM TEST CART






Websites:
1. Chapter 5: AIRCRAFT HARDWARE from www.google.com
2. Aeronautics Test Program www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/atp/
3. http://www.drdo.org/labindex.shtml
4. http://www.e-labsinc.com/
5. http://newsminer.com/bookmark/7223867
6. Sandra R. Ruttle at 575.524.5134,
7. sandra.r.ruttle@nasa.gov,
8. www.nasa.gov/centers/wstf
9. Jennifer M. Cordova at 575.524.5522,
jen nifer.m.cordova@nasa.gov, or
10. Nicholas L. Buntain at 575.524.5570,
11. nicholas.l.buntain@nasa.gov
12. www.pcb.com
13. www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/atp/.
14 .1Hummel, D., “Aerodynamic Aspects of Formation
Flight in Birds,” Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol.
104, no. 3, Oct. 7, 1983, pp. 321–347.

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