Development of a Digital Twin to Improve Safety for Impact Sensitive Composite Aircraft Structures

现代民用和军用机身使用越来越多的量身定制层压材料来减轻重量和降低生命周期成本。然而，这些层合聚合物复合材料对使用中的冲击损伤、冲击后循环载荷引起的损伤增长和环境退化特别敏感。因此，这些类型的结构需要频繁的非破坏性检查、昂贵的维修费用和较低的飞机可用性。目前降低这种风险的方法是在测试期间过度设计这些结构，使其具有高安全系数或高载荷增强系数，从而导致重量增加和结构效率降低。需要一种新的范式--“数字孪生兄弟”--来监控这些结构从制造到其整个生命周期。 在这项拟议的DG计划中，我将通过使用一种综合方法来检测、识别、定位和监控复合材料和混合动力飞机结构中的碰撞损伤和碰撞后损伤增长，来开发碰撞敏感复合材料结构的数字孪生，以应对这一持续且代价高昂的挑战。这一数字孪生将是复合材料结构的高保真虚拟复制品，包括所有工艺指示的缺陷和残余应力，然后随着结构受到服役载荷、湿热老化和冲击损坏，它将实时更新。拟议的研究将分为三项任务： 任务1--碰撞损害的检测、识别、定位和监测(PHD-1和MASC-1) 任务2--为撞击敏感结构开发“数字孪生”框架(PHD-2和PHD-3) 任务3--复合材料飞机结构的数字双星演示(具有PHD-1和PHD-2的MASC-2和MASC-3) 几十年来，人们对复合材料的冲击损伤检测、冲击建模和环境退化进行了单独的研究。然而，还没有人将现实世界中的复合部件与高保真数字孪生部件连接起来，以提高安全性和性能。这项拟议的计划将为未来飞机安全引入和使用轻质复合材料和混合结构做出新的贡献。共有3名博士生和3名MASC学生将接受有关复合材料耐久性、制造、结构健康监测和冲击损伤建模方面的指导和培训。运营商将使用拟议的数字孪生框架来确定哪些撞击事件必须立即处理，哪些不会对飞机构成安全风险。每架飞机的剩余使用寿命和维修和改装效果将提供给机队管理人员。这项工作将产生更广泛的影响，不仅限于新飞机的设计，还可能有利于基础设施和风能应用。

Modern civil and military airframes are built using an increasing quantity of tailored laminated materials to reduce weight and decrease life-cycle costs. However, these laminated polymer composite materials are particularly sensitive to in-service impact damage, post-impact damage growth from cyclic loading and environmental degradation. These types of structures thus require frequent non-destructive inspections, costly repairs and lower aircraft availability. The current approach to reducing this risk is to overdesign these structures with high safety factors or high load enhancement factors during testing - resulting in increased weight and lower structural efficiency. A new paradigm, the "digital twin" is required to monitor these structures from manufacturing through their entire life cycle. In this proposed DG Program, I will address this ongoing and costly challenge by developing a digital twin of impact sensitive composite structures using an integrated approach to the detection, identification, localization and monitoring of impact damage and post-impact damage growth in composite and hybrid aircraft structures. This digital twin will be a high fidelity virtual replica of the composite structure including all of the process indicted defects and residual stresses and then it will be updated in real time as the structure is subjected to service loads, hygrothermal aging and impact damage. The proposed research will be organised into three tasks: Task 1 - Detection, Identification, Localization and Monitoring of Impact Damage (PhD-1 and MASc-1) Task 2 - Development of a "Digital Twin" Framework for Impact Sensitive Structures (PhD-2 and PhD-3) Task 3 - Digital Twin Demonstration for Composite Aircraft Structures (MASc-2 and MASc-3 with PhD-1 and PhD-2) Impact damage detection, impact modelling and environmental degradation of composites have been investigated individually for many decades. However, no one has yet connected the real world composite part with a high fidelity digital twin for the purposes of improving safety and performance. This proposed Program will make a novel contribution to support the safe introduction and operation of lightweight composite and hybrid structures in future aircraft. A total of 3 PhD and 3 MASc students will be supervised and trained on this Program in composites durability, manufacturing, structural health monitoring, and impact damage modelling. The proposed digital twin framework will be used by operators to determine which impact events must be dealt with immediately and those which do not pose a safety risk to the aircraft. The remaining useful life and effects of repairs and modifications for each individual aircraft will be available to fleet managers. This work will have a broader impact beyond the design of new aircraft and may also be beneficial for infrastructure and wind energy applications.