Innovative Sensing Fasteners for Aircraft Fatigue Monitoring Navy SBIR FY2016.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2016.1 Topic No.: N161-009 Topic Title: Innovative Sensing Fasteners for Aircraft Fatigue Monitoring Proposal No.: N161-009-0736 Firm: Physics Renaissance LLC 108 Sunscape Drive Huntsville, Alabama 35806 Contact: Soon Kwon Phone: (256) 251-1158 Abstract: Modern aviation platforms and systems must be able to provide sustained operations in a wide variety of environments. These systems must be able to operate for extended periods in severe weather and marine environments, undergo large temperature extremes (desert to arctic conditions) and dust environments, and are subject to high vibration and shock environments. The systems are often required to perform well beyond normal maintenance and inspection cycles. These conditions lead to multiple forms of failure, including metal fatigue and cracking, particularly around mechanical fasteners and their corresponding holes. Existing condition based maintenance systems such as the HUMS are able to collect data critical to monitoring the physical condition of the aircraft or platform. This data is used to develop prognostics so that maintenance personnel can determine the useful life left for a platform and when repair services need to be initiated. Recent developments in radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology coupled with very low power, miniature eddy current sensing techniques provide a unique opportunity to develop in-situ crack sensors that can be co-located with the fasteners. This research will explore and develop this capability for use with condition based maintenance and vehicle health monitoring systems such as the HUMS. Benefits: It is anticipated that the successful completion of this work will provide sensors that can be transitioned to a wide variety of airframes and vehicles as well as transition to the commercial sector for automobiles. Space-based platforms where visual inspection and maintenance are not possible will also benefit from this research. Return