Advanced Techniques for Electrical Wire Fault Navy SBIR FY2005.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2005.1 Topic No.: N05-022 Topic Title: Advanced Techniques for Electrical Wire Fault Proposal No.: N051-022-0876 Firm: Solers Corporation 1611 N. Kent St. Suite 700 Arlington, Virginia 22209 Contact: Kevin Leonard Phone: (703) 243-4711 Web Site: solers.com Abstract: Wiring integrity has become a very important issue in the safety of both military and civilian aircraft. As existing aircraft are being used past their designed lifetime and newer aircraft begin to rely more on fly-by-wire technology and avionics to control critical onboard systems, wire system safety is more important than ever. Coupled with rising costs at all maintenance levels and high profile commercial crashes such as TWA 800 and Swiss Air 111, advanced diagnostic and prognostic technologies are needed. Current reflectometry inspection methods are unable to effectively detect latent faults such as chafed and cracked insulation. However, this does not need to be the case. We propose here an advanced signal processing algorithm that combines wavelet analysis of recorded time domain reflectometry (TDR) signals with a new way of viewing the wavelet coefficients over time and scale that creates a fingerprint-like image of the inspected cable. Small latent flaws hidden in the raw TDR signal will show up in these new fingerprint-like images as discernable patterns, and thus can be detected and located either manually or automatically through intelligent user-friendly software. Benefits: The successful completion of this Phase I project will provide us with the necessary background and technical results to proceed with the development of a transitionable wiring inspection system based on the wavelet fingerprinting TDR (WFPTDR) technique. The advanced capabilities of the final commercial inspection system will make it cost-efficient, robust and easy-to-use. Furthermore, it will find previously hard-to-detect latent faults, reduce the number of work hours required for testing, automate testing and data archiving, increase reliability, and decrease time required for maintenance and testing. For the military, or a large commercial airline, just a 20% reduction in cost due to these advantages could be a savings of tens of millions of dollars per year. Furthermore, aging wiring systems also exist in other vehicles such as ships, cars, and trains; in reality, the hazards of aging wiring systems are present across all vehicle types. The proposed WFPTDR system thus has commercial applications not only throughout the DoD, but also for NASA, the FAA, and other commercial industries such as commercial airlines, shipbuilding companies and nuclear power plants. Return