N112-094 TITLE: Carriage Life Monitoring Of External Stores

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors, Weapons

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-242, Direct and Time Sensitive Strike Warfighting Capablities

OBJECTIVE: Develop a monitoring device that will accurately measure, log, and report captive carry exposure hours for fixed and rotary wing external stores.

DESCRIPTION: Vibration design criteria for fixed and rotary wing external stores are typically developed from vibration measurements acquired during noise and vibration flight testing. Noise and vibration flight tests employ instrumented measurement vehicles (IMV), which have equivalent mass properties and dynamic response characteristics to the tactical stores they are designed to mimic. Upon processing and quantifying the IMV noise and vibration data and correlating the store dynamic response to platform maneuvers and associated service use time statistics, vibration design criteria are established in terms of vibration level and exposure time. Vibration test criteria, which consist of test amplitudes and associated test duration, are then derived from the vibration design criteria for demonstrating captive carriage life of the external store. In addition to vibration, other dynamic environments such as adjacent store releases, adjacent weapon firings (e.g. missiles/gunfire), store upload/download cycles, catapult launch, and arrested landings influence the life of the store and are also characterized in terms of design and test criteria. A captive carriage design life is established for the store and is then demonstrated with a series of laboratory ground vibration and mechanical shock tests; however, upon successful demonstration of the laboratory life test, the actual carriage life of the store is rarely investigated through continued testing. Furthermore, as the store is utilized during Fleet operations, it is desirable to monitor and track its usage hours for purposes of assessing and validating its design carriage life, as well as for determining the potential for service life extension. Thus, the ability to measure, log, and report captive carriage hours for external stores would provide a basis for quantifying actual carriage life and indicate to the Fleet when a store is approaching the end of its life so that it can be removed from service or reworked for continued use.

Complexities associated with logistics and unique store functionality for both training and wartime mission-use do not allow for manual tracking and logging operations to ascertain captive carry exposure hours. Likewise, many external store systems have no electrical interface or onboard electrical power source available for integrating readily available instrumentation and data logging technology. As such, an autonomously automated tracking device will likely be required to provide accurate measurements, logging, and reporting of the desired store carriage hour information.

The prototype device should be a self-generating (i.e. provides its own power) sensor able to sense, record, and log a wide range of dynamic events (such as platform startup/shutdown, steady state and maneuvering flight, adjacent weapon firing, gunfire, etc.) and then correlate the measured events with known mission use statistical information for estimating store carriage hour accumulation. The device must be able to log data for extended periods and data should be downloadable for input to a store environmental exposure -accumulation software tool.

PHASE I: Develop a self-generating measurement sensor capable of accurately measuring, correlating, and logging a wide range of dynamic events associated with external store carriage.

PHASE II: Develop a complete data logging tool, incorporating the sensor from Phase I along with data storage capacity for up to 100 hours of carriage life, a data transfer mechanism, and a software tool for inputting the output data to determine store carriage accumulation.

PHASE III: Produce a validated carriage life monitoring device based on the sensor, data logging, and software tools developed in Phases I and II. Transition technology to the applicable platforms.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Structural life monitoring for buildings, bridges, etc., will benefit through extension of this technology base.

REFERENCES:
1. Arnau Vives, A. (2008). Piezoelectric Transducers and Applications. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

2. Eren, Halit. (2006). Wireless Sensors and Instruments: Networks, Design, and Applications. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

KEYWORDS: vibration; carriage life; service use statistics; structural dynamics; Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS); self-generating sensors; data storage; software; data transmission

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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