Meccanica Magazine n. 4

fornire indicazioni in merito alla condizione di salute del sistema e la
sua prognosi.
Il gemello digitale si baserà o su Modelli ad Elementi Finiti o su
modelli empirici/analitici, in cui la presenza del danneggiamento è
considerata all’interno del modello per simulare il comportamento
della struttura in condizioni operative più realistiche. Le capacità
del Gemello Digitale e il sistema SHMP saranno verificate sia in un
ambiente di laboratorio, sia in test di volo.
Il livello di maturità tecnologica atteso del sistema sviluppato
nell’ambito delle attività del progetto SAMAS 2 si attesta intorno a 6/7
per il monitoraggio di corrosione, impatto, carico e monitoraggio del
danno. Il Prof. Marco Giglio è il responsabile scientifico del progetto.
Il Prof. Claudio Sbarufatti e il Prof. Andrea Manes lavoreranno al
progetto in qualità di leader tecnici. Il consorzio è composto da
Enti Accademici, di Ricerca e Industriali italiani e polacchi. Tra gli
altri partecipanti citiamo: LHD (Leonardo Helicopters, Italia), CNR
(Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italia); AFIT (Air Force Institute
of Technology, Polonia), WZL1 (Military Aviation Works No. 1, Polonia),
ILOT (Łukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of Aviation, Polonia),
MUT (Military University of Technology, Polonia).
ENG
SAMAS 2 project, a step forward to guarantee the structural
integrity and safety of military helicopters
On December the 16th 2021 the Kickoff meeting of the project
SAMAS2 has been successfully held in remote. SAMAS 2 project –
“Structural Health and Ballistic Impact Monitoring and Prognosis
on a Military Helicopter” (2021-2024) is an EDA (European Defence
Agency) Cat.B Project, coordinated by DMEC. It is focused on the
development of a Structural Health Monitoring and Prognosis
(SHMP) tool that includes model-based and data-based approaches
for corrosion monitoring and impact monitoring on helicopters.
SAMAS 2 is the follow up of a series of successful projects, HECTOR,
ASTYANAX and SAMAS. The main goal of the current project is to
rise the TRL of the proposed technology by its application on a real
military helicopter, with laboratory and flight tests, considering the
damage coming from corrosion and ballistic impact.
The aim of SAMAS 2 project is to develop a SHMP tool both for
corrosion degradation and ballistic impact damages, that can be
even possibly exploited for airframe load monitoring and generic
damage degradation assessment.
Damage due corrosion and ballistic impact have been identified as
critical factors for the structural integrity of a helicopter, since they
can compromise the whole structural assessment and be a safety
concern for the crew.
These two main streams are going to be faced along the project with
the following strategies:
1 Development of a corrosion monitoring system, with two goals:
- Verify the possibility to extend the damage-tolerant design to
corrosion, answering the question whether the corrosion pit is
equivalent to a standard notch in the definition of the fatigue
endurance limit
- Defining how to monitor corrosion and its progression rate
2 Development of a ballistic impact and damage monitoring
system, specifically targeting:
- Impact detection,
- Damage detection and quantification
- Load monitoring and damage progression estimate
The SHMP system will be built also by creation of a Digital-Twin D-T
that allow to mimic the main physical and engineering behaviours
involved in the before mentioned phenomena. The creation
of a D-T will leverage on the large expertise of POLIMI Team in
structural and system design under extreme loading conditions
(e.g. fatigue, impacts, corrosion, etc). The competence developed
in both artificial intelligence and stochastic modelling will allow
the D-T to be fast, for online application, and capable for selfupdating
during operation, which is a requirement for an efficient
monitoring and prognosis system. Thus, the SHMP, supported
by the D-T, will allow to extract relevant damage features from
sensors’ signal and to provide both the actual healthy condition
of the structure and the prognosis of damage progression.
The Digital-Twin will be based either on FE models or on analytical/
empirical models, where the presence of the damage is considered
in the model to simulate the behaviour of the structure in more
realistic operative conditions. The capability of the D-T and the
SHMP will be tested both on a ground laboratory environment and
a flight test.
The expected TRL of the systems developed in the framework of the
SAMAS 2 activities is 6 to 7 for corrosion monitoring, impact, load
and generic damage monitoring.
Prof. Marco Giglio is the Project Manager, supported by Prof. Claudio
Sbarufatti and prof. Andrea Manes, acting as technical leaders
inside the project. The consortium is composed by Italian and Polish
Academic, Research and Industrial entities. Other participants are:
Italy, LHD (Leonardo Helicopters), CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle
Ricerche); Poland, AFIT (Air Force Institute of Technology), WZL1
(Military Aviation Works No. 1), ILOT (Łukasiewicz Research Network
- Institute of Aviation), MUT (Military University of Technology).
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