Wireless sensors in aircraft structures set to provide lifetime monitoring

AMRC engineers are participating in a project to integrate wireless sensors into composite materials to monitor the condition of parts made for aircraft.

The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) is part of the INFINITE consortium, which has been launched to address the control of aerostructure manufacturing processes and operating conditions, as well as reduce component costs.

Engineers from the AMRC’s composites team are supporting the consortium - which is funded by Horizon Europe and led by IDEKO, a Spanish advanced manufacturing R&D centre - in developing technology that will see wireless sensors incorporated into materials at the early stages of aeronautical structure manufacture.

“Being able to integrate highly-specific sensors into composite aerospace structures so early in the manufacturing process, and monitor the full life of a component, will represent significant progress in…manufacturing health monitoring and structural health monitoring,” said Fatma Omrani, a composites research engineer who is leading AMRC’s involvement in the project. “The early integration of these sensors and their wireless capability is a unique feature that is not currently available within existing solutions. It will provide means to manufacture higher quality components, as well as predict defects and damage more accurately.”

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Omrani continued: “The composites team at the AMRC will combine its knowledge and expertise in structural health monitoring, dry fibre manufacturing and preforming, composite manufacturing and repair to support the project. The impacts of this project are substantial on the manufacturing of multifunctional and intelligent aircraft structures.”

According to AMRC, the sensors are based on magnetic materials and amorphous ferromagnetic microwires capable of reacting to electromagnetic radiation and will generate information on the condition of the part at any time. These will be incorporated together with the dry carbon fibre, so they are embedded in the composite and their status monitored with a portable system to analyse the forces and temperatures to which the part is subjected and its condition.

Peio Olaskoaga, the technical coordinator of the INFINITE project, said: "The incorporation of these sensors at the very early stages of the life cycle will allow traceability of all subsequent stages of each component, and monitor their status with a non-invasive system to optimise their performance.”