Activities in the field of shm:

• Advice and consultation for appropriate positioning of sensors on aircraft structure
• Development of new methodologies and applications
• Development and use of experimental SHM/NDT systems based on ultrasonic (UT / PAUT) and eddy current array (EC/ECA) principles for laboratory health monitoring of aircraft structure, development of assistive software for experiments
• Development and use of experimental SHM/NDT systems based on electric resistance tomography (ERT) principles for laboratory health monitoring of aircraft structure, development of measurement software for ERT experiments
• Development and research in the area of structural health monitoring using
  surface ultrasound waves (UGW - Ultrasonic Guided Wave) both metal composite structures
• Research on application of embedded optical fibres in the forms of Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBGs) for structural health monitoring and inspection of composites
• Development of use of NDT methods using acoustic emission (AE) for research and development projects
• Wireless tracking of structures, identification and measurement of damage by optical methods
• Data acquisition and analyses from voltage sensors during ground or flight tests
• Software prediction of the service life of aircraft structure using loading spectra generated during the structural testing or aircraft operation
• Development of experimental devices and fixtures for the non-destructive evaluation of metal, composite and hybrid structures using ultrasound, eddy currents and electric resistance tomography (ERT)
• Development of software development, methodologies and procedures for non-destructive evaluation
• Development of software tools for computer simulations of operational and manufacturing damages, e.g. delamination crack growth, impact analysis incl. BVID (Barely Visible Impact Damage), accumulation of damage at manufacturing / operational defects, evaluation of regression models of structural fatigue, etc.
• Development of tools and technical solutions for repairs, deceleration of damage/crack propagation, efficient bonding and load transfer in composite and hybrid constructions
• Development of experimental devices and jigs for analysis of damage/crack propagation in composite structures, analysis of crack arrestors (rip-stop doublers)

Equipment:

• FBGuard (Safibra)
• Dakel Xedo
• Accelent ScanGenie II

Research projects:

• AERONEWS –“Health monitoring of aircraft by Nonlinear Elastic Wave Spectroscopy“, (2004-2008, FP6 EU, project No. 502927)
• STRAINMON – “Strain Monitoring in Composite Stiffened Panels Using Sensors“, (2011-2012, JU – Clean Sky, project No. 296514)
• SMART COMPOSITES - “Design of smart composite structures“, (2011-2014, GAČR, project No. GAP101/11/0288)
• SARISTU – “Smart Intelligent Aircraft Structures“, (2011-2015, FP7 EU, project No. 284562)
• BOPACS – „Boltless assembling and repair Of Primary Aerospace Composite Structures“, (2012-2016, FP7 EU, project No. 314180)
• SIGMA - “Integration of SHM system in order to ensure airworthiness of small transport aircraft“, (2013-2016, TAČR – ALFA3, project No. TA0301014003)
• CKLT – „Research centre for advanced aircraft structures”, (2012-2019, TAČR – Centre of Competence, project No. TA02000032)
• THERMOPLASTS – “Design and technology development for aircraft primary structural parts of advanced shape made of thermoplastic materials”, (2018-2020, MIT ministry, program TRIO, project No. FV30033)
• “Smart and reliable aircraft structures“, partial objectives 1-2 (2018-2022, institutional funding of MIT via “DKRVO” )

Contact person:

Dr. Ing. Roman Růžek, Head of Materials, technologies and NDT, VZLU
tel: +420 225 115 134, e-mail: ruzek@vzlu.cz