Vibration Test Spectrum Simulating the In-Flight Jet Aircraft Transport Environment of Parcel and Unit Load Shipments

The measurement and analysis of the hazards occurring during the distribution environment are critical to developing test simulations that can be used to challenge packaged products and quantify their performance. One increasingly utilized vehicle is jet aircraft to move packaged product systems through the distribution network. As a result, there is a need to ensure that the vibration test levels used to qualify packaged product systems reflect the hazard levels observed in the air transport environment. This study utilized a field data recorder that separated ground and in-flight vibration events to capture a series of jet aircraft flights. The measured acceleration-time data were analyzed in terms of power spectral density (PSD) and statistically examined to understand the variability of the vibration intensity of this transport mode. The PSD profiles computed from the field measured events were significantly lower in vibration intensity than current test methods for air transport. Statistical analysis showed that the measured events were non-Gaussian and right-skewed. Additionally, a composite jet aircraft PSD test profile, reflective of the field-collected events, was developed, which could drive vibration test systems to evaluate packaged product systems during the in-flight segment of this distribution channel.