Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) Reliability Workshop

There are many Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) manufacturers who have systems at various technology readiness levels (TRL) being tested by both the civil and military communities. Many of these original equipment manufacturers (OEMS) feel their systems are ready to be used by the aviation industry. The reliability assessment approach detailed in MIL-HDBK-1823A is universally accepted for nondestructive evaluation. However, the manner in which it is applied for SHM is in question because of the subtle but fundamental differences in the implementation of these fields based on common technologies. Because of these perceptions, SAE International's G-11 SHM committee has organized a special workshop on SHM reliability in April 2015. At the time of submitting this abstract, the meeting is expected to attract 60 experts in SHM, including aircraft and SHM OEMS, regulators from the civil and military communities, numerous academia, and noted and experienced nondestructive testing (NDT) personnel. The purpose of the workshop is an open discussion regarding the reliability assessment approach to SHM with the intent to determine if there can be a single industry standard established such as MIL-HDBK-1823A for NDT. Innovative approaches for meeting the reliability assessment/validation requirements for aerospace applications could be needed to address the challenges of permanently attached sensor systems for SHM, while not compromising on the quality and/or confidence of the resulting metrics. Metrics of interest include the traditional probability of detection (PoD) and false alarm rates. In addition, metrics can address the validation of accuracy and precision for evaluating localization and severity of damage when coupled with a validated detection capability. This paper provides an overview of that meeting and presents results from the workshop.