System for monitoring damage to a rotor blade of a rotary-wing aircraft
AssigneeEurocopter
InventorsJacques Gaffiero, Jean-Patrick Boderlique, Claude Laloi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a rotary-wing aircraft rotor blade (23) that presents a longitudinal axis (26) and that includes (semi)conductive loops (10) extending along axes (19, 19A to 19C, 19W to 19Z) or directions that are oblique relative to the longitudinal axis (26).
Claims20
A rotor blade (23) for a rotary-wing aircraft, the blade presenting a longitudinal axis (26) and including (semi)conductive loops (10) extending along axes (19, 19A to 19C, 19W to 19Z) or directions that are oblique relative to the longitudinal axis (26), the blade further presenting a composite structure including fibers, at least some of the (semi)conductive loops extending parallel to the fibers.
A rotary-wing aircraft rotor blade (23) that presents a longitudinal axis (26) and that comprises:
- a composite structure including fibers;
- (semi)conductive loops (10) extending along axes (19, 19A to 19C, 19W to 19Z) or directions that are oblique relative to the longitudinal axis (26), at least some of the (semi)conductive loops extending parallel to the fibers;
- an impedance-measuring device (41) for measuring the impedance of a loop and delivering a loop impedance measurement signal;
- and
- a scanner and connector device (40) for connecting each of the loops in the plurality of loops in succession to the impedance-measuring device, with the loops being scanned regularly.
A rotary-wing aircraft rotor blade (23) that presents a longitudinal axis (26) and that is of composite structure including fibers, the blade including (semi)conductive loops (10) extending along axes (19, 19A to 19C, 19W to 19Z) or directions that are oblique relative to the longitudinal axis (26), at least some of the (semi)conductive loops extending parallel to the fibers, each loop comprising two strands and a plurality of conductive or semiconductive elements interconnecting the two strands and connected in parallel.
A rotary-wing aircraft including a rotor having a plurality of blades, each blade comprising:
- a composite structure including fibers;
- and
- (semi)conductive loops (10) extending along axes (19, 19A to 19C, 19W to 19Z) or directions that are oblique relative to the longitudinal axis (26) of the blade, at least some of the (semi)conductive loops extending parallel to the fibers;
- the aircraft further comprising:
- an impedance-measuring device (41) for measuring the impedance of a loop and delivering a loop-impedance measurement signal;
- a scanner and connector device (40) for successively connecting each of the loops of a plurality of loops to the impedance-measuring device, with the loops being scanned regularly;
- a computer (44) associated with a memory containing data representative of the configuration of the meshing of the loops incorporated in each blade of the rotor;
- an analog-to-digital converter (42) for transforming each measurement of the impedance-measuring device into digital impedance data;
- and
- transmission means (43) for transmitting the data delivered by the converter to the computer (44);
- the computer being further associated with a program for determining an area (29) of a damage to a blade, the program being responsive to the impedance data and to the data representative of the configuration of the meshing of the loops of the blades.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.