Overview of Prognostics and Health Management for Landing Gear Maintenance

Latest military and civil aircraft programs have substantively advanced Diagnostics, Prognostics and Health Management technology concepts into an integrated systems approach that can enhance aircraft reliability and passenger safety. The aircraft landing gear shock absorber is a critical system and to enhance its reliability, a health monitoring system can be introduced to detect loads which can impact its structural integrity, functional and performance degradation, operational incidents, impending failures and provide advance warning for proactive maintenance actions. A number of health monitoring schemes have been proposed which check the condition of landing gear shock strut components but these do not provide a systems level coverage and analysis for the different failure modes which a landing gear can experience. With the rapid advances in sensor accuracy, design technology and data communication, a prognostics and health monitoring system design can detect diverse functional and operational failure conditions, support maintenance activities and ensure higher aircraft operational availability.