Dynamic Analysis of a Critical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Components for Development of Future Structural Health Monitoring Techniques

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the free vibration characteristics and to understand the natural frequencies of critical components of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Since microscopic damages such as microcracks, dislocation distribution, crazing, and shear banding in composite and metallic structures can develop into macroscale damage, our goal is to capture the vibration modes and correlate the modes to the damage mechanics. For this study, modal impact tests were performed on an aircraft wing and the vibration mode shapes were captured via Spectral Dynamics, Inc. Bobcat structural analysis system along with a modal impact hammer to create the impact loads. The mode shapes can reveal critical areas where damage has the most probability to occur due to fatigue. We plan to provide detection of these early damage modes as well as predicting the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of the component.