A Method for Reconstructing the Shape of Wing Panels Based on Fiber Optic Sensors and Tomographic Imaging Principles

The aircraft wing structure shape reconstruction method based on discrete strain information not only provides data support for the digital collaborative health monitoring and prediction technology of wing structure but also helps to improve the aerodynamic shape and flight quality of the aircraft, achieve structural stealth, and enhance the pointing accuracy of the on-board conformal antenna. As result, a wing skin panel shape reconstruction method based on the principle of tomographic imaging and strain information perception is proposed. According to the idea of tomographic imaging, a “non-intrusive” layout form that only requires sensors to be arranged on the periphery of the monitoring area is designed, breaking through the limitation that sensors can not be arranged in the monitoring area under special working conditions. A method for constructing the deflection shape function of the wing skin panel based on the concept of synthetic curvature is proposed, solving the problem of error accumulation and elimination of deformation inversion at non-monitoring points of the measured structure caused by the uncertainty of the limited discrete layout of sensors and the choice of interpolation fitting method. On this basis, a model deformation monitoring and inversion system for wing skin panel based on fiber optic grating sensors is constructed. The experimental results show that under the single-end fixed bending and torsion working condition, the average relative error of the panel model shape reconstruction is 4.17%. Under the double-end fixed double-concentrated load working condition, the average relative error of the shape reconstruction is 8.07%. The wing deformation distribution information reconstructed by the method proposed in this paper can be mapped onto the virtual twin model of the wing, providing technical support for the safety assessment, early warning, and on-condition maintenance of the entire service life of key structures of the aircraft.