Aircraft vibration from React to Predict

Aircraft vibration is a natural occurrence due to various sources such as engine imbalance, aerodynamic forces, system abnormality, worn components, …. When aircraft vibration occurs, it can be identified by people inside the aircraft. Depending on the source of the vibration, it may be experienced either as a physical movement, or as noise, or as both a movement and noise. These experiences can cause passenger concern and discomfort. Today, the process to handle aircraft vibration is subjective and strongly dependent on pilot/flight crew. (ref [1]) This article will present an alternative process based on data for identifying, continuously monitoring vibration source(s) and then predicting the coming vibration event(s). Within this process, existing aircraft sensors (low bit depth and low sampling rate) will be processed and compared with a vibration database, flight by flight, for detecting any abnormal vibration. The vibration database has been built based on several ground/flight dynamic tests and validated aeroelastics models.