Federal Aviation

Administration
Rotorcraft
Systems- Health
and Usage
Monitoring System
(HUMS)

Date: 9 February 2015

By: Paul Swindell
Traci Stadtmueller
AHS Airworthiness, CBM and HUMS Specialists
Meeting, Huntsville, AL
 Overview
• Purpose:
– Development of technical information and data for certification of
an operational HUMS system for usage credit application in AC
29-2C.
– Credit is defined as
• To give approval to a HUMS application that adds to, replaces, or intervenes
in industry accepted maintenance practices or flight operations.

• Benefits to FAA:
– Technical information and data to validate the HUMS advisory
material. A mock certification of a HUMS system will demonstrate
the validity of the AC and allow for updating any deficiencies.
• Indicators of Program Success:
– Update advisory material to improve any deficiencies found during
validation of HUMS certification for usage credit.

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Background
• Started with a 10 year plan and roadmap in 2005
– Have worked with the following entities:
• Smiths/GE
• Acellent
• Embry Riddle
• Goodrich
• Sikorsky
• NASA Glenn
• US Army CERDEC, AED and ARL
• Bell Helicopter
• Helicopter Association International (HAI)
– Take advantage of Army Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)
knowledge & data.

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 HUMS R&D Roadmap
IN PROGRESS COMPLETED *DONE BY OTHER AGENCIES, WILL LEVERAGE THIS WORK
HUMS R & D AREAS AND TASKS
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
HUMS AC REQUIREMENT COMPLIANCE DEMONSTRATION
HUMS DEVELOPMENT AND HUMS-EQUIPPED FLIGHT TESTING
USAGE MONITORING AND FLIGHT REGIME RECOGNITION
DIRECT LOADS MONITORING
MAINT CREDITS VALIDATION (INDIRECT LOAD MEASUREMENT)
MAINT CREDITS VALIDATION (DIRECT LOAD MEASUREMENT)

OPERATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF HUMS

HARDWARE
SENSOR
AIRBORNE SYSTEMS
GROUND STATION AND PERIPHERALS

SOFTWARE
DATA MANAGEMENT
DIAGNOSTICS AND MONITORING
MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT*

COMMERCIAL VALIDATION OF HUMS

ALGORITHMS AND METHODOLOGIES
SAFETY MONITORING
STRUCTURAL USAGE MONITORING AND CREDIT VALIDATION
DIAGNOSTICS, HEALTH, & PROGNOSTICS

ONBOARD WARNINGS
RESPONSES AND PROCEDURES
FLIGHT AND GROUND CREW

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Past Research

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Acellent
• Program Objective:
Validate and demonstrate technologies used for monitoring rotorcraft
structural health monitoring.

• Accomplishments/Outputs:
Conduct Functional Hazard Assessment, design sensor patch system, and
develop coupon test plan
Successfully completed coupon and component test (right hand clevis fitting
on a gearbox middle housing).
Flight tested on UH-60.

• FAA Report published:

“Smart Patch System for Condition Based Maintenance of Rotorcraft
Structures”

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Goodrich
• Program Objective:
Assess a COTS HUMS GBS in accordance with the HUMS AC.

• Accomplishments/Outputs:
HUMS hardware & software functionality assessment.
COTS validation criteria.
HUMS COTS GBS process guidance.
COTS verification test plan and procedures.
COTS verification test report.

• 3 FAA Reports published:

“HUMS Functional Assessment, Goodrich Health and Usage Management
System”
“Commercial off the Shelf Validation Criteria”
“Commercial off the Shelf Ground System Station Process Guidance”

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NASA Glenn
• NASA Report published:
– “Signal Detection Theory Applied to Helicopter Transmission Diagnostic
Thresholds”

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Embry Riddle
• Program Objective:
Develop and validate certification and proposed maintenance action plans
using structural usage monitoring technologies.
• Accomplishments/Outputs:
Preliminary Functional Hazard Assessment
HUMS prototype system including airborne and ground-based station (GBS)
with a selected algorithm.
Certification Compliance Report
Credit validation plan
Technology implementation and transition plan.
Sponsor did not accept final report for publication

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Sikorsky
• Program Objective:
Develop and substantiate credit validation and certification plans for usage
credits using S-92 data and validated usage monitoring and FRR
technologies.

• Outputs:
Credit validation plan
Controlled introduction-to-service (CIS) plan
Instructions for continued airworthiness (ICA)
Technology implementation and transition plan

• FAA Report Published:

“HUMS Advisory Circular Compliance Validation and Demonstration-
Structural Usage Monitoring and Regime Recognition”

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GE Smiths
• Program Objective:
Demonstrate that implementation of automated testing for an HUMS GBS
fulfills the criteria for certification and subsequent proposed maintenance
action validation requirements per HUMS AC.
• Accomplishments/Outputs:
Study of current tools and techniques.
Design documents for automated software build and test.
Certification Compliance Report
Credit validation plan
CIS and ICA plans
Technology implementation and transition plan.
• 2 FAA Reports Published:
“Development, Validation, and Demonstration of Technologies for Health and
Usage Monitoring Systems Airborne and Ground-Based Automated Testing
and System Functionality Partition”
“Development, Validation and Demonstration of HUMS Technologies to
Detect RC Mechanical Faults”

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Current Research

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Sikorsky
• Supported flight test program at CERDEC
on UH-60M.
– Phase I (completed):
• Assisted in the installation of sensors to capture load and
vibration data.
• Developed flight test plan.
• Analyzed flight test data to determine HUMS regime
recognition capabilities.
– Applied clustering algorithm.
• Demonstrated virtual monitoring of load and gross weight
model accuracy using flight test data.
• Conducted usage based maintenance process
demonstration.
• Delivered final report July 2014.
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Sikorsky
– Phase 2 (in process):
• Support UH-60M flight testing of on-aircraft algorithms for
virtual monitoring of load and GW/CG in order to validate
the HUMS algorithms.
• Assist in instrumentation and calibration of landing gear
sensors.
– Completed in mid September by Sikorsky and Epsilon
(sensor company).
• Testing started in November and was completed in
December.
• Data analysis and report due Spring 2015

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Sikorsky
• Program Objective:
Provide technical support in developing and validating methods of
determining rotorcraft usage credits as described in the FAA Advisory
Circular 29.2C section MG15.
• Accomplishments/Outputs:
End to end mock certification example plan for usage credit.
UBM Credit definition
Validation of GW/CG estimation, RR clustering, VML
Part Number UBM Credit or Serial Number Credit
Instructions for Continued Airworthiness and Controlled
Introduction to Service Plan
Refined and validated GW/CG and RR clustering algorithms using existing
FLS data.
Calculated fleet statistics for part number and serial number UBM credits

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US Army CERDEC
• Provide UH-60M for flight testing.
• Provide engineering personnel to conduct
aircraft modifications for testing.
• Coordinate flight test scripts with Sikorsky.
– Provide pilot input.
• Provide necessary documentation for aircraft
modifications.

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HAI
• Determine accuracy requirements for regime
recognition algorithms (RRA).
• Determine methodologies to verify and validate RRA.
– Consider Army standards in ADS-79.
– Use their experience in working with the NAVY.
• Define the methodology for how the accuracy
requirements are to be substantiated and validated for
commercial helicopters.
• Planned to be completed Spring 2015.

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US Army AED
• Demonstrate an end-to-end process for
updating component lives.
– Determine how to maintain reliability throughout an
actual Design Spectrum Update on Army Aircraft.
• Consider six-9’s reliability and how using
HUMS data instead of OEM design data affects
the reliability calculations for determining
component lives.
• Planned to be completed Spring 2015.

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NASA Glenn
• Conducted spiral bevel gear rig tests to support validation and
demonstration of HUMS for maintenance credits via the Advisory Circular.
• Purpose was to determine a method to validate condition indicators (CI) in
the lab that better represent their response to faults in the field.
• Used existing in-service helicopter HUMS flight data (AH-64).
• Mapped modes experienced in the field to the failure modes created in the
test rig.
• Re-processed helicopter condition indicator (CI) data with the same
analysis techniques applied to spiral bevel rig test data.
• Correlated results from the rig and helicopter data to validate helicopter
CI’s.
• Final report will be delivered by end of this year.

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Summary
• Rotorcraft Directorate plans to begin revising AC in
FY15
• All research to be completed by March 2015.
• 10 yrs of research have provided some useful
recommendations to the AC revision.

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Questions
– Paul Swindell
• paul.swindell@faa.gov
• 609-485-8973
– Traci Stadtmueller
• traci.stadtmueller@faa.gov
• 609-485-4768

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