Studies on strain gauge instrumentation for aircraft pylon and its testing

• Main Author: Li, Kenneth Jiawei.
• Other Authors: Sunil Chandrakant Joshi
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54138
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This Final Year Project is a continuation from the work done by Mohamed Yazeed Bin Mohamed Yusuf in Academic Year 2011/2012 under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Sunil Joshi. Joseph Girivilar and Alan Tan in Academic Year 2010/2011 were the pioneers of this project. This project is commissioned by the Republic of Singapore Air Force to identify suitable replacement locations for strain gauges on the instrumented non-jettisonable fuel tank pylon (NJP) of F-16 fighter aircraft. For the purpose of obtaining experimental results, a test rig had been fabricated to mount the pylon. The design of the test rig was heavily dependent on intuition as desired information for such static tests remains highly proprietary. Literature on strain gauge calibration were limited as well. Despite much difficulties, progress in the development of an ANSYS model has been successful so far. This allowed us to do a finite element analysis of the static load tests. However, experimentally, the full range of static loadings could not be carried out due to structural deformation of the test rig. This report will detail computational analysis done through the use of the software ANSYS workbench. As the test rig is highly complex, a good understanding of the software is required to create a reliable FEA model that can accurately predict the response to loads and the effect of modifications. The ANSYS results are then obtained from the 6 strain gauge bridges on the pylon and 7 individual strain gauges mounted on the rig. This project has been divided into three phases. Phase one where computational analysis was done on the current test rig and the results obtained compared to the experimental results. Phase two, involves the implementation of modifications on the test rig suggested by RSAF where computational analysis was done and the results analyzed. Phase three is a deeper analysis to the modifications of the test rigproposed by Yazeed in his report[12]. The results of this project will enable the actual modifications to reinforce the test rig. This will allow the full set of static loads to be applied on the test rig physically. Only then can the strain gauge calibration and ANSYS model be properly verified.