Advance method of Leakage Detection in Aircraft Hydraulic System

Abstract

Aircraft hydraulic systems are composed of several components connected and distributed along the aircraft. Monitoring leakage of these components are time consuming tasks, and often cover only some parts of the system. The objective of this work is to present a method to estimate hydraulic leakage and recommend maintenance and servicing tasks using aircraft standard sensors such as fluid temperature and reservoir level. The proposed method was tested using several aircraft operating data with different levels of degradation (external leakages) and the results were analyzed in order to evaluate its precision on estimating leakage. Results showed the capability to detect leakage although uncertainties must be considered when evaluating maintenance interventions.