Foreign Object Debris and Damage in Aviation

Ahmed F. El-Sayed

• Editorial: CRC Press
• Año: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000546248
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Physical Sciences
• Categoría: Mechanics

Foreign Object Debris and Damage in Aviation discusses both biological and non-biological Foreign Object Debris (FOD) and associated Foreign Object Damage (FOD) in aviation. The book provides a comprehensive treatment of the wide spectrum of FOD with numerous cost, management, and wildlife considerations.

Management control for the debris begins at the aircraft design phase, and the book includes numerical analyses for estimating damage caused by strikes. The book explores aircraft operation in adverse weather conditions and inanimate FOD management programs for airports, airlines, airframe, and engine manufacturers. It focuses on the sources of FOD, the categories of damage caused by FOD, and both the direct and indirect costs caused by FOD. In addition, the book provides management plans for wildlife, including positive and passive methods.

The book will interest aviation industry personnel, aircraft transport and ground operators, aircraft pilots, and aerospace or aviation engineers. Readers will learn to manage FOD to guarantee air traffic safety with minimum costs to airlines and airports.

1Introduction

DOI: 10.1201/9781003133087-1

Foreign Object Damage (FO Damage) is defined as any damage to an aircraft, a missile, a drone, their systems and stores, or malfunction attributed to a Foreign Object Debris (FO Debris). FO Damage can be expressed in physical (human injury or death) or economic (monetary) terms, which may downgrade the product’s safety, stability, efficiency, or performance characteristics.

Different classifications for FO Debris are defined. FO Debris may be classified as animate (biological) or inanimate (non-biological) objects. It may be also defined as ground or airborne debris. Moreover, it may be defined as internal (to aircraft) or external debris. Finally, it may be classified based on matter (material, colors, and size).

Inanimate (inorganic or non-biological) foreign object debris include personal items like coins, pens, mobiles, watches, eyeglasses, hats, gloves, soda cans, paperwork, and others. FO debris may also include aircraft and engine parts like fasteners, fuel caps, oil sticks, metal sheets, and technician tools like wrench, socket, hammer, etc. Other debris related to the airport may include lights, signs, rocks, sand, pebbles, and loose vegetation. Moreover, FO Debris may include ground support equipment (GSE) like maintenance equipment, fueling trucks, tow tractors, and catering supplies like spoons, food wrappers, freight pallets, and baggage tags and pieces. In addition, adverse weather may add additional debris like hail, snow, rain, sand, and volcanic ash. Concerning military airbases debris may contain bomb-damaged runways, bomb fragments, parts of a refueling basket during refueling process. Recently, FO Debris included drones, Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs), and parts of space vehicles that reenter the Earth orbits like the core stage of the Chinese Long March 5B rocket that crashed in the Indian Ocean north of the Maldives on May 8, 2021. Finally, helicopters flying close to the ground may generate sandstorms if flying in deserts or snow and icy particles when flying near snowy terrains.

Animate foreign object debris (living organisms) may be airborne like birds and bats, insects, or ground ones, including mammals (deer, moose, etc.) and reptiles (crocodiles, alligators, and snakes), grass, and plant fragments. The most precious debris is humans who are in rare cases sucked into aeroengines.

Foreign Object Damage is the damage caused by the foreign object debris to aircraft parts and equipment and may cause human injury or death. Damage to aircraft parts could be in the form of punctured airframes, torn or punctured tires, worn compressors and fans, nicked turbine, or propeller blades, and, in rare instances, complete damage to aircraft or engine failure. The injury to airport employees may be caused by debris propelled by the jet blast, propeller, or rotor wash. FO Damage may cause trouble to airports, airlines, and military bases. In brief, the damage of flying vehicles may be categorized into four types namely: acceptable with no maintenance requirements, acceptable with some minor repair, unacceptable with either in-site repair or module removal for shop repair, and catastrophic.

1.1Introduction

Since the first man-powered flight in 1903, the aviation industry recorded the fastest-growing transportation field. With the increasing world population and high-flying rate, the aviation industry faces a great financial loss due to aircraft crashes. Detailed investigation of these air crashes reveals many reasons. One of them is FOD.

In the aviation industry, the acronym “FOD” has two interrelated meanings, namely:

• Foreign Object Debris
• Foreign Object Damage

Foreign Object Debris – is any object ranging from small fasteners, rocks to luggage racks and wild animals. Adverse weather may add additional debris like hail, ice, snow, sand, and volcano ash, which may cause damage to aircraft, equipment, or people. Foreign object debris at airports includes any object found in an inappropriate location. It is available at terminal gates, aprons, taxiways, runways, and run-up pads. Foreign object debris is sometimes abbreviated as FO Debris.

Foreign Object Damage – is the damage caused by the foreign object debris to equipment and aircraft parts and human injury or death. Damage to aircraft parts may be in the form of torn or punctured tires, punctured airframes, nicked turbine, or propeller blades, and, in rare instances, complete damage to aircraft or engine failure. The injury to airport employees may be caused by debris propelled by the jet blast, propeller, or helicopter’s rotor wash. Similarly, foreign object damage is sometimes abbreviated as FO Damage.

The impact of foreign object debris (FOD) remains a major concern in the aviation, defense, and space industries. It resembles a major potential source of risk for regulators and customers. Damage may influence both airframe and engines (or powerplants) of aircraft.

FOD may influence both fixed-wing aircraft and rotary-wing vehicles (helicopters). Moreover, both seaplanes and amphibious aircraft are vulnerable to FOD. Also, FOD may affect satellite, satellite launch vehicles, missiles, and spacecraft.

• Examples for civilian fixed-wing aircraft are: Boeing series (B-787, 777, 737), Airbus series (A320, 330, 380), Embraer series (Embraer-170, 190, 195), Tupolev series (Tu-124, 34, 154)
• Examples for military fixed-wing aircrafts: F-15, 16, 18, 22, 35, C-130, Airbus A400, Rafale A, B, C, Mig-21, 29, Sukhoi Su-25, 27, 30, 33, 37, 47, Shenyang J-31, Comac C919
• Examples for seaplanes are the Float boats Grumman G-111 Albatross and De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, and amphibious aircrafts ASW A-40 and Be-200
• Examples for civilian helicopters Airbus Super Puma, H125, H130, H135
• Examples for military helicopters MD Helicopters MH-6 Little Bird, Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche
• Examples for aero-engines are Rolls Royce Trent Family, General Electric GE90, Pratt & Whitney PWA4000, Russian PD-14, Kuznetsov NK-32.02
• Examples for space crafts are Space shuttle Atlantis and Discovery

Lack of FOD prevention plans often leads to significant problems with the quality or cost of the delivered product and ultimately threatens people’s lives.

The annual direct cost of FOD to the US aviation industry is $474 million and $1.26 billion to the global aviation industry. Direct plus indirect costs, such as flight delays, damaged equipment, reduced efficiency litigation, and others, cost the US aviation industry $5.2 billion annually and the global aviation industry $13.9 billion annually [1–3]. Owing to such extensive and costly damage...