Dr Munuswamy,
Could you please explain what a 'SmartWire' is please?
I have found multiple descriptions, none of which are convincingly *required* for aircraft.
A wire which is capable to manage effects from bending, chaffing, hotspot etc. The reason is, you may know, the aircraft wiring length may go upto few kilometers. Due to fault in wiring in the fuel tank of SWISS AIR 711 (TWA 810), it met an accident many people lost their lives. Please let me know if you need more information.
Dr Munuswamy,
I presume then that the wire cladding would incorporate a damage-sensing material or structure that could be interrogated? I have heard of such schemes for whole fuselages and some wing structures, but as to your original question, I think that the answer is 'they are not'.
Such devices are no more 'necessary' than seat belts on cars.
They *are* a good idea, but the question of their implementation becomes an economic and engineering question - not simply one of whether it should be done or not. It depends on the prevalence of false-positives reported by the sensors,
their sensitivity, their mass, size, cost, etc.
Mr. James Garry, the research is ongoing. Some researchers already published their work on SmartWires for aircraft. Even myself when I was in USA, I prepared 3 pages proposal regarding SmartWires. As you said, we yet to find suitable solution for the above problem. Thanks.
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