Washing aircraft is a routine maintenance chore that is intended to reduce corrosion damage by removing corrodents. However, this exercise incurs costs that, when applied to a fleet, are substantial. The US Air Force (USAF) algorithm for setting wash intervals was based on an environmental severity index and an implied set of economic assumptions. A novel approach is described based on a corrosion model, explicit economic parameters, maintenance records and ground-based corrosivity measurements. A time-averaged maintenance factor can be calculated from maintenance records of aircraft washed at a regular interval. This factor depends on the age and type of aircraft, the care given other than washes, the corrosivity the plane is exposed to and the diligence of the maintenance efforts. The economic parameters considered are the cost per wash, the cost of unavailability during a wash and the charge rate for maintenance. To accommodate variations in corrosivity between repairs, the maintenance factor can be calculated for each period that corrosivity is measured.

Subject
Costs, Corrosion rate, Aircraft, Corrosivity, Mass loss, Inspection, Algorithms, Repair, Washing, Deposition rate, Corrosion monitoring, Maintenance, Types of corrosion
Keywords:
aircraft washing, corrosion damage, economic model, optimising wash interval, maintenance
Government work published by the Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) with permission of the author(s). Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
2007
GOV
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