O-140 Munitions Health Monitoring - How to Manage the transition?

Studies on health monitoring of munitions show it’s possible to register data of interest like temperature, relative humidity, vibration, shock, atmospheric pressure ..., during a long period of time, and by using different technologies (data logger, RFID, MEMS ...). It is also possible to transfer these data by different means (wireless, SD card, bar code reader, directly via a network) to a computer where they can be analysed to provide useful information on the environment that the munitions have experienced. An ultimate goal is to be able to use this information to enable informed decisions related to the ageing of munitions. However, ageing is a complex phenomenon and the link between the environment and critical failure modes is complex and requires additional studies at the munitions level to maximise the use of the data. Moreover, the integration of all these new technologies with understanding of the science of ageing at the munitions level is one of the key points of the process.

This paper will try to explain how to use all these data, giving some indication on what is useful to measure, and try to highlight some potential integration issues.