Date of Award

2025-08-01

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Advisor(s)

Tzu-Liang (Bill) Tseng

Second Advisor

Yirong Lin

Abstract

The aviation industry incurs $14 billion per year in cost due to Foreign Object (FO) damage and the prevention and resolution techniques associated with foreign object debris. While aircraft loss, material scrap and rework contribute to that cost impact, a traditional approach to aircraft design and manufacturing which is based on human performance is also a significant driver. Failure modes and effects analysis of human based aircraft manufacturing reveals that two of the largest risks are associated with unknown potential for FO creation and the inability to recall or objectively provide evidence of FO conformity for cases of inquiry, learning, and sharing. These two main risks present an opportunity for digital technology insertion to confirm the hypothesis that 1) not all FO pose the same risk to an aircraft, 2) a Human-Machine (digital technology) approach can be more effective than solely human approaches, and 3) digital design and manufacturing process techniques can be utilized to prevent FO risk. The research shown in this dissertation will evaluate the hypothesis and address digital twin characterization of the human-machine approach, optimization for humans and machine-based roles in FO prevention, experimentation to evaluate design for FO risk, and validation testing for confirmation.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

73 p.

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Christopher Lee Colaw

Available for download on Thursday, February 19, 2026

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