Bombardier Global 7500 Fatigue Test Cycle Rate Commissioning to ¼ Life

This paper describes the commissioning campaign on the Bombardier Global 7500 durability and damage tolerance test (DADTT), as conducted by the experimental department of Bombardier Aerospace (BAEX). A rapid test rig commissioning time and smooth increase of cycle rate was a key objective in order to meet the ¼ life milestone for certification. Due to schedule changes, the time available for commissioning the loading apparatus and achieving the initial target ¼ life milestone was reduced from the original plan, with approximately three months’ time allocated to this goal. In anticipation of this aggressive testing milestone, the BAEX test team employed several new approaches and techniques to the DADTT that had not been applied on previous BAEX fatigue tests. A technical liaison from the National Research Council Canada was also on-site prior to and during commissioning activities.

This paper opens with a summary of the objectives of the G7500 DADTT test conducted at BAEX, and focuses in particular on the techniques and approaches used by the BAEX team to achieve a rapid, efficient and productive test commissioning phase, such that the target cycling rate was achieved in a faster timeframe than anticipated. These techniques included: judicious data-informed hydraulic and pneumatic hardware selections; informed design choices to minimize mass and actuator count; hydraulic and load controller training and procedure generation on a dedicated independent test platform; extensive hardware-in-the-loop tuning to maximize performance; and using the global finite element model (GFEM) of the test article, coupled with a simple pneumatic model, to better estimate initial test load transition times.

As a result of the techniques employed, the ¼ life milestone was successfully achieved, contributing to the final certification package for the world’s largest purpose built business aircraft, which received Type Certification from Transport Canada on September 28, 2018.