Prognostics and health management of FAST cable-net structure based on digital twin technology

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) will be fully commissioned later in 2019. Once commissioned, operation and maintenance of FAST will be the most prominent task. The unique working mode of active shape-changing of FAST cable-net structure makes the traditional maintenance way, which combines routine inspection with preventive maintenances not only expensive, but also unable to effectively avoid potential risks in operations. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an economical and reliable operation/maintenance technology for FAST cable-net structure. In this paper, a Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) system is proposed based on the advanced Digital Twin (DT) technology. Through the finite element analysis of DT model, the current safety status of FAST cable-net is evaluated, and the fatigue life of components in the cable-net is predicted. Hence Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) of FAST cable-net structure can be realized. The PHM system described in this paper can effectively guarantee the healthy and safe operation of the FAST cable-net structure, greatly improve the maintenance efficiency and reduce the cost for maintenance works.