Monitoring of aircraft cabin particulate matter concentrations using a wireless sensor network

The semi-enclosed and pressurized nature of the aircraft cabin results in a highly dynamic environment. The dynamic conditions establish spatiotemporal dependent environmental characteristics. Characterization of aircraft cabin environmental and bleed-air conditions have traditionally been done with stand-alone measurement systems which, by their very nature, cannot provide the necessary sensor coverage in such an environment. To this purpose, a prototype wireless sensor network system has been developed that can be deployed in the aircraft cabin environment. Each sensor node in the system incorporates the ability to measure common aircraft contaminants such as particulate matter and carbon dioxide, along with other key environmental factors such as temperature, air pressure, humidity, and sound pressure level. The wireless sensor network enables the collection of time-correlated results from the aircraft cabin, passing sensor data to a central collection point for storage or real-time monitoring. This paper discusses the results of testing this sensor system in a mockup of the Boeing 767 aircraft cabin environment. In this series of tests, both particulate matter and carbon dioxide were introduced into the simulated aircraft environment and measured using an array of 16 wirelessly connected sensor nodes. Two different arrangements of sensor nodes targeted both a two-dimensional plane across the aircraft cabin space and a localized three-dimensional space centered on two rows of the cabin. The test results show successful simultaneous tracking of the particulate matter and carbon dioxide concentrations as they disperse over time.