A method for diagnosing component faults of jet engines is presented. It uses nonlinear gas path analysis techniques to determine the values of health parameters, with the help of a suitably formulated engine simulation model. The incentive of the method is to achieve the determination of the values of component health indices when a limited number of measured quantities is available, which do not allow the determination of all the fault indices simultaneously. A combinatorial approach is introduced, in order to circumvent the problem of the insufficient information for determining a full set of indices. After obtaining a set of possible solutions, a selection procedure is applied to isolate the ones that can give the actual fault identity. Quantification of the fault comes at a final step, when the faulty component has been identified. Different scenarios of faults on a twin spool partially mixed turbofan engine are considered in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. The limitations of the method are also discussed.

Issue Section:
Gas Turbines: Controls, Diagnostics, and Instrumentation
Keywords:
aerospace engines, combinatorial mathematics, fault diagnosis
Topics:
Engines, Noise (Sound), Fault diagnosis
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