Gas turbine engine health determination

• US 10,024,187 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2015
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Soares, Jr., Alvaro Jose, McKenna, David Joseph, Asack, Marta Katarzyna
• Primary Examiner(s): Jos, Basil T.
• Application Number:
  US14/924,928
• Publication Number:
  US 20160273379A1
• Time in Patent Office: 993 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0085 Devices for aircraft health monitoring, e.g. monitoring flutter or vibration
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/60 Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 21/003 Arrangements for testing or measuring for measuring vibrations G01H
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2220/323 for aircraft propulsion, e.g. jet engines
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2220/329 in helicopters
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2260/80 Diagnostics
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0254 based on a quantitative model, e.g. mathematical relationships between inputs and outputs; functions: observer, Kalman filter, residual calculation, Neural Networks
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0294 Optimizing process, e.g. process efficiency, product quality

Abstract

A method is provided for determining an updated engine health factor of an aircraft engine. The method includes determining an engine health condition indicative of an engine health during operation of the aircraft engine. The method also includes determining a baseline engine power model for the aircraft engine and modifying the baseline engine power model using the determined engine condition. The method also determines an engine health factor based on a modified engine power model.

Claims

1. A method for determining an engine health factor of an aircraft engine comprising:

determining, by one or more control devices, an engine condition indicative of an engine health during operation of the aircraft engine, the engine condition comprising a temperature value;

accessing, by the one or more control devices, a baseline engine power model representative of a nominal aircraft engine with a nominal degradation;

wherein the baseline engine power model indicates a relationship between an engine torque and a turbine temperature;

modifying, by the one or more control devices, the baseline engine power model using the determined engine condition; and

determining, by the one or more control devices, an engine health factor including a maximum engine torque of the aircraft engine based on the modified engine power model and a maximum turbine temperature.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the engine health factor includes an engine torque factor.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the engine condition indicative of an engine health comprises determining, by the one or more control devices, a plurality of engine condition values during operation of the aircraft engine, and wherein modifying the baseline engine power model using the determined engine condition comprises modifying, by the one or more control devices, the baseline engine power model using the plurality of engine condition values.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the engine condition includes a plurality of torque values of the aircraft engine determined during operation of the aircraft engine.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising

correcting, by the one or more control devices, the plurality of torque values of the aircraft engine determined during operation of the aircraft engine to a normalized condition.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the baseline engine power model of the aircraft is an engine torque to turbine inlet temperature model defining a baseline engine line.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein modifying the baseline engine power model includes plotting, by the one or more control devices, the plurality of corrected torque values and updating, by the one or more control devices, the baseline engine line to an updated engine line to reflect the plurality of corrected torque values.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining the engine torque factor based on the modified engine power model includes extrapolating, by the one or more control devices, a maximum engine torque available from the updated engine line.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising

determining, by the one or more control devices, a correction factor for the engine condition, and wherein modifying the baseline engine power model includes modifying, by the one or more control devices, the baseline engine power model using the determined engine condition and the correction factor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the correction factor incorporates one or more of a current icing factor or a current bleed air factor.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the correction factor incorporates a current bleed air factor, and wherein the current bleed air factor is a binary bleed air factor.

12. A computing device comprising one or more processors and at least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium, the computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor perform operations, the operations comprising:

determining an engine condition indicative of an engine health of an aircraft engine during operation of the aircraft engine, the engine condition comprising a temperature value;

accessing a baseline engine power model representative of a nominal aircraft engine with a nominal degradation;

wherein the baseline engine power model indicates a relationship between an engine torque and a turbine temperature;

modifying the baseline engine power model using the determined engine condition; and

determining an engine health factor including a current maximum engine torque of the aircraft engine based on the modified engine power model and a maximum turbine temperature.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the engine health factor includes an engine torque factor, and wherein the engine condition includes a plurality of torque values of the aircraft engine determined during operation of the aircraft engine.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

correcting the plurality of torque values of the aircraft engine determined during operation of the aircraft engine to a normalized condition.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the baseline engine power model of the aircraft is an engine torque to turbine inlet temperature model defining a baseline engine line.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein modifying the baseline engine power model includes plotting the plurality of corrected torque values and updating the baseline engine line to an updated engine line to reflect the plurality of corrected torque values, and wherein determining the engine torque factor based on the modified engine power model includes extrapolating a maximum engine torque available from the updated engine line.

17. A method for determining an engine health factor of an aircraft engine comprising the steps of:

determining, by one or more control devices, one or more engine limit factors during operation of the aircraft engine;

determining, by the one or more control devices, one or more ambient conditions;

correcting, by the one or more control devices, the one or more determined engine limit factors to a normalized condition;

determining, by the one or more control devices, a baseline engine health factor using a baseline engine power model, based on the one or more determined engine limit factors corrected to the normalized condition, wherein, the baseline engine health factor is representative of a nominal degradation of a nominal aircraft engine; and

modifying, by the one or more control devices, the determined baseline engine health factor to a real-time engine health factor based on the determined ambient conditions, using a modified engine power model, wherein the modified engine power model is based on the baseline engine power model and the determined one or more engine limit factors;

wherein the steps of modifying comprise;

accessing, by the one or more control devices, a baseline engine power model for the aircraft engine which indicates a relationship between an engine torque and a turbine temperature;

modifying, by the one or more control devices, the baseline engine power model using the determined engine condition; and

determining, by the one or more control devices, an engine health factor including a current maximum engine torque of the aircraft engine based on the modified engine power model and a maximum turbine temperature;

wherein it is determined whether the aircraft engine needs to be maintained or overhauled based on the current maximum engine torque.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the engine health factor includes a measure of power available.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein correcting the one or more determined engine limit factors to a normalized condition includes correcting, by the one or more control devices, the one or more determined engine limit factors to a normal day condition based on the determined ambient conditions.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the baseline engine health factor is a measure of power available at the normalized condition, and wherein the real-time engine health factor is a measure of the power available at the ambient conditions.