Fault management system for gas turbine engines
First Claim
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1. A fault management method for a dual channel electronic engine control system, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) providing an electronic engine control system having a first channel and a second channel, wherein each of the first and second channels have a plurality of components associated therewith each having a predicted failure rate, the components in the second channel being substantially identical to the components in the first channel;
b) designating, for each of the plurality of components in the first channel, which of the plurality of components in the second channel are single thread components required to cover a failure of that particular first channel component;
c) detecting whether any one of the plurality of components in the first channel have failed;
d) estimating a total failure rate based on the failure rates for all of the single thread components required to cover any failed components; and
e) predicting the time remaining to fix the electronic control system faults based on the total failure rate.
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a “real time” Time Limited Dispatch (TLD) fault management system and method for evaluating the operational suitability of an engine'"'"'s electronic control system. The TLD system disclosed herein uses a software algorithm to compute or predict the probability of mission success for a given upcoming mission length (e.g., two hours) and the time remaining to repair control system faults before dispatch is disallowed or the flight suspended, regardless of the probability of success.
46 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A fault management method for a dual channel electronic engine control system, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) providing an electronic engine control system having a first channel and a second channel, wherein each of the first and second channels have a plurality of components associated therewith each having a predicted failure rate, the components in the second channel being substantially identical to the components in the first channel;
b) designating, for each of the plurality of components in the first channel, which of the plurality of components in the second channel are single thread components required to cover a failure of that particular first channel component;
c) detecting whether any one of the plurality of components in the first channel have failed;
d) estimating a total failure rate based on the failure rates for all of the single thread components required to cover any failed components; and
e) predicting the time remaining to fix the electronic control system faults based on the total failure rate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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9. A fault management model for a dual channel electronic engine control system, the model comprising:
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a) an electronic engine control system having a first channel and a second channel, wherein the first and second channels have a plurality of components associated therewith each having an assigned failure rate, the components in the second channel being substantially identical to the components in the first channel;
b) means for designating for each of the plurality of components in the first channel which of the plurality of components in the second channel are single thread components required to cover a failure of that particular first channel component;
c) means for detecting whether any of the plurality of components in the first channel have failed;
d) means for estimating a total failure rate based on the failure rates for all of the single thread components required to cover any failed components; and
e) means for predicting the time remaining to fix the electronic control system faults based on the total failure rate.
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16. A fault management method for electronic engine control systems, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) providing an electronic engine control system having a first plurality of components for normal engine control and second plurality of components which are substantially redundant to the first plurality of components, each of the first and second plurality of components having an assigned failure rate;
b) designating for each of the first plurality of components which of the second plurality of components are single thread components required to cover a failure of that particular first component;
c) iteratively detecting whether any of the first plurality of components have failed;
d) iteratively estimating a total failure rate based on the failure rates for all of the single thread components required to cover the failed first plurality of components; and
e) iteratively predicting the time remaining to fix the electronic control system failure based on the total failure rate.
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Specification