Fault Identification and Health Monitoring of Gas Turbine Engines Using Hybrid Machine Learning-based Strategies

Ahealth monitoring scheme is developed in this work by using hybrid machine learning strategies to iden-tify the fault severity and assess the health status of the aircraft gas turbine engine that is subject to component degrada-tions that are caused by fouling and erosion.The proposed hybrid framework involves integrating both supervised recur-rent neural networks and unsupervised self-organizing maps methodologies,where the former is developed to extract ef-fective features that can be associated with the engine health condition and the latter is constructed for fault severity modeling and tracking of each considered degradation mode.Advantages of our proposed methodology are that it ac-complishes fault identification and health monitoring objectives by only discovering inherent health information that are available in the system I/O data at each operating point.The effectiveness of our approach is validated and justified with engine data under various degradation modes in compressors and turbines.

Numerical simulation method of surge experiments on gas turbine engines

In order to obtain the surge margin of an aero-engine during its operation,an engine surge experiment is required.A multi-dimensional simulation method for an aero-engine is established in this paper.The simulation of a surge experiment using high-pressure air-injection is then carried out on a turbo-shaft engine to obtain the surge boundary using this method.More specifically,firstly,a body-force model is employed to calculate the compressor performance owing to its capability of capturing the main three-dimensional features of compressor surge and avoiding excessive simulation time required by the traditional fully-three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS)method.Then,a one-dimensional model combining a lumped-parameter plenum model is used for the combustor to account for the propagation of pressure waves and the heat-release process,and a zero-dimensional throttle model is used to mimic the choking effect at the turbine nozzle.Finally,the air-injection system is modeled by imposing an injection boundary condition,which can be used conveniently in changing injection parameters.Based on the established method,the influences of different test parameters,such as the air-injection location,the pressure,the orifice size,the number of injection orifices,and the injection time duration on the surge characteristics and boundary are further studied,which offer effective guidance to optimize an actual experimental design.

Reheat effect on the improvement in efficiency of the turbine driven by pulse detonation

Due to the strong unsteadiness of pulse detonation,large flow losses are generated when the detonation wave interacts with the turbine blades,resulting in low turbine efficiency.Considering that the flow losses are dissipated into the gas as heat energy,some of them can be recycled during the expansion process in subsequent stages by the reheat effect,which should be helpful to improve the detonationdriven turbine efficiency.Taking this into account,this paper developed a numerical model of the detonation chamber coupled with a two-stage axial turbine,and a stoichiometric hydrogen-air mixture was used.The improvement in turbine efficiency attributable to the reheat effect was calculated by comparing the average efficiency of the stages with the efficiency of the two-stage turbine.The research indicated that the first stage was critical in suppressing the flow unsteadiness caused by pulse detonation,which stabilized the intake condition of the second stage and consequently allowed much of the flow losses from the first stage to be recycled,so that the efficiency of the two-stage turbine was improved.At a 95%confidence level,the efficiency improvement was stable at 4.5%—5.3%,demonstrating that the reheat effect is significant in improving the efficiency of the detonation-driven turbine.

Novel Method for Evaluating the Aging of Aviation Turbine Engine Oils via High-Temperature Bearing Deposit Tests

Aviation turbine engine oils require excellent thermal-oxidative stability because of their high-temperature environments.High-temperature bearing deposit testing is a mandatory method for measuring the thermal-oxidative performance of aviation lubricant oils,and the relevant apparatus was improved in the present study.Two different commercial aviation turbine engine oils were tested,one with standard performance(known as the SL oil)and the other with high thermal stability,and their thermal-oxidative stability characteristics were evaluated.After 100 h of high-temperature bearing testing,the SL oil was analyzed by using various analytical techniques to investigate its thermal-oxidative process in the bearing test,with its thermal-oxidative degradation mechanism also being discussed.The results indicate that the developed high-temperature bearing apparatus easily meets the test requirements of method 3410.1 in standard FED-STD-791D.The viscosity and total acid number(TAN)of the SL oil increased with the bearing test time,and various deposits were produced in the bearing test,with the micro-particles of the carbon deposits being sphere-like,rod-like,and sheet-like in appearance.The antioxidant additives in the oil were consumed very rapidly in the first 30 h of the bearing test,with N-phenyl-1-naphthylamine being consumed faster than dioctyldiphenylamine.Overall,the oil thermal-oxidative process involves very complex physical and chemical mechanisms.

Endwall aerodynamic losses from turbine components within gas turbine engines

A survey of research on aerodynamic loss investigations for turbine components of gas tuibine engines is presented.Experimental and numerically predicted results are presented from investigations undertaken over the past 65 plus years.Of particular interest are losses from the development of secondary flows from airfoil/endwall interactions.The most important of the airfoilAmdwall secondary flows are passage vortices,counter voitices,and corner vortices.The structure and development of these secondaiy flows are described as they affect aerodynamic perfonnance within and downstream of turbine passage flows in compressible,high speed flows with either subsonic or transonic Mach number distributions,as well as within low-speed,incompressible flows.Also discussed are methods of endwall contouring,and its consequences in regard to airfoil/endwall secondary flows.

Effects analysis on catalytic combustion characteristic of hydrogen/air in micro turbine engine by fuzzy grey relation method

In order to enhance catalytic combustion efficiency, a premixed hydrogen /air combustion model of the micro turbine engine is established under different excess air ratio, inlet velocity and heat transfer coefficient. And effects of inlet velocity, excess air coefficient and heat transfer coefficient on the catalytic combustion efficiency of the hydrogen have been analyzed by the FLUENT with CHEMKIN reaction mechanisms and the fuzzy grey relation theory. It is showed that inlet velocity has a more intuitive influence on the catalytic combustion efficiency of the hydrogen. A higher efficiency can be obtained with a lower inlet velocity. The optimum excess air coefficient is in the range of 0.94 to 1.0, the catalytic combustion efficiency of the hydrogen will be declined if the excess air coefficient exceeded 1.0. The effect of heat transfer coefficient on the catalytic combustion efficiency of the hydrogen mainly embodies in the case of the excess air coefficient exceeded 1.0, however, the effect will be declined if the heat transfer coefficient exceeded 4.0. The fuzzy grey relation degrees of the inlet velocity, heat transfer coefficient and excess air coefficient on the catalytic combustion efficiency of the hydrogen are 0.640945, 0.633214 and 0.547892 respectively.

Preparation and characterization of LPPS NiCoCrAlYTa coatings for gas turbine engine

NiCoCrAlYTa coatings have been deposited onto an aircraft gas turbine engine blade using a LPPS unit equipped with a computerized robot. Optimal processing conditions, including spray parameters, the trajectory of the robot, and the synchronized movements between the torch and the blade, have been developed for superior coating properties. Transferred arc treatment, providing a preheating and a cleaning of the substrate surface, enhances the adherence of the coatings to the substrate. The resulting LPPS coatings show dense and uniform characteristics with ideal hardness, and good corrosion resistance to cycle oxidation.

RELIABILITY ANALYSIS FOR AN AERO ENGINE TURBINE DISK UNDER LOW CYCLE FATIGUE CONDITION

Reliability analysis methods based on the linear damage accumulation law (LDAL) and load-life interference model are studied in this paper. According to the equal probability rule, the equivalent loads are derived, and the reliability analysis method based on load-life interference model and recurrence formula is constructed. In conjunction with finite element analysis (FEA) program, the reliability of an aero engine turbine disk under low cycle fatigue (LCF) condition has been analyzed. The results show the turbine disk is safety and the above reliability analysis methods are feasible.

PID Parameters for Tuning and Optimization of a Turbine EngineBased on the Simplex Search Method

A PID parameters tuning and optimization method for a turbine engine based on the simplex search method was proposed. Taking time delay of combustion and actuator into account, a simulation model of a PID control system for a turbine engine was developed. A performance index based on the integral of absolute error （IAE） was given as an objective function of optimization. In order to avoid the sensitivity that resulted from the initial values of the simplex search method, the traditional Ziegler-Nichols method was used to tune PID parameters to obtain the initial values at first, then the simplex search method was applied to optimize PID parameters for the turbine engine. Simulation results indicate that the simplex search method is a reasonable and effective method for PID controller parameters tuning and optimization.

Application of ultrasonic fatigue technology in very-high-cycle fatigue testing of aviation gas turbine engine blade materials:A review

The need for very-high-cycle fatigue(VHCF)testing up to 1010cycles of aviation gas turbine engine blade materials under combined mechanical loads and complex environments has encouraged the development of VHCF testing instrumentation and technology.This article begins with a comprehensive review of the existing available techniques that enable VHCF testing.Recent advances in ultrasonic fatigue testing(UFT)techniques are highlighted,containing their new capabilities and methods for single load,multiaxial load,variable amplitude fatigue,and combined cycle fatigue.New techniques for conducting UFT in high-temperature,humid environments,and corrosive environments are summarized.These developments in mechanical loading and environmental building techniques provide the possibility of laboratory construction for real service conditions of blade materials.New techniques that can be used for in situ monitoring of VHCF damage are summarized.Key issues in the UFT field are presented,and countermeasures are collated.Finally,the existing problems and future trends in the field are briefly described.

A comprehensive review of thermally sprayed abradable sealing coatings:Focusing on abradability

Modern aero and stationary gas turbine engines have been designed with much higher compressor-pressure ratios and thrust-weight ratios than earlier models,and these ratios are strongly influenced by the hot-running clearances between the rotating and stationary components.The main benefit of reduction in the clearances is efficiency gains,resulting in lowered fuel consumption and polluting gas emissions,with ecological and economic advantages.However,at these undersized clearances,some rubbing interactions are unavoidable,which can be accommodated by applying Abradable Sealing Coatings(ASCs)on the stationary inner surface.This paper reviews the commercially available abradable materials for thermal spraying at various application positions and temperatures.Emphasis is placed on the abradability and wear mechanisms involved.In addition,considering the tendency of SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composites replacing superalloys as hot section components,the future prospect of ceramic abradables based on Environmental Barrier Coatings(EBCs)in turbine stages is summarized and a new concept of"self-degradable ceramics"based on the corrosive steam environment is proposed for the purpose of high-temperature fillerfree abradables.

A novel model-based multivariable framework for aircraft gas turbine engine limit protection control

Control technologies are innovated to satisfy increasingly complicated control demands of gas turbine engines.In terms of limit protection control,a novel model-based multivariable limit protection control method,which is achieved by adaptive command reconstruction and multiplecontrol loop selection and switch logic,is proposed in this paper to address the problem of balancing smaller thrust loss and safe operations by comparing with widely-used Min-Max logic.Five different combination modes of control loops,which represent the online control loop of last time instant and that of current time instant,is analyzed.Different command reconstructions are designed for these modes,which is based on static gain conversion of amplitude beyond limits by using an onboard model.The double-prediction based control loop selection and switch logic is developed to choose a control loop appropriately by comparing converted amplitude beyond limits regardless of one or more parameters tending to exceed limits.The proposed method is implemented in a twin-spool turbofan engine to achieve limit protection with direct thrust control,and the loss of thrust is improved by about 30% in comparison with the loss of thrust caused by Min-Max logic when limit protection control is activated,which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Experimental study on impacts of fuel type on thermo-acoustic instability in a gas turbine model combustor

Effects of liquid fuel composition variations on characteristics of self-excited thermo-acoustic instabilities in a lean premixed,pre-vaporized gas turbine model combustor were experimentally studied.Test fuels included practical RP-3 jet fuel and its blending with iso-octane and n-dodecane,which were branched and linear alkanes respectively.Under the test conditions,dynamic pressure measurements indicated that the dominant instability frequency was highest for RP-3 flame,while RP-3/ndodecane flame exhibited the strongest instability strength.A further analysis showed that the instability frequency correlated well with the profiles of adiabatic flame temperature,and the strength of the instability highly depended on the ignition delay times of the fuels.Measurements of the flame structure and flow field with OH*chemiluminescence (CL) imaging and twodimensional particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques indicated that changes in the fuel composition did not alter the unstable modes and general sequences of flame-flow structure oscillations.Further power spectra and proper orthogonal decomposition(POD) analysis suggested that axial oscillations along with precessing vortex core (PVC) induced helical motion predominated periodic flame structure and flow field oscillations.

Time-triggered State-machine Reliable Software Architecture for Micro Turbine Engine Control

Time-triggered （TT） embedded software pattern is well accepted in aerospace industry for its high reliability. Fi-nite-state-machine （FSM） design method is widely used for its high efficiency and predictable behavior. In this paper, the time-triggered and state-machine combination software architecture is implemented for a 25 kg thrust micro turbine engine （MTE） used for unmanned aerial vehicle （UAV） system; also model-based-design development workflow for airworthiness software directive DO-178B is utilized. Experimental results show that time-triggered state-machine software architecture and development method could shorten the system development time, reduce the system test cost and make the turbine engine easily comply with the airworthiness rules.

Research on windmill starting characteristics of MTE-D micro turbine engine

Micro turbine engine （MTE） is an important kind of propulsion system for miniature unmanned aircraft or missiles, because of its better high-speed performance （than propeller propulsion） and higher propulsion efficiency （obviously than rockets）. Windmill start is a common air-starting mode used in micro turbine engine. The windmill starting characteristics are important to the practical use of micro turbine engine. In this paper, the windmill starting characteristics research for a 12 cm diameter （MTE-D） micro turbine engine is carried out by experiment and numerical simulation. The characteristic of rotor mechanical losses at low-speed condition is stud- ied, and the engine common working line of windmill starting process is obtained. Based on the engine windmill characteristics, the propane ignition characteristics under different inflow conditions are researched, and the envelope of propane ignition and propane flameout is determined. The experimental research of fuel supply and ignition characteristics is completed, and the envelope of fuel supply and ignition is obtained. The windmill stage, propane ignition stage, fuel ignition stage and acceleration process from idling-speed to 80% full speed of MTE-D micro turbine engine is optimized, and the optimization windmill starting parameters are collected. The successful wind-mill starting experiment under this condition with engine speed up to 80% full speed indicates that these starting parameters are reasonable. All the starting parameters of MTE-D micro turbine engine obtained in this work are dimensionless parameters, and the conclusions obtained in this study have some reference to other micro turbine engines with the similar structural form and starting process.

3D convolutional selective autoencoder for instability detection in combustion systems

While analytical solutions of critical(phase)transitions in dynamical systems are abundant for simple nonlinear systems,such analysis remains intractable for real-life dynamical systems.A key example is thermoacoustic insta-bility in combustion,where prediction or early detection of the onset of instability is a hard technical challenge,which needs to be addressed to build safer and more energy-efficient gas turbine engines powering aerospace and energy industries.The instabilities arising in combustion chambers of engines are mathematically too complex to model.To address this issue in a data-driven manner instead,we propose a novel deep learning architecture called 3D convolutional selective autoencoder(3D-CSAE)to detect the evolution of self-excited oscillations using spatiotemporal data,i.e.,hi-speed videos taken from a swirl-stabilized combustor(laboratory surrogate of gas turbine engine combustor).3D-CSAE consists of filters to learn,in a hierarchical fashion,the complex visual and dynamic features related to combustion instability from the training videos(i.e.,two spatial dimensions for the image frames and the third dimension for time).We train the 3D-CSAE on frames of videos obtained from a limited set of operating conditions.We select the 3D-CSAE hyper-parameters that are effective for characterizing hierarchical and multiscale instability structure evolution by utilizing the dynamic information available in the video.The proposed model clearly shows performance improvement in detecting the precursors and the onset of instability.The machine learning-driven results are verified with physics-based off-line measures.Advanced active control mechanisms can directly leverage the proposed online detection capability of 3D-CSAE to mitigate the adverse effects of combustion instabilities on the engine operating under various stringent requirements and conditions.

Redesign of an 11 cm-diameter Micro Diffuser

In order to improve the performances of an 11 cm-diameter turbine engine,this article suggests to substitute a new-style micro diffuser redesigned based on a new concept for the traditional diffuser having poor performances. The new diffuser comprises integral blades and splitters,which are taken for a series of ducts in designing. This article investigates the effects of the cross-section area distribution along the flow path on the redesigned diffuser＇s performances. Having furnished with the new diffuser in place of the original vaned one,the 11 cm-diameter prototype engine is tested on the rig for its performances. CFD and experiments have shown that the improved diffuser with the unchanged original size has gained excellent performance parameters of pressure coefficient over 0.65 and total pressure recovery coefficient over 0.9. Equipped with the redesigned micro diffuser,the engine increases the thrust by 11% and decreases the specific fuel consumption by 9%.

Application of wireless sensor networks to aircraft control and health management systems

Use of fly-by-wire technology for aircraft flight controls have resulted in an improved performance and reliability along with achieving reduction in control system weight. Implementation of full authority digital engine control has also resulted in more intelligent, reliable, light-weight aircraft engine control systems. Greater reduction in weight can be achieved by replacing the wire harness with a wireless communication network. The first step towards fly-by-wireless control systems is likely to be the introduction of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs are already finding a variety of applications for both safety-critical and nonsafety critical distributed systems. Some of the many potential benefits of using WSN for aircraft systems include weight reduction, ease of maintenance and an increased monitoring capability. This paper discusses the application of WSN for several aircraft systems such as distributed aircraft engine control, aircraft flight control, aircraft engine and structural health monitoring systems. A brief description of each system is presented along with a discussion on the technological challenges. Future research directions for application of WSN in aircraft systems are also discussed.

A double integral method for quantitative evaluation of influence on thin-walled casing response caused by bearing uncertainties

Bearings in a gas turbine engine are the key connecting components transmitting force and motion between rotors and thin-walled flexible casing.The bearing stiffness and damping of squeeze film damper(SFD)nearby bearings are easily affected by many factors,such as assembly process,load condition and temperature variation,resulting in uncertainties.The uncertainties may influence the response of the measuring point on the casing.Hence,it is difficult to carry out the fault diagnosis,whole machine balancing and other related works.In this paper,a double integral quantitative evaluation method is proposed to simultaneously analyze the influence of two uncertain dynamic coefficients on the response amplitude and phase of casing measuring points.Meanwhile,the coupling influence of stiffness and damping accompanied by dramatic changes with rotational speeds are essentially discussed.As an example,a typical engine bearing-casing system with complex dynamic characteristics is analyzed.The impact of uncertain dynamic coefficients on the unbalance response is quantitatively evaluated.