Remaining useful life prediction of aero-engines based on random-coefficient regression model considering random failure threshold

Remaining useful life(RUL)prediction is one of the most crucial components in prognostics and health management(PHM)of aero-engines.This paper proposes an RUL prediction method of aero-engines considering the randomness of failure threshold.Firstly,a random-coefficient regression(RCR)model is used to model the degradation process of aeroengines.Then,the RUL distribution based on fixed failure threshold is derived.The prior parameters of the degradation model are calculated by a two-step maximum likelihood estimation(MLE)method and the random coefficient is updated in real time under the Bayesian framework.The failure threshold in this paper is defined by the actual degradation process of aeroengines.After that,a expectation maximization(EM)algorithm is proposed to estimate the underlying failure threshold of aeroengines.In addition,the conditional probability is used to satisfy the limitation of failure threshold.Then,based on above results,an analytical expression of RUL distribution of aero-engines based on the RCR model considering random failure threshold(RFT)is derived in a closed-form.Finally,a case study of turbofan engine is used to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the RUL prediction method and the parameters estimation method of failure threshold proposed.

An Inter-Shaft Bearing Fault Diagnosis Dataset from an Aero-Engine System

In this paper,the aero-engine test with inter-shaft bearing fault is carried out,and a dataset is proposed for the first time based on the vibration signal of rotors and casings.First,a test rig based on a real aero-engine is established,driven by motors and equipped with a lubricating system.Then,the aero-engine is disassembled and assembled following the specification process,and the inter-shaft bearing with artificial fault is replaced.Next,the aero-engine test is conducted at 28 groups of high-and low-pressure speeds.Six measuring points are arranged,including two displacement sensors to test the displacement vibration signals of the low-pressure rotor and four acceleration sensors to test the acceleration vibration signals of the casing.The test results are integrated into an inter-shaft bearing fault dataset.Finally,based on the dataset in this paper,frequency spectrum,envelope spectrum,CNN,LSTM,and TST are used for fault diagnosis,and the results are compared with those of CWRU and XJTU datasets.The results show that the characteristic fault frequency cannot be found directly in the spectrum and envelope spectrum corresponding to this paper’s dataset but in CWRU and XJTU datasets.Using CNN,LSTM,and TST for fault diagnosis of the dataset in this paper,the accuracy is 83.13%,85.41%,and 71.07%,respectively,much lower than the diagnosis results of CWRU and XJTU datasets.It can be seen that the dataset in this paper is closer to the actual fault diagnosis situation and is a more challenging dataset.This dataset provides a new benchmark for the validation of fault diagnosis methods.Mendeley data:https://github.com/HouLeiHIT/HIT-dataset.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH TEMPERATURESTRUCTURAL MATERIALS FOR AERO-ENGINE APPLICATIONS

The status of research, development of superalloys and materials processing ＆ fabrication technologies for aero-engine applications in China Aviation Industry, with an emphasis on recent achievements at BIAM including directionally solidified and single crystal superalloys for blade and vane applications, wrought superqlloys for aero-engine disks and rings, and powder metalurgy （PM） superalloys for high performance disk applications were described. It was also reviewed the development of new class of high temperature structural materials, such as structural intermetallics, and advanced material processing technologies including rapid solidification, spray forming and so on. The trends of research and development of the above mentioned superalloys and processing technologies are outlined. Cast, wrought and PM superalloys are the workhorse materials for the hot section of current aero-engines. New high temperature materials and advanced processing technologies have been and will be the subject of study. It is speculated that high performance, high purity and low cost superalloys and technologies will play key roles in aero-engines.

Convergence Analysis of the Numerical Solution for Cathode Design of Aero-engine Blades in Electrochemical Machining

As a main difficult problem encountered in electrochemical machining （ECM）, the cathode design is tackled, at present, with various numerical analysis methods such as finite difference, finite element and boundary element methods. Among them, the finite element method presents more flexibility to deal with the irregularly shaped workpieces. However, it is very difficult to ensure the convergence of finite element numerical approach. This paper proposes an accurate model and a finite element numerical approach of cathode design based on the potential distribution in inter-electrode gap. In order to ensure the convergence of finite element numerical approach and increase the accuracy in cathode design, the cathode shape should be iterated to eliminate the design errors in computational process. Several experiments are conducted to verify the machining accuracy of the designed cathode. The experimental results have proven perfect convergence and good computing accuracy of the proposed finite element numerical approach by the high surface quality and dimensional accuracy of the machined blades.

Machining the Integral Impeller and Blisk of Aero-Engines:A Review of Surface Finishing and Strengthening Technologies

The integral impeller and blisk of an aero-engine are high performance parts with complex structure and made of difficult-to-cut materials. The blade surfaces of the integral impeller and blisk are functional surfaces for power transmission, and their surface integrity has signif- icant effects on the aerodynamic efficiency and service life of an aero-engine. Thus, it is indispensable to finish and strengthen the blades before use. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of studies on finishing and strengthening technologies for the impeller and blisk of aero-engines. The review includes independent and inte- grated finishing and strengthening technologies and dis- cusses advanced rotational abrasive flow machining with back-pressure used for finishing the integral impeller and blisk. A brief assessment of future research problems and directions is also presented.

Aero-engine Blade Fatigue Analysis Based on Nonlinear Continuum Damage Model Using Neural Networks

Fatigue life and reliability of aero-engine blade are always of important significance to flight safety.The establishment of damage model is one of the key factors in blade fatigue research.Conventional linear Miner＇s sum method is not suitable for aero-engine because of its low accuracy.A back propagation neutral network（BPNN） based on the combination of Levenberg-Marquardt（LM） and finite element method（FEM） is used to describe process of nonlinear damage accumulation behavior in material and predict fatigue life of the blade.Fatigue tests of standard specimen made from TC4 are carried out to obtain material fatigue parameters and S-N curve.A nonlinear continuum damage model（CDM）,based on the BPNN with one hidden layer and ten neurons,is built to investigate the nonlinear damage accumulation behavior,in which the results from the tests are used as training set.Comparing with linear models and previous nonlinear models,BPNN has the lowest calculation error in full load range.It has significant accuracy when the load is below 500 MPa.Especially,when the load is 350 MPa,the calculation error of the BPNN is only 0.4%.The accurate model of the blade is built by using 3D coordinate measurement technology.The loading cycle in fatigue analysis is defined from takeoff to cruise in 10 min,and the load history is obtained from finite element analysis（FEA）.Then the fatigue life of the compressor blade is predicted by using the BPNN model.The final fatigue life of the aero-engine blade is 6.55 104 cycles（10 916 h） based on the BPNN model,which is effective for the virtual design of aero-engine blade.

Application of multi-outputs LSSVR by PSO to the aero-engine model

Considering the modeling errors of on-board self-tuning model in the fault diagnosis of aero-engine, a new mechanism for compensating the model outputs is proposed. A discrete series predictor based on multi-outputs least square support vector regression （LSSVR） is applied to the compensation of on-board self-tuning model of aero-engine, and particle swarm optimization （PSO） is used to the kernels selection of multi-outputs LSSVR. The method need not reconstruct the model of aero-engine because of the differences in the individuals of the same type engines and engine degradation after use. The concrete steps for the application of the method are given, and the simulation results show the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Aero-engine Thrust Estimation Based on Ensemble of Improved Wavelet Extreme Learning Machine

Aero-engine direct thrust control can not only improve the thrust control precision but also save the operating cost by reducing the reserved margin in design and making full use of aircraft engine potential performance.However,it is a big challenge to estimate engine thrust accurately.To tackle this problem,this paper proposes an ensemble of improved wavelet extreme learning machine(EW-ELM)for aircraft engine thrust estimation.Extreme learning machine(ELM)has been proved as an emerging learning technique with high efficiency.Since the combination of ELM and wavelet theory has the both excellent properties,wavelet activation functions are used in the hidden nodes to enhance non-linearity dealing ability.Besides,as original ELM may result in ill-condition and robustness problems due to the random determination of the parameters for hidden nodes,particle swarm optimization(PSO)algorithm is adopted to select the input weights and hidden biases.Furthermore,the ensemble of the improved wavelet ELM is utilized to construct the relationship between the sensor measurements and thrust.The simulation results verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the developed method and show that aero-engine thrust estimation using EW-ELM can satisfy the requirements of direct thrust control in terms of estimation accuracy and computation time.

Bifurcation analysis of aero-engine's rotor system under constant maneuver load

When an aircraft is hovering or doing a dive-hike flight at a fixed speed, a constant additional inertial force will be induced to the rotor system of the aero-engine, which can be called a constant maneuver load. Take hovering as an example. A Jeffcott rotor system with a biased rotor and several nonlinear elastic supports is modeled, and the vibration characteristics of the rotor system under a constant maneuver load are analytically studied. By using the multiple-scale method, the differential equations of the system are solved, and the bifurcation equations are obtained. Then, the bifurcations of the system are analyzed by using the singularity theory for the two variables. In the EG-plane, where E refers to the eccentricity of the rotor and G represents the constant maneuver load, two hysteresis point sets and one double limit point set are obtained. The bifurcation diagrams are also plotted. It is indicated that the resonance regions of the two variables will shift to the right when the aircraft is maneuvering. Furthermore, the movement along the horizontal direction is faster than that along the vertical direction. Thus, the different overlapping modes of the two resonance regions will bring about different bifurcation modes due to the nonlinear coupling effects. This result lays a theoretical foundation for controlling the stability of the aero-engine＇s rotor system under a maneuver load.

Failure Assessment of Aero-engine Support Structure due to Blade-off

Aero-engine blade-off event could cause serious malfunction and endanger flight safety,which is an important issue widely concerned for a long period.This paper presents a comprehensive review on the regulation requirements,the major research methods and status at home and abroad.Firstly,the relevant certification regulations and standards about aero-engine structure safety due to blade-off event were overviewed and the research gaps between the abroad and the domestic were compared.Then,the simulation and experimental methodologies on aero-engine supporting structures undertake abnormal load due to blade-off event were discussed as major issue.Finally,the safety certification verification technology system for aero-engine support structures during blade-off event was proposed.

H∞ Tracking Control for Switched LPV Systems With an Application to Aero-Engines

This paper focuses on the H_∞ model reference tracking control for a switched linear parameter-varying(LPV)model representing an aero-engine. The switched LPV aeroengine model is built based on a family of linearized models.Multiple parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions technique is used to design a tracking control law for the desirable H_∞ tracking performance. A control synthesis condition is formulated in terms of the solvability of a matrix optimization problem.Simulation result on the aero-engine model shows the feasibility and validity of the switching tracking control scheme.

Reliability Based Design Optimization of Aero-Engine Spindle Ball Bearings

Aero-engine spindle ball bearings work in harsh conditions which are affected by relatively complex stresses. One of the key factors which affects bearing performance is its structure. In this paper,we used reliability based design optimization method to solve the structure design problem of aero-engine spindle ball bearings.Compared with the optimization design method, the value of equivalent dynamic load using reliability optimization design method was the least by MATLAB simulation. Also the design solutions show that the optimized structure possesses higher reliability than the original solution.

Aero-Engine Surge Fault Diagnosis Using Deep Neural Network

Deep learning techniques have outstanding performance in feature extraction and modelfitting.In thefield of aero-engine fault diagnosis,the intro-duction of deep learning technology is of great significance.The aero-engine is the heart of the aircraft,and its stable operation is the primary guarantee of the aircraft.In order to ensure the normal operation of the aircraft,it is necessary to study and diagnose the faults of the aero-engine.Among the many engine fail-ures,the one that occurs more frequently and is more hazardous is the wheeze,which often poses a great threat toflight safety.On the basis of analyzing the mechanism of aero-engine surge,an aero-engine surge fault diagnosis method based on deep learning technology is proposed.In this paper,key sensor data are obtained by analyzing different engine sensor data.An aero-engine surge data-set acquisition algorithm(ASDA)is proposed to sample the fault and normal points to generate the training set,validation set and test set.Based on neural net-work models such as one-dimensional convolutional neural network(1D-CNN),convolutional neural network(RNN),and long-short memory neural network(LSTM),different neural network optimization algorithms are selected to achieve fault diagnosis and classification.The experimental results show that the deep learning technique has good effect in aero-engine surge fault diagnosis.The aero-engine surge fault diagnosis network(ASFDN)proposed in this paper achieves better results.Through training,the network achieves more than 99%classification accuracy for the test set.

Recognition and practice on remanufacturing engineering management of military aero-engines

The technologies of design, manufacture and MRO （maintenance, repair and overhaul） tor the mili- tary aero-engines, particularly for the fighters, are much more difficult to be mastered than those for any other aero-engines. They have been monopolized by only a few countries and the core technologies have never been transferred due to high risk, high investment, high barrier and high cost. Therefore, our country has long relied on mapping and copying the others＇ engines to satisfy the domestic demand due to not having our own indepen- dent technologies for the design and manufacture of military aero-engines. However, through over 20 years of unremitting effort, the independent MRO has been achieved for all the Chinese fighter engines, covering in- R＆D （research and development） and in-service engines; and the MRO technologies, capabilities, quality, cost-efficiency have reached or exceeded those of original manufacturers. It has grown out of nothing, and then from weak to strong. In particular, dozens of projects concerning the R＆D and engineering application of re- manufacturing have obtained the independent intellectual property rights and are playing an irreplaceable role in achieving leaping improvement of independent MRO for Chinese military aero-engines.

Power System Analysis of an Aero-Engine

The aim of this study is analyzed in detail for better understanding of energy and power of an aero-engine. In this regard, this study presents energy equations were applied to the turbofan engine components. The engine has a thrust range of 82 to 109 kN. It consists of fan, axial low pressure compressor (LPC), axial high pressure compressor (HPC), an annular combustion chamber, high-pressure turbine (HPT) and low pressure turbine (LPT). The results show that power of the engine flow approaches a maximum value to be 82.85 MW in the combustor outlet, while minimum power is observed at LPC inlet with the value of 1.37 MW. Furthermore, important parameters of the engine are also analyzed from reverse-engineering method. It is expected that results of this study will be beneficial of power, cogeneration and aero-propulsive generation systems in similar environment.

隐蔽式安装布局涡轴发动机安装损失的飞行试验

为确定轻小型直升机飞行性能评估所需的发动机安装性能损失,对隐蔽式安装布局的涡轴发动机进行了不同直升机飞行姿态的飞行试验。基于试飞数据建立了一套真实飞行条件下涡轴发动机安装损失的计算流程,对比分析了在不同高度和速度下稳定平飞、有/无地效悬停、有/无地效悬停回转、不同高度爬升、不同高度下滑、盘旋、侧后飞等飞行姿态对涡轴发动机安装损失的影响。结果表明:隐蔽式安装布局的涡轴发动机安装损失主要来自进气温升,不同飞行姿态下功率损失为4.3%~20.7%,耗油率相对增量为1.2%~132.7%;功率损失随飞行高度的变化规律不明显,随飞行速度的增大而减小;耗油率相对增量随飞行高度和飞行速度的增大而减小;在近地面的低速飞行姿态下安装损失最小,且受地效影响较小;风速和风向对安装损失的影响较大。

共轴高速直升机/发动机交联控制方法研究

针对常规的旋翼总距前馈方法难以有效实现共轴高速直升机/发动机快速交联控制的问题,本文提出并设计了适用于共轴高速直升机/发动机的新型交联控制方法。首先,基于共轴高速直升机/发动机综合仿真平台,揭示不同运行工况下,共轴双旋翼、推力桨操纵输入、发动机燃油输入变化规律;其次,在此基础上,提出了综合考虑共轴双旋翼、推力桨桨距的增益自调节交联控制方法,并针对不同的运行工况,开展了数值仿真验证。结果表明,在中等、高速度飞行时,相比于常规的旋翼总距前馈,新型交联控制方法可使动力涡轮转速的超调与下垂量减小36%与70%,可使直升机/发动机快速交联控制品质更优,进一步提升直升机/发动机综合系统的控制品质。

某型涡轴发动机喘振故障分析

针对某型涡轴发动机喘振故障,通过稳态测试数据和动态测试数据的详细分析对比,确定了故障时序,准确定位故障原因为燃油加温条件下低压泵腔体结构堆积空气,进而引起燃油压力持续掉压且压力偏低所致。燃油压力不足导致供油偏少,引起发动机迅速掉转,电子控制系统为维持发动机动力涡轮恒定的调节逻辑,急剧供油,导致富油燃烧,急剧升高的燃气温度导致燃气涡轮进口形成“热节流”,引起发动机喘振。通过半物理仿真和整机试验进行了故障复现验证,并提出了改进措施。该故障的分析和排除能为其他型号排故和燃油泵的设计提供一定的参考。

涡轴航空发动机转速的自适应模糊控制研究

常规的涡轴航空发动机转速的自适应模糊控制技术,对发动机转速扭矩参数的调整不太精准,导致转速控制效果较差;因此,提出涡轴航空发动机转速的自适应模糊控制研究;文章首先对逻辑进行模糊化处理,得到相应的隶属度函数,对其进行模糊推理,并采用重心法进行去模糊化;将模糊子集的参数作为控制器的主要参数,形成涡轴航空发动机转速模糊控制器;再基于此,构建转速模糊控制器系统结构,以便后续对实施自适应模糊控制;最后对变化率的调整规则进行设计,将转速波动控制在较小的范围内,并建立参数调整规则表,按照模糊自整定数值关系,对发动机转速扭矩参数进行精确调整,从而对发动机转速进行自适应模糊控制;仿真结果表明,使用文章设计的方法,对涡轴航空发动机转速进行自适应模糊进行控制后,能够较好地将发动机转速控制在3000 rpm附近小波动振荡,说明该方法的控制效果较好;当阶跃干扰为10 N·m时,转速波动在11.38~17.77 rpm之间,当阶跃干扰为15 N·m时,转速波动的平均值在11.69~17.81 rpm之间,相对于对比方法均较小,说明该方法具有较好的应用价值。

基于试验设计的涡轴发动机性能试飞研究

涡轴发动机的装机性能是一项重要的技术指标,也是直升机鉴定试飞中重要的考核内容之一。本文通过发动机配装直升机后的气动力学分析,采用结构化试验机理构建了基于试验设计的涡轴发动机装机性能预测评估模型,并进行了模型的修正和性能评估飞行试验研究。研究结果表明:所建立的发动机安装性能预测模型计算结果与飞行试验测试数据的误差不大于5%,结果吻合良好,能够满足对该型发动机装机后的性能试飞鉴定要求;该模型可以预测出不同飞行工况下的发动机性能数据,为飞行手册的完善提供了数据支撑,同时也避免了传统计算方法所带来的进气道损失、引气及功率提取、动力涡轮转速为定值等“不相似”因素的影响;研究结果为后续涡轴发动机装机状态下的性能试验评估提供了技术支撑。