Prognostics/Diagnostics for Gas Turbine Engine Bearings

Abstract

Development of robust in-flight prognostics or diagnostics for oil wetted gas turbine engine components will play a critical role in improving aircraft engine reliability and maintainability. Real-time algorithms for predicting and detecting bearing and gear failures are currently being developed in parallel with emerging flight-capable sensor technologies including in-line oil debris/condition monitors, and vibration analysis MEMS. These advanced prognostic/diagnostic algorithms utilize intelligent data fusion architectures to optimally combine sensor data, with probabilistic component models to achieve the best decisions on the overall health of oil-wetted components. By utilizing a combination of health monitoring data and model-based techniques, a comprehensive component prognostic capability can be achieved throughout a components life, using model-based estimates when no diagnostic indicators are present and monitored features such as oil debris and vibration at later stages when failure indications are detectable. Implementation of these oil-wetted component prognostic modules will be illustrated in this paper using bearing and gearbox test stand run-to-failure data.