A Low Cost Engine Monitoring System for Real Time Propulsion System Malfunction Detection and Diagnosis

Impact Technologies, in cooperation with the Boeing Company, propose the development of a low cost health monitoring system for propulsion system malfunction detection, diagnosis and risk assessment that can be retrofitted to legacy commercial aircraft. Proven sensor validation algorithms will be implemented in parallel with specific propulsion malfunction isolation techniques for confidently alerting crews of engine power loss failures (low, high or fixed) and whether or not the power loss is recoverable or not. The robust engine fault detection algorithms will be embedded on a low-cost COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) hardware platform capable of fusing validated engine data/features such as engine gas path and control parameters, calculated speed/pressure derivatives and vibration (if available). Through the fusion and correlation of multiple sources of existing data and model-based predictions, more confident detections of critical events such as stall/surge, fuel delivery faults and FOD/DOD can be isolated to prevent catastrophic aircraft failures. The end goal is to enable a robust engine health monitoring supervisor that allows for detection and timely reporting of critical engine malfunction faults and degradation, and at the same time adheres to size and cost requirements for retrofitting older legacy engines. A realistic, hardware-in-the-loop demonstration of the engine health monitoring system will be developed for a Boeing aircraft application using a low cost COTS hardware platform.