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Fusion of Vibration and Oil Debris Sensor Data for Improved Engine Bearing Health Management

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Air Force
Contract: FA8650-08-M-2877
Agency Tracking Number: F081-053-1039
Amount: $99,997.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: AF081-053
Solicitation Number: 2008.1
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2008
Award Year: 2008
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2008-05-22
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2009-02-22
Small Business Information
13029 Danielson Street Suite 200
Poway, CA 92064
United States
DUNS: 097858836
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Thomas Brotherton
 Chief Technical Officer
 (858) 679-4140
 tom.brotherton@iac-online.com
Business Contact
 Laura Goodrich
Title: VP, Contracts & Finance
Phone: (858) 679-4140
Email: laura.goodrich@iac-online.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

Safety incidents due to failure of rolling element bearings in aircraft gas turbine engines are a significant cost to the Department of Defense. Oil debris monitoring (ODM) has been shown to be effective as an early indicator of engine bearing faults. On a complex engine with multiple components that produce wear debris, the addition of vibration monitoring can provide a localized prediction of exactly which component is degrading or failing. Data fusion of vibration and ODM sensor data has been shown to improve the statistical performance of bearing and gear fault detection and isolation while simultaneously maintaining or reducing false alarms and missed alarm diagnosis in a test rig environment. This type of integrated monitoring system has not been fully demonstrated on an aircraft engine. This SBIR will integrate the hardware, software, and data from mature, robust, commercially available vibration and ODM sensors into a versatile Engine Health Management (EHM) system. IAC has teamed with GasTOPS for development of this system. The results and systems developed on this SBIR can be directly applied to improving EHM performance for the F135 and other gas turbine engines.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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