Engine cluster task allocation method based on residual life of engine

Abstract

The invention discloses an engine cluster task allocation method based on the residual life of an engine, which comprises the following steps that: firstly, the residual life of a single engine is obtained, and the residual life of the engine is determined through the delivery life of a life limiting piece and the fatigue damage amount of task completion; secondly, according to task intensity indexes, life consumption of a next task is predicted, and the task intensity indexes comprise flight time, maximum thrust and task complexity; engine cluster characteristics and task characteristics are obtained according to the use condition of each engine in the cluster; and finally assigning tasks to the engine group in combination with the maintenance capability. According to the technical scheme, the states of all the engines in the engine cluster, the task consumption and the maintenance capacity can be scientifically combined, task execution is guaranteed, the combat capacity of all the engines in the cluster is balanced, and therefore the engines are economically used, waste of manpower and material resources is avoided, and the working efficiency is effectively improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the field of aviation engine maintenance, and in particular to a method for allocating tasks of an engine fleet based on the remaining life of the engine. Background Art

[0002] Aircraft life management is generally based on the service life of the engine. In the existing technology, there are many prediction models that can predict the remaining life of a single engine. At the same time, whether in the field of civil aviation or military aviation, the technology of establishing an engine group through multiple engines has been widely used. For a group of multiple engines, reasonable analysis of workload and planning of task allocation are important contents of engine group management.

[0003] Therefore, a method for allocating engine fleet tasks based on the remaining life of the engine is needed to scientifically allocate workloads, thereby efficiently using the engines, avoiding resource bottlenecks, and avoiding waste of manpower and material resources. Summary of the invention

[0004] To achieve the above object, the present application provides a method for allocating tasks of an engine fleet based on the remaining life of the engine, comprising the following steps:

[0005] Get the remaining life of a single engine. The remaining life of the engine is determined by the factory life of the life-limited parts and the fatigue damage amount of the completed mission. The remaining life is expressed as N fi , where i is the life-limited part number;

[0006] Predicting the life consumption of the mission according to the mission intensity index; the mission intensity index includes: flight time, maximum thrust and mission complexity;

[0007] Obtain engine fleet characteristics and mission characteristics;

[0008] Tasks are assigned to the engine fleet.

[0009] Among them, the factory life of the life-limited parts is obtained through finite element tool modeling and analysis;

[0010] When obtaining the fatigue damage of the completed mission, the flight data of the missions experienced by the engine since leaving the factory is read, the flight data is input into the fatigue life prediction model, and the fatigue damage D of the engine is output. fi .

[0011] Among them, the flight data includes: rotation speed spectrum and temperature spectrum.

[0012] Furthermore, obtaining the remaining life of a single engine includes the following steps: determining the life-limiting parts of the engine, obtaining the factory life of the life-limited parts and the fatigue damage of the engine to complete the mission, and subtracting the fatigue damage from the factory life to obtain the remaining life of the engine.

[0013] Further, the principle for assigning tasks to the engine fleet is as follows: If the repair shop is already saturated with work, then engines with a long remaining life are preferentially selected to perform this task; otherwise, engines that are about to enter the repair state are preferentially selected to perform the task, and for the remaining quantity, engines with a long remaining life are selected.

[0014] Further, the characteristics of the engine fleet include: the number of in-service engines a, the number of engines under inspection b, the repair capacity c of the repair shop, and the saturation level x of the repair shop; the saturation level x of the repair shop is the difference between the number of engines under inspection b and the repair capacity c of the repair shop.

[0015] The task characteristics include: the number of engines m required for the task.

[0016] Assigning tasks to the engine fleet includes the following steps:

[0017] Obtain the number of in-service engines a, the number of engines under inspection b, and the number of engines m required for the task. If a - b < m, the task assignment for this time fails.

[0018] Otherwise, obtain the information of the in-use engines, including: the number n of in-use engines and the remaining life of the in-use engines; define the sorting type, and sort the in-use engines according to the remaining life according to the sorting type; where the in-use engines are in-service engines that are not in the repair shop and have a remaining life greater than the life consumption, and n <= a - b; the sorting type is ascending and descending.

[0019] Perform task assignment according to the saturation level x of the repair shop and the sorting type.

[0020] Among them, performing task assignment according to the saturation level x of the repair shop and the sorting type includes:

[0021] If the saturation level x of the repair shop = 0, determine whether the sorting type is ascending. If it is ascending, select the engines from the (n - m)-th to the n-th to perform the task; if the sorting type is descending, select the engines from the 1st to the m-th to perform the task.

[0022] If the saturation level x of the repair shop is greater than m, determine whether the sorting type is ascending. If it is ascending, select the engines from the 1st to the m-th to perform the task; if the sorting type is descending, select the engines from the (n - m)-th to the n-th to perform the task.

[0023] If the saturation level x of the repair shop is less than or equal to m, determine whether the sorting type is ascending. If it is ascending, select the engines from the 1st to the x-th and from the (n - m + x)-th to the n-th to perform the task; if the sorting type is descending, select the engines from the n-th to the (n - x)-th and from the 1st to the (m - x)-th to perform the task.

[0024] According to the present invention, the status of each engine in the engine cluster, the consumption of the task, and the maintenance capacity are scientifically combined, which not only ensures the execution of the task but also balances the combat capability of each engine in the cluster, thereby using the engines economically, avoiding the waste of manpower and material resources, and effectively improving work efficiency. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] Figure 1 is a step diagram of a method for allocating tasks of an engine group based on the remaining life of an engine provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] Figure 2 The present invention provides a flowchart of engine fleet management based on the remaining life of the engine according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] The present invention provides a method for managing the usage load of an engine fleet based on the remaining life of a single engine and mission characteristics. Starting from the remaining life of a single engine, the method characterizes the remaining life of the entire fleet, converts the work intensity of future tasks to the engine life, calculates the damage caused by this work intensity to the engine, and analyzes and determines the subsequent use plan of the engine by the fleet.

[0028] The specific implementation of the present invention is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0029] The steps of the engine group task allocation method based on the remaining life of the engine provided by the present invention are as follows: Figure 1 As shown, including:

[0030] Step S100: obtaining the remaining life of a single engine;

[0031] For a new engine, its life is usually controlled by several different life-limited parts, such as high turbine disc, combustion chamber, etc. The relationship between the life of different life-limited parts and the life of the whole engine is different. When the life of a life-limited part is exhausted, it can be considered that the whole engine needs maintenance, that is, the life of the whole engine is exhausted. However, under different working intensities, the life consumption rate of different life-limited parts is different, so we cannot only consider the life of a single life-limited part. Therefore, it is necessary to indicate the life of all life-limited parts at the same time to characterize the life of the whole engine.

[0032] When managing the life of an engine, we first use finite element modeling to analyze and obtain the factory life of a new engine: Assuming that an engine has three main life-limiting parts, we perform finite element analysis and factory life prediction on them to obtain the factory life of the three life-limiting parts, which is recorded as N. f1 、N f2 、N f3 , then the factory life of this engine is expressed in N f1 、N f2、N f3 These three parameters represent; for an engine with n main life-limiting parts, the factory life is expressed as N f1 To N fi , where n represents the number of life-limited parts and i represents the life-limited part number.

[0033] Secondly, the flight data of the missions that the engine has experienced since leaving the factory is read, and the flight data is input into the fatigue life prediction model to obtain the fatigue damage amount of the engine after completing the mission.

[0034] When an engine completes a take-off and landing mission, the fatigue damage caused to several life-limited parts by this mission can be obtained based on the flight data of the engine during this mission, such as the speed spectrum and temperature spectrum, and is recorded as D f1 , D f2 , D f3 , then the remaining life of this engine can be recorded as N f1 -D f1 、N f2 -D f2 、N f3 -D f3 ; For an engine with n main life-limiting parts, the remaining life of the engine is expressed as: N fi -D fi .

[0035] On this basis, the remaining life of the engine is determined by the factory life of the life-limited parts and the fatigue damage amount of the completed mission: Determine the life-limited parts of the engine and obtain the factory life N of the life-limited parts fi and the engine's fatigue damage to complete its mission D fi , the factory life minus the fatigue damage amount is used to obtain the remaining life of the engine.

[0036] In general, when calculating the remaining life of an engine, we should first give a factory life based on its factory inspection records, and then calculate its remaining life at the time of calculation based on its usage records.

[0037] Step S110: predicting the life consumption of the task according to the task intensity index;

[0038] When allocating tasks, in addition to considering the remaining life of the engine, the workload of the task itself must also be fully considered so that the engine can be allocated according to the intensity of the task to be performed.

[0039] When calculating the engine life, the speed spectrum and temperature spectrum as well as some inlet and outlet airflow boundary conditions are needed. These conditions require specific data, but the tasks that have not yet occurred do not have these data, which requires the estimation of future tasks. The estimation of task intensity can be considered through the task intensity index, including the following parts:

[0040] 1) Flight time: Flight time is directly linked to service life. Although fatigue life mainly refers to the number of load cycles, the increase in service time will inevitably increase the number of cycles;

[0041] 2) Maximum thrust: The maximum thrust of the engine is related to the temperature and speed before the turbine. As one of the life-limiting parts of the engine, the fatigue life of the high turbine disc is highly related to these two factors. The maximum thrust directly determines the maximum stress of the high turbine disc, so it must be taken into consideration.

[0042] 3) Mission complexity: Every time the aircraft performs afterburner, maneuver, etc., the engine speed spectrum will undergo a mutation. Without knowing the speed spectrum, we can make a rough estimate of the number of speed mutations by estimating the complexity of the mission.

[0043] After comprehensively evaluating the above aspects of measuring mission intensity, the current mission can be compared with previous missions, and the possible life consumption caused by this mission can be predicted through previous missions with known speed spectra and temperature spectra, which can serve as the basis for allocating engines.

[0044] Step S120: acquiring engine group characteristics and task characteristics; the task characteristics include: the number of engines m required for the task;

[0045] The engine fleet characteristics include: the number of in-service engines a, the number of engines under inspection b, the maintenance capacity of the maintenance plant c, and the saturation level x of the maintenance plant; the saturation level x of the maintenance plant is the difference between the number of engines under inspection b and the maintenance capacity c of the maintenance plant.

[0046] Step S130: Acquire engine group characteristics and task characteristics, and assign tasks to the engine group.

[0047] Ideal fleet management should maintain the number of engines in service unchanged. The number of engines that enter the factory for maintenance and the number of engines that have been repaired should be equal within a period of time, that is, the engine consumption rate and the engine maintenance rate are equal. This principle is only valid in the long term, because there is an upper limit to the engine maintenance rate, while there is no upper limit to the engine mission intensity and the number of engines used. Therefore, this principle cannot be strictly followed in the short term.

[0048] To balance both the requirements of combat readiness and economic efficiency, the management of the engine fleet needs to consider the following two aspects: a) Ensure that the remaining engines meet the requirements: After the engines complete this mission, some engines will need to be sent to the factory for repair. The number of remaining engines needs to meet certain combat readiness requirements, that is, the remaining life of the engines when the mission is assigned again should meet the mission needs; b) Ensure that the engines to be repaired can be repaired in a timely manner. That is, the repair work of the repair factory needs to be near the saturation state. When the repair task volume exceeds the saturation state, it will lead to a decrease in the number of standby engines and reduce the overall working potential of the fleet. When the repair task volume is less than the saturation state, it can be considered that there is a waste of repair capacity at this time, and a large number of engines to be repaired may be sent for repair concentratedly after a period of time.

[0049] Therefore, the principle for assigning missions to the engine fleet is: If the repair factory is already saturated, give priority to choosing the engines with a long remaining life to execute this mission; otherwise, give priority to choosing the engines that are about to enter the repair state to execute the mission, and choose the engines with a long remaining life for the remaining quantity.

[0050] Assigning missions to the engine fleet includes the following steps:

[0051] Obtain the number of in-service engines a, the number of engines under inspection b, and the number of engines required for the mission m. If a - b < m, end the mission assignment;

[0052] Otherwise, obtain the information of the in-use engines, including: the number n of in-use engines and the remaining life of the in-use engines; define the sorting type, and sort the in-use engines according to the remaining life according to the sorting type; where the in-use engines are in-service, not in the repair factory, and the remaining life is greater than the life consumption, and n <= a - b; the sorting type is ascending and descending;

[0053] Next, perform mission assignment according to the saturation degree x of the repair factory and the sorting type.

[0054] The specific assignment process includes:

[0055] If the saturation degree x of the repair factory = 0, it means that the repair factory cannot receive engines into the factory currently. At this time, judge whether the sorting type is ascending. If it is ascending, select the in-use engines with the highest remaining life to assign missions, that is, assign missions to the n - mth to the nth engines; if the sorting type is descending, select the engines with the lowest remaining life to assign missions, and assign missions to the 1st to the mth engines;

[0056] If the saturation level x of the maintenance plant is greater than m, that is, all engines after the completion of this task can be sent to the plant for maintenance, then it is determined whether the sorting type is ascending. If it is ascending, the in-use engine with the lowest remaining life is selected to assign tasks, that is, the 1st to the mth engines are assigned tasks; if the sorting type is descending, the nmth to the nth engines are selected to assign tasks;

[0057] If the saturation level x of the maintenance plant is less than or equal to m, that is, some engines that have completed this task can enter the plant for maintenance, then determine whether the sorting type is ascending. If it is ascending, select some engines with the lowest remaining life and some engines with the highest remaining life to assign tasks, that is, assign tasks to the 1st to xth engines and the n-m+xth to nth engines; if the sorting type is descending, select the nth to nxth engines and the 1st to mxth engines to assign tasks.

[0058] The engine cluster management process supported by the present invention is as follows: Figure 2 As shown, firstly, the remaining life of a single engine is obtained, thereby obtaining the remaining life of the entire engine group; according to the mission intensity, the consumption life of the task and the work saturation of the maintenance plant are predicted, and the task engine allocation selection is realized from the in-service engines.

[0059] Through the present invention, the remaining life of each engine in the engine group is collected to characterize the life of the entire engine group. In combination with the characteristics of the task and the maintenance capabilities of the repair shop, a distribution system that conforms to management principles is formulated, which scientifically combines the status of each engine in the engine group, the consumption of the task, and the maintenance capabilities, thereby ensuring the execution of the task and balancing the combat capabilities of each engine in the group, thereby using the engines economically, avoiding waste of manpower and material resources, and effectively improving work efficiency.

[0060] The above disclosures are only several specific embodiments of the present invention; however, the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes that can be conceived by those skilled in the art should fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for allocating tasks of an engine fleet based on the remaining life of the engine, characterized in that: Including the following steps: Obtain the remaining life of a single engine. The remaining life of the engine is determined by the factory life of the life-limited parts and the fatigue damage amount of the completed mission. The remaining life is expressed as N fi , where i is the life-limited part number; Predict the life consumption of the mission according to the mission intensity index; the mission intensity index includes: flight time, maximum thrust, and mission complexity; Obtain the characteristics of the engine fleet and mission characteristics; Assign missions to the engine fleet.

2. The engine cluster task allocation method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The factory life of the limited-life component is obtained through finite element tool modeling and analysis; When obtaining the fatigue damage of the completed mission, the flight data of the missions experienced by the engine since leaving the factory is read, the flight data is input into the fatigue life prediction model, and the fatigue damage D of the engine is output. fi .

3. The engine cluster task allocation method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The flight data includes: rotational speed spectrum, temperature spectrum.

4. The engine cluster task allocation method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Obtaining the remaining life of a single engine includes the following steps: determining the limited-life component of the engine, obtaining the factory life of the limited-life component and the fatigue damage amount of the engine for completing the mission, subtracting the fatigue damage amount from the factory life to obtain the remaining life of the engine.

5. The engine cluster task allocation method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The principle of assigning missions to the engine fleet is: if the work of the repair shop is saturated, then give priority to selecting the engine with a long remaining life to execute this mission; otherwise, give priority to selecting the engine that is about to enter the repair state to execute the mission, and select the engine with a long remaining life for the remaining quantity.

6. The engine cluster task allocation method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The characteristics of the engine fleet include: the number of in-service engines a, the number of engines under inspection b, the repair capacity c of the repair shop, and the saturation degree x of the repair shop; the saturation degree x of the repair shop is the difference between the number of engines under inspection b and the repair capacity c of the repair shop; The mission characteristics include: the number of engines m required for the mission.

7. The engine cluster task allocation method according to claim 6, characterized in that: Assigning missions to the engine fleet includes the following steps: Obtain the number of in-service engines a, the number of engines under inspection b, and the number of engines m required for the mission. If a - b < m, the mission assignment fails this time; Otherwise, obtain the information of in-use engines, including: the number n of in-use engines and the remaining life of in-use engines; define the sorting type, and sort the in-use engines according to the remaining life according to the sorting type; where the in-use engines are in-service, not in the repair shop, and the engines with a remaining life greater than the life consumption, and n <= a - b; the sorting type is ascending and descending; Perform mission assignment according to the saturation degree x of the repair shop and the sorting type.

8. The engine cluster task allocation method according to claim 7, characterized in that: Performing mission assignment according to the saturation degree x of the repair shop and the sorting type includes: If the saturation degree x of the repair shop = 0, judge whether the sorting type is ascending. If it is ascending, select the engines from the (n - m)-th to the n-th for mission assignment; if the sorting type is descending, select the engines from the 1st to the m-th for mission assignment; If the saturation degree x of the repair shop is greater than m, judge whether the sorting type is ascending. If it is ascending, select the engines from the 1st to the m-th for mission assignment; if the sorting type is descending, select the engines from the (n - m)-th to the n-th for mission assignment; If the saturation degree x of the repair shop is less than or equal to m, judge whether the sorting type is ascending. If it is ascending, select the engines from the 1st to the x-th and from the (n - m + x)-th to the n-th for mission assignment; if the sorting type is descending, select the engines from the n-th to the (n - x)-th and from the 1st to the (n - x)-th for mission assignment.

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