Engine Signature Assessment for Maintenance Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current maintenance procedures for aircraft systems, such as gas turbine engines, often require unnecessary component replacements due to measurements against individual component criteria, leading to increased costs and reduced system performance evaluation.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that inspect and evaluate multiple components' features to predict system performance parameters, such as radar cross-section, using a signature assessment system to determine if corrective actions are needed, thereby reducing unnecessary replacements and optimizing maintenance decisions based on overall system performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If component parts are measured against individual predefined limits and replaced when outside limits, then component reliability is maintained, but unnecessary replacements occur increasing costs and reducing system performance evaluation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges individual component inspections into a holistic system-level performance evaluation. Instead of assessing each component independently against its own limits, the system integrates data from multiple components to evaluate overall system performance parameters, thereby avoiding unnecessary replacements of components that are individually out-of-limit but collectively acceptable.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a universal assessment framework that can evaluate multiple components simultaneously for their collective impact on system performance. This multi-functional approach allows the same evaluation system to handle various component types and their interactions, replacing components only when the overall system performance is affected.
2Reliability
If all components are replaced when any component is outside predefined limits, then system performance is maintained, but maintenance costs increase and operational time decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality assessment by evaluating the specific impact of each component's condition on overall system performance. Rather than applying a blanket replacement rule to all components, the system identifies which specific components actually affect system performance parameters and targets maintenance only to those components, thereby preserving operational time while maintaining system performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the evaluation parameter from individual component limits to system-level performance parameters. By transforming the assessment criteria to focus on how component conditions collectively affect system performance rather than individual component specifications, the system enables more informed maintenance decisions that balance performance requirements with operational continuity.
3Ease of operation
If individual component inspection is performed against predefined limits, then inspection simplicity is maintained, but system-level performance evaluation is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system adds another dimension to inspection by moving from one-dimensional individual component assessment to multi-dimensional system-level evaluation. It incorporates data from multiple components and their interactions to assess system performance parameters, thereby recovering the system performance evaluation information that was lost in simplified individual component inspections while maintaining operational feasibility through automated integrated assessment.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed method and system utilizes inspection information from individual components to predict a value for a system performance parameter. The predicted system performance parameter is utilized to determine if corrective action is required for any of the system components. No corrective action is recommended if the predicted system performance parameter is within desired limits. Further, corrective action for a specific component of the system is performed and indicated independent of the inspection results of a specific component.