Fault Diagnostics, Prognostics and Self Healing Control of Navy Electric Machinery

Impact Technologies, collaborating with the Georgia Institute of Technology and our commercialization partner Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (NGSS), propose a Phase II program that will further develop and demonstrate innovative diagnostic and prognostic technologies for predicting and accommodating for faults/failures in critical electric power system components including power converters and electro-mechanical drives. The integration of an electronics prognostics framework with a self-healing strategy to improve system reliability and mission readiness for the Navy’s next generation electric machines is the primary focus. Implementation of this concept requires component-level fault detection techniques to provide longer predicted horizons prior to failures, operational history, and fault progression models in order to make accurate and repeatable decisions regarding the remaining life predictions. The Impact/GA-Tech/NGC team’s approach in Phase II will be to develop the hardware and software necessary for performing fault detection and self healing on critical failure modes and verify their operation, first on small scale rigs, and next on more relevant equipment provided by NGSS. The proposed base program will consist of demonstrating the developed technologies with a 10HP Motor/Drive test system consisting of the DC to AC inverters and a scaled DC bus prescribed by the PCM-1 and PCM-2 standards provided to Impact during the Phase I program. In addition, as part of a Phase II Option program, NGSS will provide in-kind funding support to transition to developed technology to specific electric drive systems associated with the LHD-8 and DDG-1000 programs.