Aircraft Electrical Power System Diagnostics and Health Management

The military is actively implementing diagnostics, prognostics, and health management technologies across platforms in an effort to reduce maintenance costs, increase readiness and availability, and improve safety. In aircraft electric power systems, the largest maintenance driver is the generator, followed by the batteries. Common faults include winding shorts, pitting and spalling in bearings, and battery degradation. This effort will focus on developing and transitioning effective, robust diagnostics and prognostics that cover the major failure modes of these components. Sentient Corporation has partnered with the Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory (Penn State ARL) to create a team with world-leading expertise in nearly every aspect of this problem. Sentient will develop prognostics for generator bearings, while Penn State ARL will address battery health monitoring. Both partners will also address generator winding faults, and both have substantial facilities for testing and data collection to support development and validation of the prognostic algorithms. Phase I will include demonstration of the basic sensing requirements and algorithms used to detect faults. Phases II and III will include development of a complete diagnostic/prognostic system and integration with an existing health management system such as the IMD-HUMS. A major rotorcraft OEM has agreed to actively support both development and integration.BENEFITS: Aircraft electrical power systems are a significant maintenance driver. The resulting prognostic capabilities for aircraft electric power systems will enable condition-based maintenance for these systems, resulting in reduced costs and higher readiness.