Health Management for Gas Turbine Engine Accessory Components

A great deal of effort has been put into health management of turbine engine turbomachinery components, such as bearings, disks and blades, while engine externals have received less research attention. Accessories on gas turbine engines include electrical, hydraulic, lubrication, and fuel subsystems. While not as critical, faults in these engine externals are much more common and are increasing maintenance costs. Sentient Corporation, in collaboration with GE Aircraft Engines, will implement a diagnostic scheme for engine accessories based on physics-based models of the accessory’s operation. Phase I will include a demonstration of the technology on an axial piston variable displacement pump, a common element of several engine accessory subsystems. Both nominal and faulted data will be collected on the test stand and used to validate the physics-based model for the nominal case and test the diagnostic routine in the faulted case.