On-Wing Engine Condition Monitoring

[toolguy]

I am doing research on On-Wing Engine Condition Monitoring and looking for experiences and opinions: is it working to imporve safety, decrease costs, make better decisions. Any input will be appreciated

[barit1]

In the early days, there were two kinds of CM philosophies:

1) Collect lots of data, use it to write obituaries on failed engines. :rolleyes:

2) Collect lots of data, analyze it while it still means something, and make more intelligent decisions. :8

Long-haul operators found that it was possible to cut their number of schedule disruptions (out-station removals, unscheduled maintenance...) by intensive CM. Changing an engine half-way around the globe is - ummm - expensive! One or two of these pays for a lot of CM; Better to change it before departing home.

(I trained a lot of F/E's in manual data collection & analysis, a long time ago...) :ok:

[MRDART]

We use it on our fleet and we can sometimes se changes in engine trend and rectify faults before the engines goes tech on outstations... so it pays for itself really if you do it right...

[glum]

It can vastly increase the life on an engine, by monitoring for trends in the engine, such as an increase of fuel flow, or vibration.

This infomation is downloaded after each flight, and any exceedances highlighted to the engineers. They can then take corrective action, such as carrying out a clean and lube to bring the vibration back into limits.

Alterations to the variable inlet guide vanes can improve fuel consumption and bring the engine back to it's most efficient.

It helped save Rolls Royce in the seventies with the RB211, as they could produce a more powerfull, longer lasting, more efficient engine.

[toolguy]

Thanks for the responses!

[tracon]

it can really help lower you cost before the **** hits the fan(in the engine).
For the PT6 , there are speciall courses that are free that will help one in how to evaluate the collected data and when to take action if the trend moves. Probably,there is courses for other engine brands as well.

A fatal disaster happened to a King Air 90 down under some yrs ago, and they blamed that no one in the company could interpretting the ECTM correctly.

[NutLoose]

This will help you to, they are companies in the UK that monitor oil samples to show builds up in metal particles etc that indicate possible early failures before they happen............. ask em they may send you some info....... you want to search spectro oil analysis

http://www.spectro-oil.com/

http://www.qinetiq.com/home/technologies/technologies/fstenergy/fuels_lubes.html

[GEnxsux]

I used to work for DS&S on the who do a lot of EHM for R-R & we monitored all sorts for the Trents, RB211, AE3007, V2500, BR715's etc.

The majority of alerts we issued for high N1 vibration, bleed leaks 'n' stuff. Bleed leaks we pretty easy to spot when you get a high spike in TGT, FF & dips in TGT margin. All engines have their little quirks as well.

I know for a fact it saved R-R a fortune on the Trent 500.

[barit1]

There's a good synopsis of trend monitoring methods, processes, benefits etc. at
http://www.knutfinn.com/Saab%20Systems/18%20CT7%20Powerplant_files/frame.htm#slide0073.htm and onwards.

It's focused on the Saab 340/CT7, but generally valid for most engines.

[jettison valve]

Don´t have too much knowledge about ECM, but here are my thoughts:
My first real experience with ECM was an increase of VIB levels that the operator wanted to be addressed. What we found were about four (prematurely) worn bushings of the LPT cooling manifold (CFM 56-5C4). Replacement of these parts brought the VIBs down. Amazing, I think.

Apart from this and many other "good" cases, we often had a hard time interpreting all the data.
And I can remember one case, when we had spent already so many thoughts on a steep decline/increase of several parameters - until we realized that we had locked out the bleed system under MEL several days ago... AAHRG!!! :\

Regards,
J. V.

[barit1]

...
And I can remember one case, when we had spent already so many thoughts on a steep decline/increase of several parameters - until we realized that we had locked out the bleed system under MEL several days ago... AAHRG!!! :\
Regards,
J. V.

I must admit I'm ROFL, but only because I fully appreciate the situation! :ok:

[kissmysquirrel]

I recently worked onboard a specialized shuttle tanker which was a temporary testbed for new technologies. We had the engine room wired for remote monitoring using 'motes' and wireless technology. This was in some extremes of temperature and often very high vibration situations. These wireless 'motes' were reasonably small and i believe have many future applications. It was mentioned that these would be made very small in the future and because they were powered from the vibration (can't remember the power source, piezo???) but anyway, it seems to me that these would be good for aircraft applications. Very light weight, self powered, and all feeding to a small group of pocket pc's (ipaq), which in turn downloaded to the central computer at predetermined intervals.
http://process.sensorsmag.com/sensorsprocess/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=315338&pageID=2
All clever stuff and fairly advanced stuff.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2006/05/09/215829/BP+uses+remote+sensoring+to+keep+vessels+shipshape.htm
:ok: :ok: :ok:

[jettison valve]

barit1,
Thanks for your comment! :ok:

Today, I wonder why we were so blind at that time. But it´s human, I guess... :\

Regards,
J. V.