System and method of fault detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10380809-B2
Application number	US-201515119392-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2015
Priority date	Feb 21, 2014
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

A fault monitoring system for an aircraft includes a processor having a fault diagnosis algorithm, a memory connected to the processor, a plurality of sensors located at selected nodes in an electrical network of the aircraft and connected to the processor, and a data collection algorithm in one of the processor or the plurality of sensors. Each sensor is configured to continuously monitor voltage and current of the electrical network at its selected node and to transmit data representative of the monitored voltage and current to the processor. Upon the occurrence of a fault event, the data collection algorithm selects a subset of the data related to the fault event and at least one sensor transmits a selected subset of the data to one of the processor or the memory.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fault monitoring system for an aircraft comprising:
a plurality of sensors located at selected nodes in an electrical network of the aircraft,
a processor having a fault diagnosis algorithm, the processor remote from the plurality of sensors and commonly accessible to the plurality of sensors through a communications network,
a memory connected to the processor, and
a data collection algorithm in one of the processor or the plurality of sensors,
wherein each sensor is configured to continuously monitor voltage and current of the electrical network at its selected node, and
wherein upon the occurrence of a fault event, the data collection algorithm selects a subset of the data related to the fault event including at least a portion of the continuously monitored voltage and current immediately preceding the fault event and at least one sensor transmits the selected subset of the data to one of the processor or the memory.

2. The fault monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the selected subset of the data includes data collected over a predetermined time period measured from the fault event.

3. The fault monitoring system of claim 2 wherein the predetermined time period precedes the fault event.

4. The fault monitoring system of claim 2 wherein the predetermined time period commences with the fault event.

5. The fault monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the selected subset of the data is transmitted from at least one of the plurality of sensors using power line communication.

6. The fault monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the fault diagnosis algorithm evaluates the fault event.

7. The fault monitoring system of claim 1 further comprising a fault prognosis algorithm configured to evaluate the selected subset of the data from the memory and, based on the evaluation, predicts a fault in the electrical network of the aircraft.

8. A method of monitoring an electrical network for faults in an aircraft comprising:
continuously monitoring and collecting data representative of voltage and current of the electrical network at selected nodes,
evaluating the data to identify a fault event, and if a fault event is identified,
selecting a subset of the data related to the fault event including at least a portion of the data immediately preceding the fault event, and
transmitting the selected subset of the data to one of a processor or memory for later analysis,
wherein the one of the processor or memory is remote from the selected nodes and commonly accessible to the selected nodes.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the selecting step is based on a predetermined time period related to the fault event.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the predetermined time period precedes the fault event.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the predetermined time period commences with the fault event.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising evaluating the selected subset of the data and, based on the evaluation, predicting a fault in the electrical network of the aircraft.

Assignees

• Ge Aviation Systems Llc

Inventors

• Pereira Frazer Leslie

Classifications

• G05B23/0264 Primary

  Control of logging system, e.g. decision on which data to store; time-stamping measurements · CPC title

• G05B23/0283

  Predictive maintenance, e.g. involving the monitoring of a system and, based on the monitoring results, taking decisions on the maintenance schedule of the monitored system; Estimating remaining useful life [RUL] (preventive maintenance, i.e. planning maintenance according to the available resources without monitoring the system G06Q10/06) · CPC title

• G07C5/0808 Primary

  Diagnosing performance data (testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005) · CPC title

• G01R31/008

  on air- or spacecraft, railway rolling stock or sea-going vessels · CPC title

• B64F5/60

  Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems · CPC title