Fuel nozzle monitoring appratus and method
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorNadia SWABY
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of monitoring a fuel nozzle of an aircraft engine includes supplying fuel to a combustor of the aircraft engine using the fuel nozzle during operation of the aircraft engine, and sensing an operating condition of the aircraft engine applicable to a duration during which the fuel nozzle is supplying fuel to the combustor. A machine learning algorithm is executed to associate the operating condition of the aircraft engine and the duration with a health degradation of the fuel nozzle. A servicing status for the fuel nozzle is annunciated based on the health degradation of the fuel nozzle.
Claims20
A fuel nozzle monitoring apparatus for a fuel nozzle of an aircraft engine, the apparatus comprising:
- one or more sensors operable to respectively sense one or more parameters indicative of an operating condition of the aircraft engine applicable to a duration during which the fuel nozzle is delivering fuel to a combustor of the aircraft engine;
- an annunciator;
- and
- one or more computers in communication with the one or more sensors and with the annunciator, the one or more computers being operable to:
- execute a machine learning algorithm that associates the operating condition of the aircraft engine and the duration with a health degradation of the fuel nozzle, the machine learning algorithm having been trained using machine learning on historical data associating previous operating conditions with previous fuel nozzle health degradations;
- and
- cause the annunciator to annunciate a servicing status for the fuel nozzle based on the health degradation of the fuel nozzle.
A fuel system of an aircraft engine, the fuel system comprising:
- a fuel nozzle operatively connected to supply fuel to a combustor of the aircraft engine during operation of the aircraft engine;
- a sensor operable to sense an operating condition of the aircraft engine applicable to a duration of operation of the aircraft engine;
- one or more data processors in communication with the sensor;
- and
- non-transitory machine-readable memory storing instructions executable by the one or more data processors and configured to cause the one or more data processors to:
- execute a machine learning algorithm to associate the operating condition of the aircraft engine and the duration with an incremental health degradation of the fuel nozzle, the machine learning algorithm having been trained using machine learning on historical data associating previous operating conditions with previous fuel nozzle health degradations;
- update a cumulative health degradation of the fuel nozzle since a previous service of the fuel nozzle with the incremental health degradation of the fuel nozzle;
- and
- generate an output indicative of a servicing status for the fuel nozzle based on the cumulative health degradation of the fuel nozzle.
A method of monitoring a fuel nozzle of an aircraft engine, the method comprising:
- supplying fuel to a combustor of the aircraft engine using the fuel nozzle during operation of the aircraft engine;
- sensing an operating condition of the aircraft engine applicable to a duration during which the fuel nozzle is supplying fuel to the combustor;
- executing a machine learning algorithm that associates the operating condition of the aircraft engine and the duration with a health degradation of the fuel nozzle, the machine learning algorithm having been trained using machine learning on historical data associating previous operating conditions with previous fuel nozzle health degradations;
- and
- annunciating a servicing status for the fuel nozzle based on the health degradation of the fuel nozzle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.