Development, Implementation and Validation of a Vibration Expert System for Gas Turbine Engines

With the adoption of a condition based maintenance philosophy, a major gas turbine engine manufacturer has initiated a project to develop and implement an Expert Diagnostic System (EDS) to supplement its automated machinery vibration condition assessment program. The goal of this work is to enhance operational readiness, to promote maintenance self-sufficiency and to reduce overall life-cycle costs. Evaluation of commercial "Expert Systems" revealed that the particular and specialized requirements of the proposed gas turbine applications could not be easily satisfied by available packages. Moreover, the difficulties of integrating such systems within the existing vibration monitoring program and the software compatibility issues encountered in accessing existing databases, reinforced the decision to undertake independent development of a dedicated Expert Diagnostic System for gas turbines. This paper discusses the specific objectives of the gas turbine expert system; summarizes the principal features of Expert Systems; outlines the criteria employed in evaluating commercial vibration based expert system software products; describes the sequence of steps to be followed in the development of a diagnostic prototype and summarizes the technical requirements which must be satisfied in order to assure compatibility with existing signal acquisition systems.