Turbojet Engine Maintenance Systems: Dragoljub Vujić, PHD (Eng)
Turbojet Engine Maintenance Systems: Dragoljub Vujić, PHD (Eng)
Turbojet Engine Maintenance Systems: Dragoljub Vujić, PHD (Eng)
2,2003 27
UDC: 629.735.03(047)=20
COSATI: 21-05, 01-03, 14-02
This paper deals with maintenance systems of turbojet engines applied in military and commercial aircraft. In additi-
on to traditional maintenance procedures applied for decades, a today's generally accepted on-condition maintenance
concept is explained. The advantages of this concept based on engine parameters monitoring during flight are pointed
out in particular.
1)
Military Technical Institute (VTI), Katanićeva 15, 11000 Beograd
28 D.VUJIĆ: TURBOJET ENGINE MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS
acquired data are processed using computer programs and Besides the monitoring of engine status parameters, ot-
the results are in the form of numerical values and diagrams her standard procedures used for decades in the on-con-
showing a particular engine performance status. dition maintenance concept should be mentioned. These
The initial software for engine status monitoring has be- are, above all, the analysis of oil consumption and quality,
en developed for large computer systems. However, with inspection of the metal debris in oil using magnetic chip
development of microcomputer technology, applications detectors, as well as periodical inspections and tests in line
are made for personal computers. Three well known engine maintenance.
manufacturers: General Electric, Pratt&Whitney and Rolls–
–Royce had three separate systems of computer programs.
The first one was used for performance monitoring in Example of engine maintenance for civil aircraft
flight, the second one for performance modular monitoring The CFM56-3 engine, produced by France and the USA
in flight, and the third one for engine test analysis on the in a joint-venture company of Snecma and General Electric
stand. However, with development of new engine types for large civil aircraft, will be used as an example of a part
with specific requirements and software extensions, it was of the on-condition maintenance procedure. The engine is
concluded that further development of the existing pro- modularly designed and developed from the main-
grams would be higly complicated and inflexible. It was a tainability point of view. It consists of four modules: fan
reason to develop new software programs with more detai- booster, core engine, low pressure turbine and accessory
led data bases. New programs enable the monitoring and drives (Fig.1).
the analysis of engine vibrations, they contain expert
systems with elements of artificial intelligence and, on the Magnetic chip detectors
basis of built-in data and experience from the service life,
A simplified scheme of the engine bearings disposition is
they can suggest a decision to be made on some of correcti- given in Fig.2 and the oil system scheme is given in Fig.3.
ve actions.
Figure 1. Modular design of the CFM56-3 engine Figure 2. Simplified scheme of the engine bearings disposition
The system is so designed that three front bearings are les, total operating time, operating time since last oil sam-
connected to the first magnetic detector, two rear bearings pling (evolution of concentrations), oil type and brand, and
are connected to the second one and the bearings of the oil consumption. The extraction of a sample of 60 cc of hot
accessory drive are connected to the third magnetic detec- oil is performed as soon as possible after the engine
tor. The accessory drive consists of the accessory gearbox - shutdown (15 to 30 min at the latest). The analysis determi-
AGB and the transfer gearbox – TGB. The chip detector nes any excessive concentration of material wear (Table 1).
assembly is presented in Fig.4, and the scheme of the mag-
netic plug and the filter is presented in Fig.5.
Table 1. Materials contained in oil
Iron (Fe)
Titanium (Ti)
Most significant metals
Copper (Cu)
Aluminium (Al)
Nickel (Ni)
Zinc (Zn)
Chromium (Cr) Secondary identifiers of worn-out parts
Silver (Ag)
Phosphorous (P)
Silicon (Si)
Oil contamination indicator
Magnesium (Mg)
Borescopic inspection
Figure 4. Chip detector assembly The borescopic inspection detects failures or damages of
inaccessible, internal parts without disassembling the engi-
ne. A schematic review of the position and the number of
the ports for the borescopic inspection is presented in Fig.6.
The review of the borescopic ports diameters is presented in
Fig.7. All borescopic ports are accessible without removing
any other hardware. The most of the ports are 10 mm in di-
ameter and are intended for rigid borescopes. The ports of
diameter 6 mm are used for flexible and the ports with 8
mm diameters for rigid/flexible borescopes.
Line maintenance
In order to detect failure in civil aircraft a common mo-
nitoring of cockpit instrumentation and on-wing recom-
mended inspections are performed. Visual routine checks in
specific parts, drain and oil quantity level checks are per-
formed on wings daily. Table 2 presents inspection type
and time intervals. Line maintenance contains: fan blades
replacement, quick unit replacement, fan and low pressure
turbine balancing, quick engine replacement, etc.
Figure 8. Engine vibration pick-up locations Table 2. Inspection types and time intervals
Inspection type Inspection interval
Visual inspection of parts/oil Daily
Radiography- Gamma Ray
Magnetic plugs, Oil filters indicators 375 effective flight hours
Radiography detects an internal part failure or damage Borescope inspection of the high pressure
without disassembling the engine. The procedure is based 750 effective flight hours
turbine
on the capability of x-rays to pass through different materi- Borescope inspection of the combustion
1500 effective flight hours
als. During penetration through a material x-rays are absor- chamber
bed, i.e. the become weak. This decrement is lower if rays Fuel filter, oil filter replacement 3000 effective flight hours
come across failures and inhomogeneities, i.e. absorption is
reduced then.
Maintenance of turbojet engines of military
aircraft and helicopters
Maintenance of turbojet engines has been for a long time
performed, and is still performed, in older engine generati-
ons, according to a fixed prescribed number of working ho-
urs. After the prescribed period expires, engines are sent to
the repair department for a repair according to a prescribed
technology. This preventive procedure does not take into
account real thermal and other loads during service. Thus,
engines are repaired for safety, no matter there is a real ne-
ed for it or not.
At the beginning of the 80 s of the last century, signifi-
cant changes occured in maintenance of turbojet engines of
Figure 9. Radiogram of the engine fan
fighters. As in engines for commercial flights, the changes
introduced a new concept of preventive maintenance, an
Gammagraphy is a procedure of investigation by gamma on--condition maintenance concept, in modern engines of
rays having the same features as x-rays. They also penetrate western production. We shall mention only some characte-
through the material where they are more or less absorbed ristic applications. This concept was applied for the first ti-
depending on the homogeneity of the material. But their me in the RB199 engine of Tornado aircraft, which has be-
D.VUJIĆ: TURBOJET ENGINE MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS 31
en in use since August 1986. It was a very serious project of fe, so that, at any moment, technical personnel at airports
design, development and production. This engine was a knows a real engine life after every flight.
product of three leading European turbo engine producers: As for engines in civil aircraft, this on-condition mainte-
English Rolls-Royce, German Motoren-und-Turbinen-Uni- nance concept uses spectrographic oil analysis, endoscopic
on and Italian Fiat Aviazione. Up to 1988 over 1900 engi- equipment and equipment for vibration pick-up. Table 3
nes were manufactured in Turbo-Union, a consortium of the presents the results of the engine oil spectrographic analysis
mentioned companies. The on-condition maintenance con- for four engines, with equal number of working hours in
cept provides low costs and module replacement enables service. It is obvious from the table that in Engine 4 abnor-
quick engine return to service and considerably minimizes mal operating conditions has occurred and that the wearing
spares stock. Line maintenance provides easy access to en- process has started.
gine for daily maintenance, easy accessories change, and
fast engine change (45 minutes). Table 3. Results of the engine oil spectrographic analysis
Eurojet EJ200, in service from 1995, belongs to a new Elements content Engine 1 Engine 2 Engine 3 Engine 4
generation of turbo jet engines. The engine is of modular Content of insoluble ma-
design, and it represents an example of on-condition main- terials in organic solvents 16.8 32.1 11.2 140.4
tenance with build-in equipment for testing and monitoring. %
In this engine a complete digital control system with failu- Copper [µg/g] 4.4 6.7 5.5 x
res diagnosis is applied. Iron [µg/g] 2.7 3.0 2.5 x
In the 80s of the last century, Rolls-Royce and Turbome- Lead [µg/g] 0.7 < 0.5 < 0.5 x
ca developed the Adour RT172-56 engine family for the Nickel [µg/g] < 0.5 0.5 0.5 x
Hawk aircraft and the version RT172-58 with afterburning Chromium [µg/g] 0.5 0.5 0.5 x
for the Jaguar aircraft. The engine is of modular design, Zinc [µg/g] 0.6 0.7 0.7 x
equipped with magnetic chip detectors for early warning of
bearing or gear failures, as well as with the equipment for
vibration pickup. Using the borescope, through the existing In order to detect and correct faults periodical inspecti-
borescope ports, we perform the inspection of intake inlet ons are performed after a fixed number of flight hours or a
pipe and the low and high pressure compressor casing to usage time period. Periodical inspections are performed af-
detect damage by a foreign object. ter 50+5 aircraft flight hours and after 6 months if an airc-
In the field of helicopter engine development Rolls-Roy- raft is not in use. Periodical inspections on the basis of the
ce and Turbomeca cooperated for more years and in late flight hours number or the usage time period are totally
eightes of the last century they developed a family of the equal and are performed depending on which condition is
RTM322 engine with the power range: 1345 – 1945 kW. fulfiled first. While using aircraft in conditions of intensive
The engines were of modular design with digital electronic humidity, dust, etc, or while performing special tasks (hig-
control and on-condition maintenance. The engines were her number of landings, more frequent arms usage, etc),
available for future helicopter projects including the Anglo- additional periodical inspections can be performed on airc-
-Italian EH101 multipurpose, Westland 30 transport heli- raft or some accessories and systems.
copter, and other helicopters from 7 to 15 tones.
New maintenance philosophy required, even in the air-
craft design phase, building-in of corresponding diagnostic
Expert systems and neural networks in
equipment for monitoring component states, for device maintenance
self–testing. It also required registrators for all engine oper- The expert systems technology widely used today in
ating regimes, ports for inspection of warm parts, modular airforce is capable of solving complex problems in the
engine design, fast and easy access to parts. domain of: signal processing, image recognizing, data
Taking into account the differences in operating regimes acquisition from different sensors, training, diagnostics, etc.
between turbojet engines of military and civil aircraft it is For example, copilot expert systems are used for a pilot
clear that the determination of their life is different. Namely, load decreasing in critical phases. Expert systems are
the life of a turbojet engine of military aircraft depends very engaged in non-fighting activities as well as in aircraft
much on aircraft mission. The life of modern turbo jet engi- state, monitoring, communication, navigation, trajectory
nes of fighters is determined on the basis of the total accu- planning, aims recognizing, emergency analysis, faults
mulated cycle which presents a sum of specific movements diagnosis. In this way, copilot expert systems help the pilot
of the throttle lever during fighter task performing. During to concentrate on essential tactical and strategic aims.
transient regimes, temperature gradients, especially in cold Neural networks studing, especially in the last decade of
turbine parts, can lead to enormous tension skip due to local the last century, traced a new direction of expert systems
unequal dilatation. This phenomenon is known as thermal or development, towards the integration of neural networks
low cyclic fatigue and it influences most the life of warm and conventional expert systems in order to obtain more
parts in high-temperature engines. The Rolls-Royce has effective systems which would be more resistant to errors
analyzed movements of the throttle lever in military aircraft and incomplete data, adaptable to system enlargement. This
and has come to data about the number of cycles per hour: integration of expert systems and neural networks led to the
for an acrobatic flight 10-14, for a training flight 5-10, for a development of hybrid intelligent systems widely applied
hunting-bombing flight 5, etc. Approximately, for one flight for solving different problems imposed by modern
hour the engine spent 2 cycles. technological development, as well as for tasks monitoring,
Taking into account that engine manufacturers have de- state predicting, planning, etc.
veloped a procedure for calculating cycle numbers during The development of reliable helicopter gear state
service, life of some engine components, in addition to monitoring was a subject of large research work last twenty
working hours, can be expressed in cycles. A new generati- years. The research aim was to develop a system which
on of engines has a built-in register for measuring cyclic li- would lead to a considerable resource increasing and to a
32 D.VUJIĆ: TURBOJET ENGINE MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS
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D.VUJIĆ: TURBOJET ENGINE MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS 33