Condition monitoring for reciprocating aircraft engines using fuzzy logic

This paper describes a method for monitoring the condition of reciprocating aircraft engines. In contrast to existing solutions our method is based on information from a single acceleration sensor attached onto the motor block. Model based signal processing using modal analysis and fuzzy logic in a hierarchical estimation scheme enables the possibility to observe engine health level. For each cylinder of the reciprocating system misfire detection and the identification of combustion failures on a per cylinder basis is possible.