Health and usage monitoring for military ground vehicle power generating devices

A collaborative research and technology development effort was conduct by ARL Penn State and AMSAA to develop embedded diagnostic and predictive technology for ground platform power generators. An Army Freightliner truck was used as the test bed, and it was outfitted with seven new alternators of the same model type that each had a specific seeded fault, including a baseline non-faulted alternator. Each was run at a variety of alternator load and engine speed conditions while the truck was operated on a test course at Aberdeen Test Center.^{1 2} The Freightliner truck was instrumented with various sensors and two supporting data acquisition systems to evaluate the ability to conduct embedded diagnostics and prognostics. Based on these data collected, an algorithm was developed for detection of an alternator winding electrical fault. This algorithm can be implemented directly on the fielded data collection and analysis system currently being used in theater. The focus of this effort was to evaluate the detectability of common alternator faults using few or no additional sensors.