Civil aero-engine health management integrating with life prediction and maintenance decision-making

Appropriate logistic operation, maintenance and support are important for civil aero-engines in terms of safety, reliability and economy. Engine health management is an important method to reduce the maintenance and support costs, which has generated an increasing interest among researchers. In this paper, according to the nature of civil aero-engine operation and maintenance, the concept of civil aero-engine health management is introduced, and some fundamental methodologies are studied in detail. And based on the reliability modeling theory for repairable systems, some methods were proposed using proportional intensity mode, which combined reliability and condition monitoring data. These methods accomplished engine optimal preventive maintenance interval and removal decision making, time on wing (TOW) predicting and controlling by collecting actual data based on the engine age and operating conditions. This analysis includes an example of a CF6-80C2 engine fleet application in an airline, illustrating the decision making and prediction accuracy of the model comparing to actual removal events. Case study results showed that these health management methods were helpful for engineers in airlines to control engine maintenance actions and TOW, thereby decreased fault risk and maintenance costs.