Jetrader - November/December 2011 - 28

Since monitoring assesses the engine performance and health, it reduces unexpected problems and unscheduled maintenance by detecting abnormal trend shifts in the engine performance.
Unlike an airframe, it is impractical to disassemble an engine to inspect its condition on wing. Condition monitoring uncovers some typical problems such as compressor leakage or contamination, and EGT fuel ﬂow trends and temperature rise, which can increase fuel burn and in-turn increase fuel spend due. In Chart 1: Declining Engine Performance as Aging Occurs, at the top of this page, you can see how the engine trend data indicates degradation over time. This information shows that a major trend shift took place in September 2010 as the engine continued to decline until August 2011 when the engine was scheduled for removal due to degraded performance. The process for condition monitoring is broken down in four steps. First, record the data such as takeoff, climb and curse, using standard instrumentation. Step two transfers the data via ACARS or DFDR and the engine OEM’s engine performance monitoring system. Third, after the data is loaded and processed, a report is produced for analysis and examination of possible trend shifts and alerts. This provides maintenance and ﬂight operations the information needed for the fourth step—scheduling any actions needed.

Chart 1: Declining Engine Performance as Aging Occurs

Using these tools can provide stability to an engine maintenance program and enable manageable cost modeling for forecasted maintenance to your ﬂeet’s engines. Utilize the engine OEM’s software to maintain this capability on your ﬂeet. After all, without reliable data on trends and accurate forecasting on our engine’s health, our ability for ﬁnancial and maintenance planning is nothing more than gazing into a crystal ball and hoping for the best. With an on-condition engine maintenance program, we can do much better than that. Patrick Doyle is the senior manager, Aircraft Maintenance, FedEx Express. This is part two of a two-part series on predictive maintenance in aging aircraft systems. Part one was published in the September/ October 2011 issue of Jetrader.

References:
The Maintenance Costs of Aging Aircraft Insights from Commercial Aviation BY Matthew Dixon © Copyright 2006 RAND Corporation Innovative Cooperative Actions of Research & Development in EUROCONTROL Programme CARE INO III Dynamic Cost Indexing Date: 02 June 2008 Contract reference: C06/12400BE Prepared by: Transport Studies Group University of Westminster, London

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Jetrader - November/December 2011

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