Vibration-sensor and gas-path-analysis data would be fused.

A proposed data-fusion system, to be implemented mostly in software, would further process the digitized and preprocessed outputs of sensors in a turbofan engine to detect foreign-object damage (FOD) [more precisely, damage caused by impingement of such foreign objects as birds, pieces of ice, and runway debris]. The proposed system could help a flight crew to decide what, if any, response is necessary to complete a flight safely, and could aid mechanics in deciding what post-flight maintenance action might be needed.

Figure 1. Outputs of Two 'Experts'(fuzzy-logic inference engines) would be fused at the feature level by means of Dempster's combination algorithm.

Figure 2. These Example Outputs of the proposed system were generated in response to simulated vibrational and GPA inputs characteristic of marginal and conflicting evidence, respectively, of occurrence of an FOD event near the 2-second time mark.

This work was done by James A. Torso of QSS Group, Inc. and Jonathan S. Litt of the U. S. Army Research Laboratory for Glenn Research Center. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at www.techbriefs.com/tsp under the Machinery/Automation category.

Inquiries concerning rights for the commercial use of this invention should be addressed to NASA Glenn Research Center, Innovative Partnerships Office, Attn: Steve Fedor, Mail Stop 4–8, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44135. Refer to LEW-17843-1

This Brief includes a Technical Support Package (TSP).

System Would Detect Foreign-Object Damage in Turbofan Engine (reference LEW-17843-1) is currently available for download from the TSP library.

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