Rolls-Royce Corporation

Paul A Flint

Adriano Pulisciano

Bilal M Nasser

Stephen Peter King

Daniel K Goodall

Sylvain Brillat

Adrian Bird

Affan Shaukat

Jan Wedekind

A method comprising: inspecting an engine during a first period of time to identify damage, the engine being associated with an aircraft; receiving three-dimensional data of one or more components of the engine, the three-dimensional data being generated during the first period of time; determining, during the first period of time, whether the identified damage exceeds a threshold; providing instructions to release the aircraft for operation in a second period of time, subsequent to the first period of time, if the identified damage does not exceed the threshold; and inspecting the received three-dimensional data during the second period of time to measure damage.

Methods and apparatus for inspecting an engine

A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving data comprising two-dimensional data and three-dimensional data of a component of an engine; identifying a feature of the component using the two-dimensional data; determining coordinates of the feature in the two-dimensional data; determining coordinates of the feature in the three-dimensional data using: the determined coordinates of the feature in the two-dimensional data; and a pre-determined transformation between coordinates in two-dimensional data and coordinates in three-dimensional data; and measuring a parameter of the feature of the component using the determined coordinates of the feature in the three-dimensional data.

An asset operational health monitoring system, in which a plurality of sensors are arranged to determine values of asset operation parameters pertaining to an instance of asset operation. One or more processing unit receives data corresponding to said asset operation values and determine a plurality of asset locations at a corresponding plurality of points in time. The one or more processing unit is arranged to receive data indicative of the location of a region of adverse environmental conditions which may impact on the operation of the asset and to compare the determined locations of the asset with the location of said region so as to determine whether one or more of said asset locations fall within said region. An indicator of operational risk associated with the presence of said asset in said region is output which can drive asset operation or maintenance decision making. The system may be used for ash cloud impact monitoring for aircraft, a fleet of aircraft or aircraft engines.

Method of managing operational health of assets

A method of monitoring the health of a gas turbine enginecomprising a fuel systemhaving a fuel metering valveand a fuel pumpfor supplying fuel to a combustor apparatus. The method comprising the steps of: monitoring the fuel metering valve percentage open, detecting and sending a warning message when the fuel metering valve percentage open is at 97% or greater and within a predetermined time from when the first percentage open is at 97% or greater, replacing the fuel pump. In this way scheduling of servicing and replacement of the fuel pump may be made without disruption to the aircraft operator particularly where the operator has a fleet of aircraft.

Engine health monitoring

The present invention is a method of monitoring the health of a fuel systemof a gas turbine engine. The fuel systemcomprising a fuel-metering valve, a hydraulic control valve servo pressure lineand a control pressure line. The fuel-metering valve comprises a hydraulic control valve solenoidfor metering the flow of fuel and a fuel filterand, in use, a current is applied to the solenoidto control the required fuel demand to fuel nozzles. The method comprises the steps of; measuring either the percentage difference between fuel metering valve demand and actual positions or the percentage difference in pressure between the servo pressure lineand the control pressure line, comparing the differential to a predetermined level, when that predetermined level is reached a warning is given. Thereby the engine may be scheduled for service before unsatisfactory performance of the fuel system is experienced.

Growing community of inventors

Derby, United Kingdom

Paul A Flint