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Combining Classification Techniques With
Combining Classification Techniques With
Dewallef
ASMA Department,
University of Liège,
1 Chemin des Chevreuils,
4000 Liège, Belgium
e-mail: p.dewallef@ulg.ac.be Combining Classification
C. Romessis
Laboratory of Thermal Turbomachines, Techniques With Kalman Filters
National Technical University of Athens,
P.O. Box 64069,
Athens 15710, Greece
for Aircraft Engine Diagnostics
e-mail: cristo@mail.ntua.gr
A diagnostic method consisting of a combination of Kalman filters and Bayesian Belief
O. Léonard Network (BBN) is presented. A soft-constrained Kalman filter uses a priori information
ASMA Department, derived by a BBN at each time step, to derive estimations of the unknown health param-
University of Liège, eters. The resulting algorithm has improved identification capability in comparison to the
1 Chemin des Chevreuils, stand-alone Kalman filter. The paper focuses on a way of combining the information
4000 Liège, Belgium produced by the BBN with the Kalman filter. An extensive set of fault cases is used to test
e-mail: o.Leonard@ulg.ac.be the method on a typical civil turbofan layout. The effectiveness of the method is thus
demonstrated, and its advantages over individual constituent methods are presented.
K. Mathioudakis 关DOI: 10.1115/1.2056507兴
Laboratory of Thermal Turbomachines,
National Technical University of Athens,
P.O. Box 64069,
Athens 15710, Greece
e-mail: kmathiou@central.ntua.gr
Introduction figurations for the faults. Those predefined configurations are built
into the algorithm, and it is not possible for the user to interact
Diagnostic methods employing statistical inference can be with them.
mainly categorized into regression methods and classification As stated above besides regression algorithms, classification al-
methods, depending on the way information is processed. In clas- gorithms solve the same problem in a different way and, therefore,
sification problems the task is to assign an input to one of a num- give a different kind of results. Although less accurate, classifica-
ber of discrete classes or categories. However, in regression prob- tion algorithms are more reliable and usually more stable. More-
lems the outputs represent the values of continuous variables 关1兴. over, some classification algorithms allow some qualitative
For example, in the case of aircraft engine diagnostics, outputs of knowledge 共i.e., user experience, some events that have been ob-
the regression algorithm is a set of numerical health parameter served but cannot be modeled, etc.兲 to be introduced into the
values, whereas for a classification algorithm each parameter is classification rule. Those characteristics make classification algo-
assigned to a given class 共“faulty not faulty” or “low correct rithms very complementary to regression algorithms. Some results
high”兲. of classification techniques applied to turbine engine diagnostic
Applying regression techniques such as Kalman filtering on gas can be found in 关9,10兴.
turbine engine diagnosis 关2,3兴 poses some stability problems when In 关11兴, a physical state variable model is combined with a
few measurements are available; health parameter estimation is neural network model to improve the diagnostic of a turbine en-
gine by including empirical knowledge. Although the present con-
unstable when a low redundancy is encountered. Indeed, for com-
tribution uses a different method, the final scope is the same: to
mercial aircraft engines 共twin spool high bypass ratio turbofan
decrease the proportion of false alarms and to increase the propor-
engines兲, it is typical to have more than 10 parameters to estimate tion of fault detection by taking advantage of two different kind of
from only seven to nine measurements. As a result of the negative methods.
redundancy, the problem is underdetermined and the solution is The approach presented in this contribution is based on a soft-
not unique. Moreover, this estimation relies on uncertain observa- constrained Kalman filter 共SCKF兲 developed in 关8兴 and a Baye-
tions available under the form of a noisy measurement set. In- sian Belief Network 共BBN兲 developed in 关9兴. The principal diag-
creasing the number of samples could make the redundancy posi- nostic tool is the Kalman filter, which produces the estimations of
tive, but because they are related to nearly the same operating the unknown health parameters. The estimation process incorpo-
points they do not represent a set of independent observations, and rates information derived by the BBN—a fact that is shown to
therefore, the estimation remains unstable. Some approaches in improve fault detection efficiency. A way of combining the two
turbine engine diagnostics where few measurements are available techniques is described in the following. For completeness, a brief
can be found in 关4–8兴, but they all assume some predefined con- description of the diagnostic problem and the structure of each of
the two techniques is given first.
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute 共IGTI兲 of ASME for pub-
lication in the JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER. Manuscript Problem Statement
received October 1, 2003; final manuscript received March 1, 2004. IGTI Review
Chair: A. J. Strazisar. Paper presented at the International Gas Turbine and
The identification problem consists of recursively estimating a
Aeroengine Congress and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria, June 13–17, 2004, Paper No. set of health parameters representing possible degradations of spe-
GT2004-53541. cific components 共fan, high pressure turbine, etc.兲 on the basis of
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power APRIL 2006, Vol. 128 / 281
Copyright © 2006 by ASME
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Fig. 2 Description of the soft-constrained Kalman filter
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Fig. 4 Procedure followed to combine classification algorithm
with Kalman filter
rithms. BBN results are fed into the SCKF as prior information to
achieve the health-parameter estimation. The final outcome of the Fig. 6 Turbofan engine layout. Measurement uncertainties
combination is the SCKF result called hereafter “results of the represent three times the standard deviation
combination.”
The communication between a classification algorithm, such as
冕
the BBN, and a Kalman filter is not straightforward because they nc nc
Wi+1
use different probability density functions. Although prior infor-
兺 兺 2 共w + w
Pi Pi
mation needed by the Kalman filter has to be Gaussian, outputs of = w dw = i i+1兲 共5兲
i=0 wi
wi+1 − wi i=0
classification algorithms are the probabilities of a measurement set
兺冕
to belong to a specific class and, therefore, no probability density nc Wi+1
function is attached to the results. This situation is depicted in Fig. Pi
5. Probabilities related to outputs of the classification algorithm 2 = 共w − 兲2 dw
i=0 wi
wi+1 − wi
are assumed to be piecewise constant and must be converted into
a Gaussian one to be fed into the SCKF. nc
兺 3 关共w − 兲
Pi
The problem of Fig. 5 underlines the more general situation = i
2
+ 共wi+1 − 兲2 + 共wi − 兲共wi+1 − 兲兴 共6兲
where qualitative knowledge is to be compared to quantitative i=0
knowledge. This difference in usually sufficient to prevent the
The mean and covariance needed by the Kalman filter are, respec-
combination between classification techniques and regression
tively, built using relations 共5兲 and 共6兲. These are the key relations
techniques. The solution proposed herein is to preserve, as much
that allow the flow of information from BBN to SCKF.
as possible, the distribution of probability given by the BBN. If
the BBN diagnoses that a given parameter belongs to a specific
fault case with a probability of 100%, then this must appear in the Application of the Method
Gaussian function fed into the Kalman filter by a small covari-
ance. Conversely, if the BBN is unable to make a diagnostic, then In order to show how the method achieves a diagnosis and
the probability is spread on the whole set of possible categories; “examine” its effectiveness, its application to a test case of a twin-
this must also appear in the Gaussian function fed into the Kalman spool mixed-flow turbofan is presented. This type of engine is
filter by an important variance. The most efficient way to translate representative of current-day civil aircraft propulsors. The particu-
this knowledge is to go back to the definition of the mean and lar engine layout chosen is shown in Fig. 6. 共See Table 1.兲 This
the variance 2 of a given probability function p engine and fault cases examined has been used as a test case by
several previously published diagnostic methods 共e.g., 关5,7–9兴兲. It
冕
⬁
can therefore be considered as a benchmark case. The available
= wp共w兲dw 共3兲 sensors with their accuracies and the set of 11 health parameters
−⬁ representing some degradations of specific components 共fan, high
冕
⬁
pressure turbine, etc.兲 are shown in Fig. 6.
An extensive set of faults, shown in Table 2, representative of
2 = 共w − 兲2 p共w兲dw 共4兲 possible situations expected to be encountered in practice, defined
−⬁
ALT⫽flight altitude
DTAMB= ⌬T from iso
M⫽flight Mach number
Tx⫽total temperature at station x
Px⫽total pressure at station x
SEx⫽efficiency degradation at component x
SWxR⫽flow capacity at component x
A8IMP⫽fouling factor of the nozzle
LPC⫽low-pressure compressor
HPC⫽high-pressure compressor
HPT⫽high-pressure turbine
Fig. 5 Conversion of probability density from a piecewise con- LPT⫽low-pressure turbine
stant function into a Gaussian function
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power APRIL 2006, Vol. 128 / 283
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Table 2 Fault cases of a turbofan engine
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Fig. 10 Identification results of combined method for LPT fault
case k „dotted lines refer to actual values…
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power APRIL 2006, Vol. 128 / 285
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Table 4 Summary of diagnosis success given by the SCKF
alone, BBN alone, and combination of the SCKF with BBN a
priori for the complete set of component fault detailed in Table
2
a 冑 冑 冑
b 冑 冑 冑
c 冑 - 冑
d 冑 冑 冑
e 冑 冑 冑
f 冑 冑 冑
g 冑 冑 冑
h 冑 冑 冑
i 冑 冑 冑
j - - -
k - 冑 冑
l - 冑 冑
m 冑 冑 冑
n 冑 冑 冑
to the low-pressure turbine. Fig. 15 Identification results of BBN alone „upper figure… and
Table 4 gives an overall picture of the efficiency and the gain combined method „lower figure… for LPT fault case j „dotted
lines refer to actual values…
achieved by the combination is compared to SCKF and BBN
working separately. This combination is able to solve all the test
cases except the case j, which is known to be difficult to identify
with this set of seven measurements 关7兴.
knowledge must be made available. In 关8兴, two additional mea-
surements are considered: P26 and P49. Although this solution is
Discussion ideal because it provides the best results, those two measurements
The present recursive method allows one to identify component may not be available. In a test bench configuration it may happen
faults based on associated measurement deviations whose ampli- that some other measurements are available 共i.e., vibrations, some
tude is around the standard deviation of measurement noise. The measurements about the lubrication system, etc.兲 but are unlikely
signal-to-noise ratio mainly affects the identification process in to be predicted based on the health parameters since they do not
terms of convergence speed. The dependency of the convergence appear in the model. This underlines the weakness of the Kalman
speed on the measurement noise level is illustrated in Fig. 14. filter for which a model has to be available. Any qualitative
Crosses represent the relative increase of time required to accu- knowledge is very difficult to include in the identification proce-
mulate enough data samples as needed to converge to the dure.
asymptotic solution. The crosses compare well to the theoretical The combined method proposed in the present paper allows the
prediction 共plain line兲, which states that the number of data inclusion of additional information from sources other than mod-
samples required to obtain a given accuracy must increase as a eled measurements 共information fusion兲. It can thus produce re-
quadratic function of the noise level. Indeed, more accurate mea- sults that would have been possible for the Kalman filter only with
surements 共less noise兲 means more adaptability 共since the Kalman additional gas path measurements. This point is demonstrated by
gain K is higher兲, an improved tracking capability, and, therefore, considering again case j, but assuming now that some additional
an increased convergence speed. information exists, such as historical records and related statistics.
Moreover, systematic calculations have shown that the final di- The following test case assumes that such additional knowledge
agnostic 共asymptotic solution兲 is only slightly affected by the level favors a fault on the low-pressure turbine. The BBN is modified
of noise in the measurements. Beside these effects of the noise by tuning the a priori knowledge about the health parameters 共see
level, the nonobservability of some parameters can lead to a false 关9兴 for the detailed procedure兲 to make a fault on the low-pressure
diagnostic even though the noise level is strongly reduced. turbine more likely to occur.
With the set of seven available measurements, those results are Results using this “modified” BBN are shown in Fig. 15. A
the most meaningful that can be obtained with the combined al- fault on SE49 is now detected in addition to the one related to
gorithm. In order to obtain a better location of the fault, additional SW49R. Results of the combined algorithm 共lower graph in Fig.
15兲 are far better: SW49R as well as SE49 converge to their actual
value, while SE41 is closer to its true value. Finally 共after 2500 s兲,
the detection is effective and the health parameters are accurately
assessed. The diagnosis is effective and allows a more reliable
decision.
Conclusions
A new methodology combining classification methods and re-
gression methods has been developed in order to benefit of their
mutual advantages. This combination has been tested on cases
representative of a real-life application to underline the gain in
stability and accuracy that can be achieved. The number of unde-
tected faults are lowered and false alarms are avoided 共Table 4兲
when compared to regression or classification methods working
Fig. 14 Influence of the measurement noise level on the con- separately.
vergence speed The estimation of the combined algorithm allows a more reli-
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able detection of component faults but also achieves a better ac- z̄k ⫽ raw measurements zk from data acquisition
curacy and a better fault isolation by lowering the spread of the system
fault on several parameters 共“smearing effect”兲.
Besides the improvements in accuracy and stability, this kind of
method allows information or sensor fusion, which is a very im- References
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