Use of COTS functional analysis software as an IVHM design tool for detection and isolation of UAV fuel system faults

This paper presents a new approach to the development of health management solutions which can be applied to both new and legacy platforms during the conceptual design phase. The approach involves the qualitative functional modelling of a system in order to perform an Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) design – the placement of sensors and the diagnostic rules to be used in interrogating their output. The qualitative functional analysis was chosen as a route for early assessment of failures in complex systems. Functional models of system components are required for capturing the available system knowledge used during various stages of system and IVHM design. MADe™ (Maintenance Aware Design environment), a COTS software tool developed by PHM Technology, was used for the health management design. A model has been built incorporating the failure diagrams of five failure modes for five different components of a UAV fuel system. Thus an inherent health management solution for the system and the optimised sensor set solution have been defined. The automatically generated sensor set solution also contains a diagnostic rule set, which was validated on the fuel rig for different operation modes taking into account the predicted fault detection/isolation and ambiguity group coefficients. It was concluded that when using functional modelling, the IVHM design and the actual system design cannot be done in isolation. The functional approach requires permanent input from the system designer and reliability engineers in order to construct a functional model that will qualitatively represent the real system. In other words, the physical insight should not be isolated from the failure phenomena and the diagnostic analysis tools should be able to adequately capture the experience bases. This approach has been verified on a laboratory bench top test rig which can simulate a range of possible fuel system faults. The rig is fully instrumented in order to allow benchmarking of various sensing solution for fault detection/isolation that were identified using functional analysis

Quantitative Verification: Formal Guarantees for Timeliness, Reliability and Performance

Computerised systems appear in almost all aspects of our daily lives, often in safety-critical scenarios such as embedded control systems in cars and aircraft or medical devices such as pacemakers and sensors. We are thus increasingly reliant on these systems working correctly, despite often operating in unpredictable or unreliable environments. Designers of such devices need ways to guarantee that they will operate in a reliable and efficient manner. Quantitative verification is a technique for analysing quantitative aspects of a system's design, such as timeliness, reliability or performance. It applies formal methods, based on a rigorous analysis of a mathematical model of the system, to automatically prove certain precisely specified properties, e.g. ``the airbag will always deploy within 20 milliseconds after a crash'' or ``the probability of both sensors failing simultaneously is less than 0.001''. The ability to formally guarantee quantitative properties of this kind is beneficial across a wide range of application domains. For example, in safety-critical systems, it may be essential to establish credible bounds on the probability with which certain failures or combinations of failures can occur. In embedded control systems, it is often important to comply with strict constraints on timing or resources. More generally, being able to derive guarantees on precisely specified levels of performance or efficiency is a valuable tool in the design of, for example, wireless networking protocols, robotic systems or power management algorithms, to name but a few. This report gives a short introduction to quantitative verification, focusing in particular on a widely used technique called model checking, and its generalisation to the analysis of quantitative aspects of a system such as timing, probabilistic behaviour or resource usage. The intended audience is industrial designers and developers of systems such as those highlighted above who could benefit from the application of quantitative verification,but lack expertise in formal verification or modelling

On systematic approaches for interpreted information transfer of inspection data from bridge models to structural analysis

In conjunction with the improved methods of monitoring damage and degradation processes, the interest in reliability assessment of reinforced concrete bridges is increasing in recent years. Automated imagebased inspections of the structural surface provide valuable data to extract quantitative information about deteriorations, such as crack patterns. However, the knowledge gain results from processing this information in a structural context, i.e. relating the damage artifacts to building components. This way, transformation to structural analysis is enabled. This approach sets two further requirements: availability of structural bridge information and a standardized storage for interoperability with subsequent analysis tools. Since the involved large datasets are only efficiently processed in an automated manner, the implementation of the complete workflow from damage and building data to structural analysis is targeted in this work. First, domain concepts are derived from the back-end tasks: structural analysis, damage modeling, and life-cycle assessment. The common interoperability format, the Industry Foundation Class (IFC), and processes in these domains are further assessed. The need for usercontrolled interpretation steps is identified and the developed prototype thus allows interaction at subsequent model stages. The latter has the advantage that interpretation steps can be individually separated into either a structural analysis or a damage information model or a combination of both. This approach to damage information processing from the perspective of structural analysis is then validated in different case studies

The thermo-stressed state of steam turbine rotors during plant start-up

This article suggests the use of the value of the thermo-stressed state in the turbine steam input stage as one of the key parameters characterizing the start-up reliability of the turbine plant cycle. The authors present the principles of the development of the steam turbine rotor warming model for continuous monitoring of its thermo-stressed state, using a personal computer in real time. The research conducted on the thermo-stressed state of the rotor using a universal CAE programme allowed the hypothesizing of the maximum thermo-stressed states as can be calculated with sufficient precision by ‘characteristic’ temperature differences inside the rotor. It is proposed to evaluate the thermo-stressed states using regression dependence on the ‘characteristic’ differences of the real-time temperature field. Samples for the regression analysis are obtained from preliminary results of CAE programme calculations. An example is given for the whole range of the necessary computational research to produce modules of a control device for the steam turbine T-110/120-130. The modules are tested in the MATLAB Simulink environment

Effect of flow pattern at pipe bends on corrosion behaviour of low carbon steek and its challenges

Recent design work regarding seawater flow lines has emphasized the need to identify, develop, and verify critical relationships between corrosion prediction and flow regime mechanisms at pipe bend. In practice this often reduces to an pragmatic interpretation of the effects of corrosion mechanisms at pipe bends. Most importantly the identification of positions or sites, within the internal surface contact areas where the maximum corrosion stimulus may be expected to occur, thereby allowing better understanding, mitigation, monitoring and corrosion control over the life cycle. Some case histories have been reviewed in this context, and the interaction between corrosion mechanisms and flow patterns closely determined, and in some cases correlated. Since the actual relationships are complex, it was determined that a risk based decision making process using selected ‘what’ if corrosion analyses linked to ‘what if’ flow assurance analyses was the best way forward. Using this in methodology, and pertinent field data exchange, it is postulated that significant improvements in corrosion prediction can be made. This paper outlines the approach used and shows how related corrosion modelling software data such as that available from corrosion models Norsok M5006, and Cassandra to parallel computational flow modelling in a targeted manner can generate very noteworthy results, and considerably more viable trends for corrosion control guidance. It is postulated that the normally associated lack of agreement between corrosion modelling and field experience, is more likely due to inadequate consideration of corrosion stimulating flow regime data, rather than limitations of the corrosion modelling. Applications of flow visualization studies as well as computations with the k-ε model of turbulence have identified flow features and regions where metal loss is a maximu

Technical and vocational skills (TVS): a means of preventing violence among youth in Nigeria

Technical and vocational skills are an important tool for reducing violence among youth, especially in Nigeria, who face security challenges due to different kinds of violence. This paper focusses on the policies and programmes intended to provide youth with skills that can help them improve their life instead of engaging in violence. The paper also studies youth participation in violence. The study shows that youth in Nigeria participate in violence because of unemployment and economic pressure. These youth are mostly from poor families and are mostly used by others to achieve their own unlawful ambition. The data were collected from various secondary sources such as textbooks, journals and conference papers that were carefully reviewed. The results obtained from the literature revealed that youth are not committed, sensitised and mobilised to taking advantage of the opportunities available to them. The results also revealed that almost all the programmes meant to provide youths with skills have failed. Poverty alleviation programmes established to create jobs, self-employment and self-reliance have been unsuccessful. Therefore, alternatives must be provided to help the younger generations. Based on the literature reviewed, the paper discusses related issues and outcomes and ends with recommendations to improve the situation