An experimental investigation of a full-scale aircraft ECS
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Abstract
Aircraft Environmental Control System (ECS) conditions hot bleed air and regulates to the cockpit, cabin and avionics bay. It consists of multiple subsystems which are prone to degradation and eventually failure. There has been a number of incidents reported of sudden cabin pressure loss resulting in emergency landing. Such incidents at high altitudes can be problematic. Furthermore, the ECS has been reported to be a major driver for unscheduled maintenance impacting the operating costs. The development of an accurate diagnostic solution would identify the degradation early, hence, ensuring safety and reduction in maintenance costs. Researchers in the past have adequately studied model-based diagnostic techniques for the ECS at a component level. However, the ECS being an integrated system, the interdependencies between components makes the diagnosis difficult, particularly when the valves within the ECS masks fault occurrences and the fault propagates through the system. For this reason, IVHM centre has developed an ECS simulation model, SESAC, which has the capability to perform healthy and component degradation simulation. This PhD focuses on an experimental investigation on the ECS to facilitate verification of SESAC. A novel ground test facility (GTF) is developed on a Boeing 737-400 aircraft. The GTF is used to produce data under different ambient and operating conditions, which is used for PACK performance analysis. The importance of appropriate design of control system for ECS simulation model has been highlighted in this research. Furthermore, aircraft data has been used to provide understanding of the ECS control system. The control logic within SESAC has been fine-tuned to support heat exchanger degradation and valve malfunction simulation studies have been conducted. The ability of the 737-GTF to capture fault occurrence has also been demonstrated using experimental data.