In this chapter, analysis of failure mechanisms is made to identify a) potential consequences of the failure, b) methods which can be used to prevent the failure, and c) where appropriate, the expected vibration signature produced by the failure and how this would be portrayed in the vibration model established in Chapter 2. Using the results of this analysis, a suite of faults will be selected for further investigation in later chapters. The selection criteria are based on the perceived benefits to be derived from further development of vibration analysis techniques specific to particular faults.
sized gear set in an automobile transmission and may cost two to three orders of magnitude more (Drago [28]). As an added complication, duplication of the main helicopter transmission components is impractical therefore little redundancy can be built into the system. Figure 3.1 shows a schematic of a typical transmission system in a modern twin engine helicopter (Sikorsky Black Hawk). Except for the engine input modules and their associated accessory drive systems, there is no duplication (or redundant components) in this transmission; loss of power transmission capability in the main module will result in loss of lift and in the tail rotor drive will result in loss of control, both of which can lead to potentially catastrophic accidents.
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interference, destructive pitting and spalling, and tooth surface damage in gears can eventually lead to fracture. Bearing failures, in themselves, will not cause loss of power transmission however, secondary damaged such as abrasive wear due to bearing debris and gross misalignment due to collapse of a bearing can eventually lead to failure of shafts or gears which can result in loss of power transmission.
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helicopter transmission would occur far more often than tail rotor drive shaft failures however, bearing failures very rarely result in aircraft accidents whereas tail rotor drive shaft failures almost invariably do. Component Tail rotor drive shaft Gears Main rotor drive shaft Lubrication system Main gearbox input shaft Bearings Freewheels Cooling fan drive Unknown Percentage of accidents 31.9 19.1 14.9 8.5 8.5 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3
Table 3.1 Component contribution to transmission related accidents 3.1.2.2.2 Component failure modes Further investigation of the failure modes involved in the accidents listed in Table 3.1, showed that in the case of shafts and gears, all the failures were fractures (Astridge [1]) either due to overload or fatigue. In the cases where bearings were listed as the primary failure, subsequent gear fracture was identified as the ultimate cause of accident except for one case, in which the failed bearing was the tail-rotor pitch control bearing. This particular failure highlights the need to look at the operational context of a component when assessing the impact of failure; although no loss of drive occurred, the failure of the bearing caused loss of adequate control of the tail-rotor pitch. Lubrication system failures (due to oil pipe/connection and filter bowl failures or low oil levels) and cooling fan drive failures (due to drive gear fracture) caused disintegration of the gearbox due to overheating (see hot flow in Appendix A.1.5.2). Freewheel (clutch) failures resulting in loss of power transmission were identified as being due to incorrect installation.
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3.1.2.2.3 Summary of accident data The accident data provide confirmation of the expected safety critical failure modes identified in Section 3.1.2.1 and, in addition, provide some indication of the statistical relevance of failures in particular components.
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detection and diagnosis tools are sufficiently sensitive and reliable to perform their intended function.
overload
Gear fracture
Tooth fracture
random fracture
overload
process related excessive wear destructive scoring process related foreign object pitting/spalling incorrect assembly bearing failure
Overheating
lubrication
insufficient cooling
Table 3.2 Safety critical failure modes in helicopter transmissions From both the expected failure modes and helicopter accident statistics, the ultimate failure modes which can result in aircraft accident are (in order of priority): a) shaft fracture, b) gear and gear tooth fracture, c) overheating,
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d) incorrect assembly, and e) component deterioration (such as bearing failure) in critical control systems. Table 3.2 summarises a number of different processes (described in Appendix A) which can lead to shaft fracture, gear/tooth fracture, or overheating; including the failure modes, possible causes precipitating the failure, and factors which may contribute to the cause of failure.
maintenance costs of helicopters continue to escalate, there is increasing pressure on helicopter operators (and airframe manufacturers) to find areas in which reductions can be made in the cost of ownership; this is especially true in military forces, because of the world-wide pressure on governments to reduce defence budgets.
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maintenance philosophy can lead to very large savings in maintenance cost over the life of the aircraft, however, it places a much greater burden on fault detection and diagnosis systems. At present, condition assessment of transmission system components in the Black Hawk and Seahawk relies upon chip detectors in each of the transmission system modules. These can only give warning of failure modes which produce debris; such as wear, scoring, pitting and spalling in gears and bearings. Although a number of these failure modes can contribute to safety critical component failures if left undetected (as summarised in Table 3.2), fractures themselves do not generate any debris therefore any fracture which is not the result of the progression of a debris producing failure mode will go undetected. This places even greater emphasis on the need to develop detection methodologies for these failure modes as, without regular overhaul and component replacement, any undetected critical fault will continue to propagate until catastrophic failure occurs.
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Recently, substantial development of on-board Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) [1] has been performed, which combine the approaches of usage monitoring (1(b)) and health monitoring (2) above. This work has mainly been prompted by the efforts of civil aviation bodies, particularly the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), because of the large disparities between accident rates in helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
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assumed mix of flight regimes. However, the calculated fatigue life for a component is still a statistical parameter; only the probability of failure at any time can be stated. Usage monitoring can also indicate when overload conditions have occurred. Aircrew are currently relied upon to detect overload conditions by observance of cockpit instrumentation. However, this is not a reliable detection method as situations which
may lead to overload are often emergency or extreme flight conditions; diligent observance of cockpit instrumentation is usually not a priority for aircrew under these conditions. Evidence from usage monitoring can be used in conjunction with other evidence in the fault diagnosis process, or indicate an increase in the probability of a fault occurring, which can be used to direct more monitoring effort towards detection of that particular fault.
examination of a component, using techniques such as microscopy, X-ray, dye penetrants, magnetic rubber, etc., these methods usually cannot be performed without removal of, and in some cases physical damage to, the component. Whilst physical examination techniques still play a critical role during manufacture, assembly and overhaul, they are impractical in an operational helicopter transmission and other (nonintrusive) fault detection methods need to be employed for routine monitoring purposes. Almost all failure modes in the rotating elements in geared transmission systems will cause some change in the vibration signature, and many will produce material debris and/or increased friction causing a change in surface temperature. Most helicopters have some form of temperature and oil debris monitoring systems but very few currently have vibration monitoring systems.
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With the advent of cheap, powerful microprocessors and the continuing development of more sophisticated vibration analysis systems which reduce the complexity of the diagnostic information (e.g., from a 1000 line spectrum to a few condition indices), the potential of vibration analysis as a diagnostic tool is starting to be realised. Vibration analysis techniques will be discussed in detail in the next chapter and expanded further in the remainder of this thesis.
3.2.3.1 Overheating
In many older helicopters, transmission system disintegration will occur in a matter of seconds without lubricant; explaining the relatively high number of accidents attributed to lubrication system failures in Table 3.1. In modern helicopters (mainly due to
legislative measures), transmission systems will continue to operate for 30 minutes or more after a lubrication system failure, giving the pilot time to land the aircraft before catastrophic failure occurs. Because of this built-in tolerance to lubrication system
problems in current helicopters, it is anticipated that overheating will be less of a safety critical issue in future. That is, the problem has already been addressed by the manufacturers and solved by transmission system redesign.
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overload
interference operational
process related excessive wear destructive scoring process related foreign object pitting/spalling incorrect assembly bearing failure
' ' ' ' ' ? ' ? ' ' ? & ' ' ? &
& & ' & & ' & & & & & & ' '
& & ' & & ' & & & & & & & & & ' &
? ? ?
& & & & & & ' & & & & & & & & & & '
? ?
Table 3.3 Diagnostic evidence of safety critical failure modes The column headed V indicates vibratory evidence, O indicates oil debris, T indicates temperature and U indicates information from Usage Monitoring. Tick marks indicate that the specified diagnostic evidence is expected for the failure mode, a cross indicates that the diagnostic evidence is not expected and a question mark indicates possible diagnostic evidence.
Based on the information in Table 3.3, the failure modes which are expected to provide good vibratory evidence are fatigue fractures of shafts, gears and gear teeth, and random fractures of gear teeth. Because of the sudden, unexpected nature of overload fractures, these cannot be predicted, however, if total failure does not occur immediately, the initial fracture may progress in a similar fashion to a fatigue fracture. To provide sufficient warning of impending failure and, where practical, enable preventative maintenance to be carried out, it is desirable that the causal factors leading to the safety critical failures also be detected. These are of secondary importance to the diagnosis of the fractures themselves. Therefore, in order of importance, the failures for which vibration analysis methods are to be examined in more detail are: a) shaft fatigue fracture, b) gear tooth bending fatigue fracture, c) gear fatigue fracture, d) gear tooth random fracture, e) shaft unbalance, misalignment and bent shaft, and f) gear tooth surface damage. In addition to the priority failure modes listed above, vibration analysis may be useful in providing confirmatory detection and diagnostics of potentially safety critical failure modes for which other failure evidence (e.g., oil debris and/or temperature) is available. These failure modes are: a) excessive tooth wear and destructive scoring, b) tooth pitting/spalling, and c) bearing failures.
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diagnosis of shaft cracks a relatively simple tasks using vibration analysis if the first three harmonics of the shaft vibration xs(t) (2.26) can be clearly identified in the measured vibration signal x(t) (2.33).
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For diagnostic purposes, it is important that a bending fatigue crack be distinguished from other localised tooth failures such as pitting, spalling or tooth surface damage, which progress at a far lower rate and will not necessarily lead to catastrophic failure. The major distinguishing characteristic between tooth cracking and other localised tooth damage is the extent of tooth deflection, which will be more noticeable in the phase modulation sg() (2.6).
impulses will occur as the sharp edges of the broken tooth impact with the mating teeth; this may be accompanied by abrupt phase changes. Significant cutting damage may occur to the mating teeth, leading to a succession of random fractures on both gears. In addition to the vibratory evidence, the separation of relatively large chunks of gear tooth should be readily detectible by the chip detectors used in most modern helicopter transmissions.
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amplitudes at the tooth-meshing frequency and its harmonics, with a more significant change expected in the higher harmonics (see Chapter 2, Section 2.1.1.1.4). Although vibration analysis cannot provide distinction between these two failure modes, oil debris analysis can (Kuhnell [44]).
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