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A significant issue in aircraft engines is quantifying residual life to overhaul. The algorithm described in this paper calculates with a good level of reliability the residual life of a petrol piston engine. The method was tested on small, latest-generation, naturally-aspirated aircraft and racing piston engines, and has been effective in several experiments. This method is implemented directly on the electronic control system of the engine with very few lines of C-code. The method can also be used in many industrial engines. This innovative method assumes that only two main factors (power level and wear) affect engine durability or time between overhauls. These two factors are considered as separate and combined with worst case criteria. The wear is assumed to follow a logarithmic law and a formula similar to the Miner's law for material fatigue is used, making it possible to calculate the power-level curve with knowledge of only two points. The wear-curve is also related to elapsed engine cycles. The algorithm is very simple and can be implemented with just a few lines of software code accessing data collected from existing sensors. The system is currently used to evaluate actual residual life of racing engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A main problem in aircraft engines is the evaluation of residual life to TBO. The algorithm described in this paper calculates with good reliability the residual life to TBO of a petrol piston engine. The method was tested on small last-generation naturally-aspirated-avio piston engine, and has demonstrated to be effective in several experimental tests. This method is implemented directly in the FADEC or ECU of the engine with very few lines of C-Code. The method can be used also in many industrial engines. This innovative method assumes that only two main factors (load and wear) affect engine durability or Time Between Overhauls (TBO). These two factors are considered as separate and combined with the worst case criteria. The load is assumed to follow a logarithmic law and a formula similar to the Miner's law for material fatigue is used, making possible to calculate the "load curve" with the knowledge of only two points. The "wear" curve is related to elapsed engine cycles, and is easy to implement since it is related to technological. The resulting algorithm is very simple and can be implemented in very few software lines with data collected from the already existing sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]