Advanced Diagnostics of Aircraft Electrical Generators

The electrical and mechanical failures (such as bearing and winding failures) combine to cause premature failures of the generators, which become a flight safety issue forcing the crew to land as soon as practical. Currently, diagnostic / prognostic technologies are not implemented for aircraft generators where repairs are time consuming and its costs are high. This paper presents the development of several algorithms to differentiate between these failure modes and normal aircraft operational modes, determine the degree of damage and remaining life of a generator. P-3 generator data (vibrations & phase voltages/currents) were collected for a seeded bearing failure involving lubrication defects in main bearing system. The results show that the frequency domain analysis of the generator's phase voltage can be used to detect its general health and impending bearing failures.