Fault mode probability factor based fault-tolerant control for dissimilar redundant actuation system

This paper presents a Fault Mode Probability Factor (FMPF) based Fault-Tolerant Control (FTC) strategy for multiple faults of Dissimilar Redundant Actuation System (DRAS) composed of Hydraulic Actuator (HA) and Electro-Hydrostatic Actuator (EHA). The long-term service and severe working conditions can result in multiple gradual faults which can ultimately degrade the system performance, resulting in the system model drift into the fault state characterized with parameter uncertainty. The paper proposes to address this problem by using the historical statistics of the multiple gradual faults and the proposed FMPF to amend the system model with parameter uncertainty. To balance the system model precision and computation time, a Moving Window (MW) method is used to determine the applied historical statistics. The FMPF based FTC strategy is developed for the amended system model where the system estimation and Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) are updated at the end of system sampling period. The simulations of DRAS system subjected to multiple faults have been performed and the results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Mechanical wear debris feature,detection, and diagnosis: A review

Mechanical debris is an important product of friction wear, which is also a crucial approach to know the running status of a machine. Many studies have been conducted on mechanical debris in related fields such as tribology, instrument, and diagnosis. This paper presents a comprehensive review of these studies, which summarizes wear mechanisms (e.g., abrasive wear, fatigue wear, and adhesive wear) and debris features (e.g., concentration (number), size, morphology, and composition), analyzes detection methods principles (e.g., offline: spectrograph and ferrograph, and online: optical method, inductive method, resistive-capacitive method, and acoustic method), reviews developments of online inductive methods, and investigates the progress of debris-based diagnosis. Finally, several notable problems are discussed for further studies.     

Erosion degradation characteristics of a linear electro-hydrostatic actuator under a high-frequency turbulent flow field

The paper proposes a performance degradation analysis model based on dynamic erosion wear for a novel Linear Electro-Hydrostatic Actuator (LEHA). Rather than the traditional statistical methods based on degradation data, the method proposed in this paper firstly analyzes the dominant progressive failure mode of the LEHA based on the working principle and working conditions of the LEHA. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method, combining the turbulent theory and the micro erosion principle, is used to establish an erosion model of the rectification mechanism. The erosion rates for different port openings, under a time-varying flow field, are obtained. The piecewise linearization method is applied to update the concentration of contaminated particles within the LEHA, in order to gain insight into the erosion degradation process at various stages of degradation. The main contribution of the proposed model is the application of the dynamic concentration of contamination particles in erosion analysis of Electro-Hydraulic Servo Valves (EHSVs), throttle valves, spool valves, and needle valves. The effects of system parameters and working conditions on component wear are analyzed by simulations. The results of the proposed model match the expected degradation process.     

Modified Sequential Kriging Optimization for Multidisciplinary Complex Product Simulation

Directing to the high cost of computer simulation optimization problem, Kriging surrogate model is widely used to decrease the computation time. Since the sequential Kriging optimization is time consuming, this article extends the expected improvement and put forwards a modified sequential Kriging optimization (MSKO). This method changes the twice optimization problem into once by adding more than one point at the same time. Before re-fitting the Kriging model, the new sample points are verified to ensure that they do not overlap the previous one and the distance between two sample points is not too small. This article presents the double stopping criterion to keep the root mean square error (RMSE) of the final surrogate model at an acceptable level. The example shows that MSKO can approach the global optimization quickly and accurately. MSKO can ensure global optimization no matter where the initial point is. Application of active suspension indicates that the proposed method is effective.