Understanding the role of a Digital Twin in Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM)

Abstract

Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) aims to support Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) by monitoring, diagnosing, and prognosing the health of the host system. One of the technologies required by IVHM to carry out its objectives is the means to emulate the functioning of the host system, and the concept of a Digital Twin (DT) was introduced in aerospace IVHM to represent the functioning of such a complex system. This paper aims to discuss the role played by DT in the field of IVHM. A DT is the virtual representation of any physical product, that is used to project the functioning of the product at a given instance. The DT is used across the lifecycle of any product, and its output can be customized depending upon the area of application. The DT is currently popular in industry because of the technologies like sensors, cloud computing, Internet of Things, machine learning, and advanced software, which enabled its development. This paper discusses what encompasses a DT, the technologies that support the DT, its applications across industries, and its development in academia. This paper also talks about how a DT can combine with IVHM technology to assess the health of complex systems like an aircraft. Lastly, this paper presents various challenges faced by industry during the implementation of a DT and some of the possible opportunities for future growth.

A Generalised Methodology for the Diagnosis of Aircraft Systems

“…While the concept of digital twins has been used across IVHM in a variety of roles [3], FAVER simulates multiple aircraft systems interacting with each other to demonstrate and isolate the effects of cascading faults at the vehicle level. Fig 1 shows the overall working mechanism of FAVER.…”

“…In order to achieve this objective, Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) uses technology across numerous sources like sensor data, fleet history, maintenance records, and design documents to monitor and assess the health of the concerned asset (component/ LRU/ subsystem/ system/ vehicle), to diagnose any fault present in the asset and then to prognose its remaining useful life. In this way, IVHM capability enables aircraft Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM), resulting in the achievement of cost and time saving [3].…”

Development and Implementation of a Framework for Aerospace Vehicle Reasoning (FAVER)

“…The reasoning component is employed by FAVER to reason through the health information from various aircraft systems in order to set priorities and pass judgments as to which system is the root cause of the concerned fault and which are the affected systems. The Digital Twin (DT) is a virtual representation of any physical asset [1], and it is used by FAVER to emulate the interaction between the aircraft systems, to produce 'what-if' simulations to explore the unexpected scenarios in advance, and to validate the results produced by the reasoning component. FAVER is one of the first frameworks to combine the versatility of DT with the power of reasoning to isolate cascading faults at the vehicle level.…”

“…Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) is an evolving capability that enables the Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) of complex vehicles like aircraft. It uses data from various sources such as sensors, maintenance records, and design documents to condition monitoring, diagnosing faults and degradations, and evaluating the remaining useful life of the concerned systems [1]. For an aircraft, the main objective of IVHM is to enable the vehicle to function as intended, increasing its reliability and availability, and saving time and cost associated with unexpected downtime and the eventual consequence of prolonged maintenance activities.…”

“…For an aircraft, the main objective of IVHM is to enable the vehicle to function as intended, increasing its reliability and availability, and saving time and cost associated with unexpected downtime and the eventual consequence of prolonged maintenance activities. IVHM aims to be a part of the aircraft's end-to-end process, starting from design requirements leading up to after-sales service, rather than being an add-on service to an already mature process [1].…”