Assessment of Micro Turbojet Engine Behavior during Bearing Failure Incidence for Improving Control and Diagnostic System

Gas turbine engines are used throughout many industrial applications mostly including energy and transportation fields. Their efficient and reliable operation is therefore essential. This paper focuses on a catastrophic failure occurred in a micro turbojet engine and its goal is to identify thermodynamic properties that can be measured during the operation and can serve to identify the impending bearing damage. Furthermore, once the problem has already occurred, the authors offer a method to safely run down the engine in contrast to the original control system, which tried to continue normal operation of the engine resulting in more severe damage. The results that were obtained for a small scale device here, can be applied to larger scale machines as well, to improve control system reaction and provide advanced diagnostic capabilities.