Simulation-based health and contingency management

This paper presents a concept and associated software test bench for simulation-based health and contingency management that can be applied to integrated vehicle health management architectures. The simulation-based design test bench was developed in the Matlab/Simulinktrade environment and can be applied to various platforms for developing, testing and verifying automated prognostic and health management technologies and fault accommodation strategies. Specifically, this paper introduces the required software components and integrated health management and adaptive control architecture for performing these tasks. The Simulinktrade modules provide for "plug 'n play" integration of vehicle models, prognostic and health management (PHM) algorithms, and adaptive control logic into a simulation-based design environment. By integrating dynamic, model-based health management, intelligent control, and reasoner strategies, the simulation test bench allows designers to examine optimal fault accommodation techniques that increases availability, improve safety, and optimize maintenance resource planning for complex vehicle systems. The described software will enable the end users to initially configure the system and monitor the effectiveness of the vehicle simulation under various fault scenarios. It also enables users to rapidly design and simulate the health and contingency management components for integrated system health assessments