Prognostics and Health Monitoring for an Electro-

Hydraulic Flight Control Actuator

Cintia de Oliveira Bizarria
EMBRAER, Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A.
Av. Brigadeiro Faria Lima, 2170, Putim
São José dos Campos, SP Brasil 12227-901
+55 12 39278827
cintia.bizarria@embraer.com.br

Takashi Yoneyama,
Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica – ITA
Praça Marechal Eduardo Gomes, 50 - Vila das Acácias
São José dos Campos, SP Brasil 12.228-900
takashi@ita.br

Abstract—A model-based approach to Prognostics and
Health Monitoring (PHM) for an electro-hydraulic flight
control actuator is presented. The aim of this paper is to
show a model-based methodology to detect, diagnose and
prognosticate a fault in an electro-hydraulic primary flight
control actuator that precedes an imminent failure. The
model-based approach is versatile and can be easily applied
on another system, whose model is available. The PHM
solution proposed is dedicated to health monitoring and
failure prediction of a generic primary flight control
actuator. This model-based approach systematically
assesses health state and the Remaining Useful Life (RUL)
and consists of developing a model of the system for
different flight conditions, the introduction of the failure
mode. The RUL calculated is a time-to-failure whose
confidence level depends on several conditions, such as
model fidelity, sensor noise and precision of the data
recorder.12
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................ 1
2. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION ................................................. 2
3. PROGNOSTICS AND HEALTH MONITORING
METHODOLOGIES ............................................................... 2
4. CASE STUDY .................................................................... 4
5. SIMULATED RESULTS ...................................................... 7
6. CONCLUSION AND REMARKS .......................................... 7
REFERENCES ....................................................................... 8
BIOGRAPHY ......................................................................... 9
1. INTRODUCTION
Prognostics and Health Monitoring (PHM) is a technique
which uses observations of measurements to assess health
state and develop a prediction of impending failure of
chosen components [1].
1 of the system modeled and the failure mode. Section 3
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978-1-4244-2622-5/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE
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IEEEAC paper#1293, Version 4, Updated 2008:12:19
PHM has become a great field of research due to its
capability of health assessment and failure prediction,
generating technical and financial benefits for any kind of
plant. Especially the cost has received a lot of attention for
critical plants, like chemical, aerospace and aeronautic
systems.
This technology can lead to potentially considerable savings
in aeronautical industry, reducing the number of delays and
increasing safety. As PHM aims to anticipate failures, these
events could be avoided if the monitoring solution is
available to an operator. The estimation of current and
future health state of components in aircraft may also guide
the maintenance activities and spare parts logistics [2].
This task is gradually being accomplished, as more and
more field data become available, correlated with the failure
reports and the maintenance actions history. PHM is about
making aircraft more competitive by making them more
maintainable, and will probably represent an important
competitive advantage in the near future [3].
Although the need for PHM in aircrafts is clearly
recognized, the problem of detecting faults and predicting
failures in actuators is complex. The failure modes comprise
electrical, mechanical and hydraulic components and can be
disguised by aerodynamic loads and other varying forces
[4].
Traditionally, PHM has been heavily based on data-driven
approach, yielding significant results for some applications.
However, this approach typically gives considerable
dispersion. This paper shows a model-based methodology to
detect, diagnostic and prognostic a fault in a generic electro-
hydraulic actuator that precedes a failure.
This paper is organized in six sections. Section 2 contains
the problem description, presenting a high level description
describes the proposed PHM methodology, showing the

1
basic steps that should be followed. Section 4 presents a
case study showing the effects of the failure mode chosen
and the PHM formulation adopted. Section 5 presents the
numerical results. The last section presents the conclusion
and some remarks.
2. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
In general, a flight control system is developed to comply
with performance and safety requirements. However, during
in-service life, the system tends to degrade, which happens
at different rates, mainly depending on the operational
conditions. For this reason, it may happen that the Line
Replaceable Units (LRU) which are part of the system fail
before the scheduled replacement time. This causes
unscheduled stops, logistic problems, higher maintenance
costs and loss of profit.
To address this problem, a PHM methodology dedicated to
one failure mode is proposed. The failure mode was chosen
using a conventional FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects, and
Criticality Analysis). As a representative failure mode of an
electro-hydraulic system, the clogging of the Electro-
Hydraulic Servo-Valve (EHSV) output was chosen.
The PHM methodology developed in this paper utilizes a
mathematical formulation applied on a primary flight
control actuator, whose general architecture is presented in
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Generic Primary Flight Actuator.
The actuation presented in Fig. 1 represents an electro-
hydraulic primary flight control actuator. The pilot’s input
is converted into electric energy, usually by a linear or
rotary transducer.
The pilot’s command is processed inside the control module
together with flight conditions. The control module
generates the input for the actuation system in order to
produce the deflection command.
A typical actuation control-loop is presented in Fig. 2. This
is a simplified representation of an electro-hydraulic
actuator which is better explained in [5].
2
Fig. 2. Actuation control loop.
As shown in Fig. 2, the controller generates an electrical
signal. This signal commands the Electro-Hydraulic Servo-
Valve (EHSV) of the actuator causing flow through the
valve. The position of the ram is then controlled by the
closed-loop configuration abovementioned. The flight
control surface position is proportional to the ram position.
The model of the system includes the control law inside the
controller, consisting on a gain schedule based on flight
conditions and the difference between the desired and the
current ram position. Also, the EHSV is modeled as a
conventional two stage jet-pipe valve with incompressible
flow [5]. The nominal model was validated by experimental
tests and real data collected from a new aircraft.
3. PROGNOSTICS AND HEALTH MONITORING
METHODOLOGIES
The approach proposed employs a mathematical dynamic
model of the system that is directly tied to the physical
process that drives the health of the component.
Fig. 3 presents the proposed PHM process flow.
Fig. 3. PHM process.
Data pre-processing consists on selecting a period of the
flight where there is a command to the flight control
actuator. Degradation detection is based on the deviation of
EHSV electrical current measurement per the nominal
behavior identified by the physical model for that specific
flight condition. Fault diagnostic step is the quantification
of this deviation, based on fault simulation. A degradation
index, which is the quantification of degradation varying
from 0 (brand new) to 1 (failure), is calculated and an
extrapolation is performed. This extrapolation leads to the
remaining useful life (RUL) of the actuator.
In this work, in order to execute the failure prediction, a
model of the clogging evolution is assumed, based on
typical clogging evolution [10]. As a result, a trend line is
built up to extrapolate the fault until the failure, giving the
mean time to failure and variance according to the data.
In the PHM design phase, the steps presented on Fig. 4 were
followed.
Fig. 4. PHM design Steps.
The first step was modeling the system. The model should
be validated with real data. The next steps are described
below.
Fault Evaluation
The failure mode implemented was clogging in the output
of the EHSV. The fault was implemented in the model of
the system related to a severity index.
Feature Extraction
Many comparisons between the parameters measured
should be done in order to identify the failure precursors,
which are the most sensitive parameter that might be
identified to detect and evaluate the failure mode accurately.
One approach is to compare the sensitivities of the
parameters in the presence of the fault. Other approach is to
evaluate the correlation between the parameters and the
severity index.
This step leads to a set of parameters that can efficiently
identify the fault.
3
Fault Diagnostic
Diagnostics is the process of fault isolation and
identification [6]. However, in this paper just one fault is
analyzed, so this step is concerned only with the fault
identification. In other words, specifically for PHM
purposes, the magnitude of the fault or failure mode due to
the fault evaluation is identified based on the residue
between the electrical current measured in the system and
calculated by the model.
Failure Criteria
For other than total loss of function, the end-of-life
definition depends on the application. Actuator frequency
analysis is one possible source of failure information [7].
Typically, to meet the requirements, the frequency response
has to be within specified limits. A general flight control
actuator frequency response is presented in Fig. 5 as an
example of nominal frequency response of the actuator
(solid line) and requirements (dashed lines).
Therefore, as the actuator degrades, the frequency response
of the actuator tends not to comply with the required limit.
One possible consequence of this analysis is that the
threshold, which represents the end-of-life, is understood as
the maximum clogging allowed such that the system still
complies with requirements.
Fig. 5. Frequency response requirements.
Prognostics
The basic goal of the prognostic step is to estimate the
Remaining Useful Life (RUL) with some degree of
certainty. This estimation can be done by several
techniques, as mentioned in [2], [8] and [9]. In this paper a
linear extrapolation of the degradation index is proposed.
Although a linear extrapolation is a very common
mathematical process, if the degradation index and
parameters are correctly identified and the system is close to
failure, there would be no significant differences between
the techniques of extrapolation [16].
As a result, the confidence interval can be calculated using
simple statistical tools and the prognostic process becomes
quite simple in terms of mathematical formulation.
The following section presents a specific case study for the
clogging failure mode, where prognostic process is
illustrated.
4. CASE STUDY
In this section, the mathematical foundations which
generate as final result the RUL are presented.
Fault Evaluation
One way to simulate clogging in the model is to use a time
variable flow gain in the physical model. The gain was
modeled as 1, representing no clogging, until 0.01,
representing 99% of clogging. As a result, the clogging
severity index is defined as the complement of this gain (1-
gain).
There are numerous theoretical models of clogging
evolution in the literature [10]. The temporal variation of
the gain was assumed to be an exponential decay, at
different rates. The reason is to represent different
possibilities of clogging evolution. A Gaussian noise was
added to the gain in order to represent a more realistic
behavior. Based on [10], the clogging failure mode
simulation is assumed suitable for the aim of this paper.
Although the temporal evolution of the failure mode is
continuous, the measurements are taken in discrete instants.
The mathematical formulation of this model of clogging can
be performed by an ARMA model, as presented in (1).
c(t + 1) = a ⋅ c(t ) + v(t )
c ( 0) = 0 (1)
Where c(t) represents the value of clogging in instant t, a is
the clogging rate (a > 1) and v is a Gaussian noise with zero
mean. For simulation, the variance was equal to 0.03.
Feature Extraction
According to the analysis performed herein, it can be stated
that the parameter which might be related to this fault is the
flow. However, this variable is not usually measured in this
kind of actuator. Flow sensor implementation might cause
additional cost. In order to overcome this limitation, other
parameters must be assessed in order to evaluate equivalent
degradation information.
4
The selection of the most sensitive parameters to clogging is
valuable because it can reduce the sample rate necessary to
detect and quantify the fault. In order to give the same
information using only the output of the system (ram
position), a higher sample rate is necessary, e.g. [4].
A simple way to determine the most sensitive parameter is
to compare the relative difference between the integral of
the nominal response and the integral of the failed response.
The comparison between the sensitivities of the electrical
current in the EHSV and the ram position is shown in Fig.
6.
60
Sensitivity
EHSV Electrical Current
50
Ram Position
Percentual Sensitivity
40
30
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Clogging
Fig. 6. Sensitivity analysis.
The electrical current in the EHSV demonstrates
considerable variation when the actuator begins to clog and
this variation is approximately constant. This is reasonable
since larger current amplitude is needed to open the valve in
order to compensate clogging. On the other hand, the ram
position does not vary significantly when the actuator
begins to clog. The control loop is designed to make the
system follow the command despite faults. To illustrate this
behavior, Fig. 7 presents the simulation of the EHSV
electrical current residue, under three clogging conditions.
The residue is normalized by the maximum value. As a
result, the residue varies from -1 to 1.
As can be observed in Fig. 7 the amplitude and the width of
the transitory of the electrical current residue vary according
to the clogging state. Comparing the conditions plotted, the
larger amplitude and width is for the 60% of clogging
condition and the smaller is for 10% of clogging. The
difference between nominal and degraded current increases
as the system degrades. Therefore, a residue approach
seems to be satisfactory to indicate a degradation trend.
 EHSV Current Residue As a result, the non-linear function maps the value of
1 10% Clogging degraded system electrical current integral into a
30% Clogging degradation index. This index is linearly related to clogging,
EHSV Current Residue (normalized)

0.8
60% Clogging as depicted in Fig. 8. The correlation achieved was very
close to 1, considering the clogging varying from 0% to
0.6 40%.

0.4 Clogging versus Degradation Index

50

0.2 45

40
0
35
-0.2

Clogging (%)
30
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time (s) 25

20
Fig. 7. EHSV current residue under different clogging
conditions. 15

10
Other approach to evaluate the most suitable parameters to
5
diagnostic the fault is to evaluate the correlation with the
severity index [15]. The integral of electrical current has a 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
high correlation with the degradation index. Degradation Index

Diagnostics Fig. 8 Linear fit.

In order to identify the clogging failure mode variation, the
nominal and the degraded EHSV electrical current were A linear regression was computed between clogging and the
compared. Based on these conditions, the integral of degradation index based on method of least squares and a
nominal and degraded curves were calculated. Therefore an correlation close to 1 was achieved. The result of the fit is
integral that represents the nominal behavior shall be taken represented in (3).
as constant reference to the others integrals representing
degraded curves. c( d ) = f ⋅ d (3)
Furthermore, the EHSV was modeled as a non-linear
Where c is the value of clogging, d is the degradation value
equation and this characteristic allows detecting some other
calculated based on the nominal and degraded electrical
failures not identified a priori. This is the case, because a
current (2) and f is the failure threshold, which was defined
non-linear model usually presents some coupling
based on frequency analyses showed in section Failure
formulation not presented in a linear equation. In addition,
Criteria. This equation is normalized in order to achieve
anti-cavitation valves formulation is mandatory in a non-
degradation equal to one when the threshold is reached.
linear formulation, otherwise, for some critical flight
conditions, the actuator may be stalled and the model might
Failure Criteria
not be suitable [5].
Threshold estimation must be done to determine the limits
Equation (2) presents a generic non-linear function related of the extrapolation that corresponds to the failure. The
to the degradation index d. frequency analysis is shown in Fig. 9.

d (t ) = f ( I , I N ) (2)

Where I represents the integral of the EHSV electrical

current of the degraded system during the command and IN
represents the nominal integral.

5
 Bode Diagram
10

Magnitude
-10

Nominal
-20 20% Clogging
40% Clogging
-30 60% Clogging

-40
-1 0 1 2
10 10 10 10

-50
Phase

-100
Nominal
20% Clogging
-150 40% Clogging
60% Clogging

-200
-1 0 1 2
10 10 10 10
Frequency

Fig. 9 Frequency responses for threshold determination.

As illustrated in Fig. 9, the threshold estimated is 40% of
clogging, i.e. severity index equal to 0.4. This value
corresponds to a frequency response tangent to the
requirements in a critical condition.
Simulated results have shown that phase information does
not improve diagnostic performance in this failure mode, as
long as the magnitude requirement is the critical.
Prognostics
Finally, the prognostic is the last step to be accomplished in
order to calculate the RUL.
A linear regression was performed using a linear least
squares method to evaluate degradation, as demonstrates
As a result, the RUL is assumed as a random Gaussian
variable, and its mean is evaluated when the degradation
index reaches the failure threshold, as showed in (5).
dˆ ( RUL ) = f (5)
Where d̂ is the estimated degradation index and f is the
threshold.
The bounds are calculated assuming a Gaussian distribution
of the RUL. Since a linear regression is fitted, the
confidence interval of the estimation in a future instant tf is
calculated using (6) [11].

( )
(4). The assumption of linear model lies in the fact that 1 (t f − t )
2

close to the failure a straight line could approximate an ˆ

d (t f ) ± T α , N − 2 × s 1+ +
exponential increase.
2 N S tt
(6)

d (t ) = a t + b + ε (4) where:

Where d is the degradation index, t is time, a and b are the dˆ (t ) = aˆ t + bˆ is the predicted degradation index;
estimated coefficients and ε is the estimation error.
α = 1 - γ and γ is the confidence coefficient for prediction;

6
 0 Prognostics: RUL=11.0141
1
s= ∑ [d (ti ) − dˆ (ti )]2
N − 2 i = N −1 is the standard deviation
of estimation error;
( )
T α , N − 2 is the percentile (1 − α/2) of a Student-T
2
with N – 2 degrees of freedom;
0
1
t=
N
∑ (t ) i 0.4
i = − N +1 is the average of past instants t;
0 tlow = 5.06
Stt = ∑ ( ti − t ) 2
i = − N +1
is the variance of past instants t;
The existence of a real trend of increase in clogging may be
checked with statistical tests. A possibility is using the F-
test or T-test [12]. The null hypothesis represents a series
without a trend, i.e. the angular coefficient a is equal to
zero. As a result, the p-value, which is related to the
probability of the trend being fortuitous or casual, can be
evaluated [11].
The following section presents a numerical simulation of
the process described.
5. SIMULATED RESULTS
In this section the simulated results of the PHM solution,
applied on a model of an electro-hydraulic flight control
actuator, are presented. The simulation was based on some
operational flight conditions for a generic aircraft. The
sample rate considered for the parameters was 50Hz, an
acceptable trade-off between digital signal accuracy and
sensor availability.
Once the degradation model is evaluated, the health
assessment is simple and fast. Given an input in the
simulated model, the health monitoring is done by applying
(2). The degradation index is evaluated based on the
electrical current in the EHSV of the system compared to
the nominal behavior in the same flight conditions.
The time-to-failure prediction can be calculated by
estimation of the future values of the clogging, based on
historical series of the original degradation index signal, as
shown in (4)-(6).
Hence, since clogging has a linear relationship with the
chosen degradation index, the model of temporal clogging
assumed leads to a stochastic process that performs an
exponential degradation.
Fig. 10 presents the degradation trend, with the confidence
bounds and the evolution of the clogging model.
7
1
0.8
0.6
d(t)
Data
tmean = 11.01
thigh = 17.13
0.2
Threshold
Model
0
-60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20
t
Fig. 10 Linear extrapolation of degradation and clogging
model assumed.
The degradation index d(t) presents a forward trend of
values, having Gaussian perturbations. The p-value
calculated is very close to zero, indicating that the trend is
not casual considering a confidence level of 99%.
A linear extrapolation was used, considering a confidence
boundary of the estimation. The RUL was estimated as
11±6 days with 90% confidence bounds. The clogging
model assumed indicates that the useful life is 7.3 days. The
result presented achieves the goal of predicting RUL with
precision.
6. CONCLUSION AND REMARKS
This paper presented a systematic process to design a PHM
solution through a model-based approach. Using a
mathematical model capable of simulating the desired
failure mode, this process demonstrated to be suitable for
obtain the RUL. When compared to a strictly data-driven or
statistical approach, a model-based formulation applied to
an electro-hydraulic flight control actuator could lead to
more accurate results [1].
The failure mode studied was the clogging in the output of
an EHSV. The direct parameter related to this failure mode
is the flow. However, in a real application the cost of flow
sensor cannot be justified. By using a validated model, a
second parameter giving the same information of flow
measure was simple to identify. This parameter was the
electrical current through the EHSV. Furthermore, this
analysis can help sensor placement for PHM in new
projects.
Using the chosen parameter and comparing it to the nominal
response of the model, a degradation index was calculated.
Also, the model was used to define the failure criteria. To
do so, the frequency response of the model with different
intensities of clogging was calculated and compared with
the requirements. The first value of clogging that made the
system not comply with requirements was used as the
failure threshold.
For comparison, in a strictly data-driven approach a bench
test would have to be implemented to find out which
parameters might be measured to give the desired
information and component end-of-life.
A linear regression of the degradation index evolution was
calculated. As a result, the RUL was evaluated with
confidence bounds.
Finally, these results show evidence that the use of a
detailed and validated model of the system can produce a
complete PHM process of good performance. Future steps
of this work will validate the methodology.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by Financiadora de
Estudos e Projetos (FINEP), Brazil.
C. O. Bizarria would like to thank Mr. M. A. O. Alves Jr.
and Mr. R. R. Starr for their support in this work.
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 BIOGRAPHY
Cintia O. Bizarria is a development
engineer for aeronautical systems at
Embraer since 2007. She has joined a
R&D group to perform research on
PHM technology for aeronautical
applications. She holds a bachelor’s
degree on Mechatronics Engineering
from Universidade de Brasília (UnB),
Brazil, and she is currently a graduate student in
Aeronautical Engineering at Instituto Tecnológico de
Aeronáutica (ITA), Brazil.

Takashi Yoneyama is a Professor of

Control Theory with the Electronic
Engineering Department of ITA. He
received a bachelor’s degree in
Electronic Engineering from Instituto
Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA),
Brazil, a M.D. degree in Medicine from
Universidade de Taubaté, Brazil, and
the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the
University of London, U.K. (1983). He has more than 250
published papers, has written four books, and has
supervised more than 50 theses. His research is focused
mainly on stochastic optimal control theory. Prof.
Yoneyama served as the President of the Brazilian
Automatics Society in the period 2004-2006.