Data Driven Technology for

Engineering Systems Health

Management Design Approach Feature
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Prognosis Fusion and Decisions 1st
Edition Gang Niu (Auth.)
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Gang Niu

Data-Driven
Technology for
Engineering Systems
Health Management
Design Approach, Feature Construction,
Fault Diagnosis, Prognosis, Fusion and
Decisions
Data-Driven Technology for Engineering Systems
Health Management
Gang Niu

Data-Driven Technology
for Engineering Systems
Health Management
Design Approach, Feature Construction, Fault
Diagnosis, Prognosis, Fusion and Decision

123
Gang Niu
Institute of Rail Transit
Tongji University
Shanghai
China

ISBN 978-981-10-2031-5 ISBN 978-981-10-2032-2 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2032-2

Jointly published with Science Press, Beijing, China

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016946012

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore and Science Press, Beijing, China 2017
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publishers, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publishers, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or
for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer Science+Business Media Singapore Pte Ltd.
Preface

Systems health management (SHM) has emerged over recent years as significant
technologies that are making an impact on both military and commercial mainte-
nance practices. This discipline links studies of failure mechanisms to system
lifecycle management and is often referred to as prognostics and health manage-
ment (PHM), or in transportation applications—vehicle health management
(VHM). Technical approaches to building models in SHM/PHM can be categorized
broadly into data-driven approach, model-based approach, and hybrid approach.
The data-driven approach for SHM/PHM is also explained in condition-based
maintenance (CBM). CBM can be applied as a technical architecture and engi-
neering strategy of data-driven PHM. In this book, data-driven PHM/CBM is
introduced in details, which mainly emphasis functions of condition monitoring,
fault diagnosis, and prognosis.
Condition monitoring, fault diagnosis, and prognosis of engineering systems
have received considerable attention in recent years and are increasingly becoming
important in industry because of the need to increase reliability and decrease
possible loss of production due to faulty systems. Early fault detection, diagnosis,
and prognosis can increase system availability and performance, reduce conse-
quential damage, prolong machine life, and reduce spare parts inventories and
breakdown maintenance. With the development of artificial intelligence techniques,
many intelligent systems have been employed to assist the maintenance manage-
ment task to correctly interpret the fault data.
This book aims to provide latest research findings and advanced techniques for
the fault diagnosis and prognosis area of engineering systems. It introduces the
developments and applications of intelligent diagnosis and prognosis techniques in
recent years.
This book details the technique for intelligent fault diagnosis and prognosis that
implements data-driven approach. Data-driven methodology consists of data
acquisition, feature extraction, feature selection, classification, prognosis and data
fusion algorithms, etc. for decision making. Each step of data-driven strategy is
reviewed including examples. It provides a foundation in the data acquisition,

v
vi Preface

analysis, feature extraction and selection, classification of equipment faults and

prognosis through text discussion, worked examples, applications, and use of
modern computer tools. Most chapters include with examples showing how to use
these tools to solve situations not easily amenable to analytic solutions. This book
provides practice in identifying, formulating, and solving fault diagnosis and
prognosis problems. An extensive set of worked examples offers the opportunity to
apply concepts discussed in the book to analyze and solve a variety of problems.
The organization and basic subject matter for this book parallel a 17 intensive
course entitled “Engineering Systems Health Management” offered by Dr. Gang
Niu at Tongji University.

Shanghai, China Gang Niu

Acknowledgements

The integration task needed to pull together cohesive and up-to-date materials was
enormous and would not have been possible without the unselfish and enthusiastic
support I received from my previous colleagues and coworkers. The research work
of faculty and students at the Intelligent Mechanical Laboratory (IML) of Pukyong
National University and the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE)
of University of Maryland form the backbone of many topics covered in this book.
Special thanks also to the Intelligent Control Systems Laboratory of the Georgia
Institute of Technology and the Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems
(IMS) of University of Cincinnati for valuable references. The author is grateful to
Achmad Widodo, Van Tung Tran, Tian Han, Martha Arbayani Bin Zaidan, and
Jing Tian, among others for their valuable contributions.
I particularly thank my graduate students for helping collect and integrate some
of the original draft.
I am gratefully acknowledging the support received over the past years from
many industrial sponsors. It is impossible to acknowledge by name many
researchers whose work referred in this book.
The work presented in this book was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51575396 and 51205291).
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents, my wife, and my
little son James, for their patience, understanding, and encouragement during the
hard creation of this book.
Gang Niu

vii
Contents

1 Background of Systems Health Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Maintenance Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 From Maintenance to PHM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Definitions and Terms of Systems Health Management . . . . . . . 12
1.5 Preface to Book Chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2 Design Approach for Systems Health Management . . . . . . . . . .... 15
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 15
2.2 Systems Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 17
2.3 Systems Engineering, Dependability, and Health
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.4 SHM Lifecycle Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.4.1 Research Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.4.2 Requirements Development Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4.3 System/Functional Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4.4 Design, Synthesis, and Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4.5 System Test and Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.4.6 HM System Maturation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5 A Systems-Based Methodology for PHM/CBM Design . . . . . . . 30
2.6 A Proposed PHM Design Approach for Rotary Machinery
Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 32
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 33
3 Overview of Data-Driven PHM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2 PHM Technical Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.3 Data-Driven PHM/CBM System Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.4 Role of Condition Monitoring, Fault Diagnosis,
and Prognosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... 40
3.5 Fault Diagnosis Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... 41

ix
x Contents

3.6 Problems During Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

3.7 Related Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4 Data Acquisition and Preprocessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2 Data Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.2.1 Selecting a Proper Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.2.2 Vibration Transducers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.2.3 Transducer Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.2.4 Transducer Mounting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.5 Transducer Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.2.6 Frequency Span . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.2.7 Data Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3 Data Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.4 Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.4.1 Features in Time Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.4.2 Features in Frequency Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.4.3 Features in Time–Frequency Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5 Statistic Feature Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.2 Basic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.2.1 Pattern and Feature Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.2.2 Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.3 Parameter Evaluation Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.4 Principal Component Analysis (PCA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.5 Independent Component Analysis (ICA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.6 Kernel PCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.7 Kernel ICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.8 Fisher Discriminant Analysis (FDA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.9 Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.10 Generalized Discriminant Analysis (GDA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.11 Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.11.1 k-Centers Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.11.2 k-Means Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.11.3 Hierarchical Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.12 Other Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
6 Feature Selection Optimization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.2 Individual Feature Evaluation (IFE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.3 Conditional Entropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.4 Backward Feature Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Contents xi

6.5 Forward Feature Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

6.6 Branch and Bound Feature Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.7 Plus l-Take Away r Feature Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.8 Floating Forward Feature Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.9 Distance-Based Evaluation Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
6.10 Taguchi Method-Based Feature Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.11 Genetic Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.11.1 General Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.11.2 Differences from Other Traditional Methods . . . . . . . . . 164
6.11.3 Simple Genetic Algorithm (SGA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6.11.4 Feature Selection Using GA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.12 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7 Intelligent Fault Diagnosis Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
7.2 Linear Classifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7.2.1 Linear Separation of Finite Set of Vectors. . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.2.2 Perceptron Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.2.3 Kozinec’s Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.2.4 Multi-class Linear Classifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
7.3 Quadratic Classifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.4 Bayesian Classifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
7.5 k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
7.6 Self-Organizing Feature Map (SOFM) Neural Network . . . . . . . 183
7.7 Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) Neural Network . . . . . . . . 187
7.8 Radial Basis Function (RBF) Neural Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
7.9 ART Kohonen Neural Network (ART-KNN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
7.10 Support Vector Machines (SVMs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
7.10.1 Wavelet SVM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
7.10.2 Multi-class Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
7.10.3 Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO) . . . . . . . . . . . 205
7.11 Decision Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
7.11.1 Building Decision Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
7.11.2 Pruning Decision Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
7.12 Random Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
7.12.1 Random Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
7.12.2 Random Forest Algorithm (RF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
7.12.3 Genetic Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
7.13 Adaptive Neurofuzzy Integrated System (ANFIS) . . . . . . . . . . . 225
7.13.1 Classification and Regression Tree (CART) . . . . . . . . . 226
7.13.2 Adaptive Neurofuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) . . . . . 229
xii Contents

7.14 Case Studies: Fault Diagnosis of Induction Motors . . . . . . . . . . 234

7.14.1 W-SVM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
7.14.2 Decision Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
7.14.3 Random Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
7.14.4 CART-ANFIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
8 Science of Prognostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
8.2 Prognostic Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
8.2.1 Rule-based Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
8.2.2 Fuzzy Logic Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
8.2.3 Model-Based Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
8.2.4 Trend-Based Evolutionary Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
8.2.5 Data-Driven Model Based Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
8.2.6 State Estimator-Based Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
8.2.7 Statistical Reliability and Usage-Based Approach . . . . . 280
8.2.8 Adaptive Prognostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
8.2.9 Data Mining and Automated Rule Extraction . . . . . . . . 282
8.2.10 Distributed Prognostic System Architecture . . . . . . . . . . 283
8.3 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
8.3.1 Bearing Prognostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
8.3.2 Gear Prognostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
9 Data Fusion Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
9.2 Fusion Application Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
9.3 Data Fusion Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
9.3.1 Data-Level Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
9.3.2 Feature-Level Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
9.3.3 Decision-Level Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
9.4 Data Fusion Techniques at Decision Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
9.4.1 Voting Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
9.4.2 Bayesian Belief Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
9.4.3 Behavior Knowledge Space (BKS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
9.4.4 Dempster–Shafer Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
9.4.5 Multi-Agent Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
9.4.6 Decision Templates (DTs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
9.5 Data Fusion for Condition Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
9.5.1 A Proposed Fusion System for Condition
Monitoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
9.5.2 Degradation Indicator Using SOM Neural Network
Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
9.5.3 Automatic Alarm Setting Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Contents xiii

9.5.4 Condition Monitoring of Compression

Using Fusion Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
9.5.5 Detection Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
9.6 Data Fusion for Fault Diagnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
9.6.1 Classifier Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
9.6.2 Decision Fusion System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
9.6.3 Faults Diagnosis of Test Rig Motors Using Fusion
Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
9.6.4 Faults Diagnosis of Elevator Motor Using Fusion
Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
9.7 Data Fusion for Failure Prognostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
9.7.1 A Proposed Fusion Strategy for Failure Prognostics . . . 329
9.7.2 Time-Series Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
9.7.3 Failure Prognostics of Compression Using Fusion
Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
9.8 A Framework of Cost-Effective and Accurate PHM/CBM
System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
9.8.1 Integrating CBM and RCM: Cost-Effective
Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
9.8.2 Integrating CBM and Data Fusion: Accurate
Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
10 System Support and Logistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
10.2 Intelligent Maintenance Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
10.2.1 Data Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
10.2.2 Signal Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
10.2.3 Feature Representation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
10.2.4 Feature Extraction and/or Feature Selection . . . . . . . . . . 347
10.2.5 Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
10.2.6 Health Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
10.2.7 Prognostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
10.3 Autonomous Control for Safety Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
10.4 Future PHM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Chapter 1
Background of Systems Health
Management

1.1 Introduction

As the global competition intensifies in the manufacturing sector, the players are
forced to compute on several measures, such as costs, quality, on-time delivery, and
time to market. This new environment has forced managers and engineers to
optimize all systems involved in their organizations. The manufacturing facilities
hence become very important engineering assets. The capital invested in an orga-
nization’s assets requires maximum benefit to be obtained from them throughout
their life cycle—an asset out of use is a direct cost to the bottom line. Thus, assets
must be managed in order to minimize downtime and sweat the assets for maximum
usage. To effectively manage the assets requires a full understanding of the asset
from an engineering point of view:
• Configuration control: It is essential to know the build structure of an asset and
the configuration standard of the constituent parts, to ensure that the overall
configuration is maintained when replacement of a part becomes necessary.
• Maintenance management: Where an asset has predictable wear characteristics,
or is subject to degradation of performance with time, the life of the asset can be
prolonged by anticipating probable failure and conducting maintenance tasks to
avoid the failure. It is also important to record the occurrences of random failure
to assist in identification of recurring problems.
• Component living: If a component has a known life, this needs to be identified
within any software tool that may be employed by the asset manager. Life usage
can then be recorded against the component as it is operated, which in turn
enables the replacement or reconditioning of the component to be planned into
engineering activities for the component or its parent platform.
Maintenance management plays a key role in achieving organizational goals and
objectives. The term maintenance is normally used to cover a broad range of

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore and Science Press, Beijing, China 2017 1
G. Niu, Data-Driven Technology for Engineering Systems Health Management,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2032-2_1
2 1 Background of Systems Health Management

planned or unplanned activities for preserving an asset in its original condition.

Maintenance generally consists of the following (Vanier 2001):
• Inspections are carried out periodically to monitor and record how systems are
performing;
• Preventive maintenance ensures that systems or components continue to per-
form their intended functions throughout their service life;
• Repairs are required when defects occur and unplanned intervention is required;
• Rehabilitation replaces one major component of a system when the system is
reaching the end of its service life of the system.
An efficient and effective maintenance becomes crucial for reducing costs,
ensuring on-time product deliveries, minimizing equipment downtime, improving
quality, increasing productivity, and providing reliable equipment that is safe and
well configured to achieve timely delivery of orders to customers.
Operational reliability of industrial machinery and production systems has a
significant influence on the profitability and competitiveness of industrial compa-
nies. This emphasizes the increasing importance of online condition monitoring,
diagnosis and prognosis of machinery, and production processes and system in
industry (Helle 2006).
Over the past 20 years, maintenance also has greatly changed because of a huge
increase in the number and variety of plants and equipments, which must be
maintained throughout much more complex designs, new maintenance techniques,
and changing views on maintenance organization and responsibilities.
Recently, DiStefano and Covino (2007) studied statistics from the US
Department of Commerce, including their measurement of what they call net stock
of private fixed assets in various industries. This measurement is a close proxy of
replacement asset value (RAV). In 2003, there were $4.9 trillion of physical assets
on the ground in the US industry. They have a proprietary benchmarking system
that measures actual maintenance spends (as a percentage of RAV) in about 10

Fig. 1.1 Annual excess Transportation, 25

maintenance spend (in billion Utilities, 46
US $) by US industry
Upstream
O&G, 20

Wholesale
Trade, 18

Refining &
Light
Chemistry, 15
Manufacturing, 45
Primary Metals, 6 Mining, 4
Paper, 5
1.1 Introduction 3

different industries. As it turns out, the average spends is between 5 and 8 %, with
the best performers spending less than 2–3 %. They applied their proprietary
benchmarking system to the US Department of Commerce Statistics and dollarized
the value of elevating fourth, third, and second quartile plants to first quartile in
maintenance spend. The result is shown in Fig. 1.1 and suggests that industry
wastes more than $180 billion in excess maintenance spend annually.

1.2 Maintenance Strategy

In maintenance, there are three basic approaches: corrective maintenance, sched-

uled maintenance, and preventive maintenance. According to the way these basic
approaches are applied, five basic maintenance policies need to be distinguished:
failure-based maintenance, design-out maintenance, use-based maintenance,
condition-based maintenance, and detection-based maintenance. The advantages
and disadvantages of each maintenance policy are well documented by
Waeyenbergh and Pintelon. From a time perspective, the evolution of maintenance
is represented in Table 1.1.
The development of the maintenance concept started after the study of existing
maintenance concepts: reliability-centered maintenance, total productive mainte-
nance, business-centered maintenance, integrated logistic support, and logistic sup-
port analysis. These concepts are often very time-consuming to implement or only
valid for a special class of equipment or a specific industry. Recently, a new gener-
ation of maintenance, e-maintenance, emerges with globalization and fast growth of
the communication technologies, and computer and information technologies.

Table 1.1 Maintenance in a time perspective (Waeyenbergh and Pintelon 2002)

<1950 1950–1975 >1975 2000–
Manpower Mechanization Automation Globalization (crossing
(simple) (complex) (more complex) boundaries)
“Fix it when “I operate—you RAM (safety, quality, Optimal
it breaks” fix” (availability, environment), CBM, concept + Outsourcing
longevity, cost) CM, DOM, and ICT
PM, WO multi-skilling, MMIS
management asset management
Maintenance Maintenance is “a Maintenance is Maintenance is
is “a task of the “(may be) not an isolated “external and internal
production maintenance function integration partnerships”
task” department” efforts” Maintenance meets
production
“Necessary “Technical matter” “Profit contributor” “Partnership”
evil”
RAM reliability, available, maintainability; PM preventive maintenance; ICT information and
communication technology; CBM condition-based maintenance; CM condition monitoring; WO
work order
4 1 Background of Systems Health Management

The concept of e-maintenance refers to a major pillar in modern industries that

supports the success of the integration of production (e-manufacturing) and business
(e-business) (Han and Yang 2006; Muller et al. 2007).
The evolution of maintenance strategies can be summarized from breakdown
maintenance (BM) and preventive maintenance (PM) to predictive maintenance
(PdM). BM is also known as reactive maintenance or corrective maintenance. BM
is essentially the run-it-till-it-breaks mode and is performed when action is taken to
restore the functional capabilities of failed or malfunctioned equipment or systems.
There are no routine maintenance tasks to perform, and equipment is repaired or
replaced only when obvious problems occur. This is a reactive approach to
maintenance because the action is triggered by the unscheduled event of an
equipment failure. Since companies do not incur any maintenance expense until
something breaks, reactive maintenance may appear to be the least expensive
approach. The result is more frequent replacement and higher capital costs. In this
maintenance policy, the maintenance costs are usually higher because downtime
events are often unplanned, more frequent, and longer in duration and also due to
the following reasons:
• The high cost of restoring equipment to an operable condition under crisis
situation,
• The secondary damage and safety/health hazards inflicted by the failure, and
• The penalty associated with lost production.
Reactive maintenance works well if equipment shutdowns do not affect product
quality or revenue generation and if higher repair/replacement costs and a longer
mean time to repair are within an acceptable range.
PM is the approach developed to avoid this kind of waste. PM is also known as
time-based maintenance or periodic preventive maintenance. This assumes that the
estimated failure behavior of the equipment, i.e., the mean time between failures
(MTBF), has statistically or experimentally been known during equipment and
machinery degrading within normal usage. PM takes mainly the form of equipment
overhaul or item replacement. This practice is known as time-directed maintenance
which is performed on a monthly, quarterly, biannual, or annual basis depending on
the type of equipment, performance against specifications, and operating condi-
tions. The reasons for performing PM tasks are to prevent the failure, to detect the
onset of failure, and to discover the hidden failure. Most common type of PM task is
done at hard time intervals regardless of other information that may be available
when the preset time occurs. Also, it requires an intrusion into the equipment,
thereby rendering it out of service until the task is completed. While this approach
can help reduce equipment failure and extend component life, the process can be
labor-intensive, maintenance is performed based on the preset schedule regardless
of the condition of the equipment.
PdM is to monitor the equipment for changes that could be destructive in the
future, but allows you to correct them before the destruction starts or to identify
production equipment needing maintenance attention before product quality is
1.2 Maintenance Strategy 5

reduced or an unplanned shutdown occurs (Thorp 2007). PdM is also known as

on-condition maintenance, condition-based maintenance (CBM), or
condition-directed maintenance. This approach involves monitoring the condition
and operation of equipment to assess whether the equipment will fail during some
future period, and then taking action to avoid the consequences of that failure.
Unlike preventive maintenance, the need here is based on the actual condition of the
asset rather than on some preset schedule. Although PdM require an investment in
order to effectively implement, operate, and maintain them, the actual cost is
substantially lower than the lost production resulting from failure. PdM is designed
to detect the onset of a failure/fault and applied to critical equipment where a failure
would interrupt a continuous process or impact quality. It is an appropriate option
for PM when the following conditions apply:
• Either failure prevention is not feasible, or how it can be achieved is not yet
known, as in cases where the event leading to failure occurs in a predominantly
random manner;
• A measurable parameter which correlates with the onset of fault has been
identified; for example, the vibration level is an indicator of the machine
condition;
• It is possible to identify a value of that parameter when action may be taken
before full fault occurs, such as the setting of warning limits for the vibration.
PdM does not normally involve an intrusion into the equipment, and the actual
preventative action is taken only when it is believed that an incipient fault has been
detected. This strategy works well if maintenance personnel are properly trained
and have the time to perform the necessary maintenance work to address the
potential problem.
Table 1.2 summarizes these different strategies of maintenance which being
commonly practiced in the industry. Table 1.3 shows a survey conducted by
Rockwell Automation and leading maintenance trade publications. Even though
companies ideally want to spend most of their time on predictive maintenance, a
large percentage of their time is being spent on preventive and reactive activities
(Fig. 1.2).
According to the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) in USA, a
functional PdM program can provide savings of 8–12 % over a program utilizing

Table 1.2 Types of maintenance strategies

Maintenance strategy Maintenance Signification
approach
Breakdown Fix it when broke Large maintenance budget
maintenance (BM)
Preventive maintenance Scheduled Periodic component replacement
(PM) maintenance
Predictive maintenance Condition-based Maintenance decision based on
(PdM) monitoring equipment condition
6 1 Background of Systems Health Management

Table 1.3 Percentage of time spent on equipment maintenance activities

Maintenance strategy Plant services Maintenance
technology
Ideal Actual (%) Ideal Actual (%)
Breakdown maintenance (BM) 12 29 12 40
Preventive maintenance (PM) 35 33 44 32
Predictive maintenance (PdM) 18 10 33 15
Shutdown/turnaround 10 11 11 13

Corrective Maintenance
“Run-to-failure maintenance”

Predetermined Maintenance
Breakdown
maintenance “Fix it before it breaks”
- High risk of secondary
failure
- High production downtime Predictive Maintenance
- High costs of spare parts
Failure rate

- Overtime labor
- Safety hazardous
+ Machines are not
“over maintained”
+ No condition monitoring
related costs
Planned maintenance “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”
Historical maintenance
Calendar-based maintenance
- Machines are repaired when
there are no faults
- Repair often causes more
harm than good
Condition-based maintenance
- There are still “unscheduled”
breakdowns - High investment costs
- Additional skills required
+ Maintenance is performed in
controlled manner + Unexpected breakdown
+ Fewer catastrophic failures is reduced
+ Greater control over stored + Parts are ordered when needed
parts and costs + Maintenance is performed
+ Unexpected machinery when convenient
failure should be reduced + Equipment life is extended

Change in maintenance philosophy

Fig. 1.2 Strengths and weaknesses of different maintenance types (Bengtsson et al. 2004)

only PM strategies. The FEMP also came up with the following industrial savings
based on the initiation of a functional PdM program (Thorp 2007).
• Return on investment: 10 %,
• Reduction in maintenance costs: 25–30 %,
• Elimination of breakdowns: 70–75 %,
• Reduction in downtime: 35–45 %, and
• Increase in production: 20–25 %.
Figure 1.3 shows the maintenance cost by maintenance strategy which sum-
marized by an Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) study.
1.2 Maintenance Strategy 7

Fig. 1.3 Maintenance cost 20

versus maintenance practices

Maintenance cost ($/HP/Year)

employed (EPRI)
15

10

0
RTF PM PdM PCM
Run to Preventive Predictive Proactive Condition
Failure Maintenance Maintenance Monitoring

In general, maintenance strategy should be a mix of predictive, preventive, and

reactive methods, depending on the desired goal and part of the process being
maintained. In applications where the criticality of the equipment and the impact of
unplanned downtime and quality are high, a maintenance strategy that includes
preventive or predictive components offers numerous advantages. Independent
studies indicate that preventive maintenance has a 5:1 cost advantage over reactive
maintenance.
In practice, the choice of the optimum maintenance strategy is not as simple as
noted above. Not all failures can be detected by monitoring. The economics of the
situation may limit the number of components that can be monitored. There will
also be a number of components and/or machines for which condition monitoring is
not particularly appropriate. In many cases, these three strategies (BM, PM, and
PdM) mentioned above are used simultaneously within an organization. Therefore,
decision makers face such questions as follows (Mechefske and Wang 2003):
• Which strategy should be introduced for a specific type of machine?
• How to justify their decision?
Answering these questions is a difficult task. There are always a variety of
objectives that a company wants to achieve through its maintenance strategy. Most
traditional economic analysis methods are based upon a comparison of the initial
investigation to the estimated cost savings and often focus on easily quantifiable
factors. The majority of the recognized benefits of condition monitoring are con-
sidered to be “intangible” or “non-monetary.” They are hard to quantify and
therefore often ignored in traditional discounted cash flow analysis methods.
The decision elements with respect to maintenance strategy are shown in
Table 1.4 (Pintelon et al. 2006). The first four decision elements in Table 1.4 can be
viewed as the maintenance resources.
8 1 Background of Systems Health Management

Table 1.4 Summary of maintenance strategy decision elements

Structural decision elements
Maintenance capacity
Maintenance facilities
Maintenance technology
Vertical integration
Infrastructure decision elements
Maintenance organization
Maintenance policy and concepts
Maintenance planning and control
systems
Human resources
Maintenance modifications
Maintenance performance
measurement and reward systems
Capacity in terms of work force, supervisory, and
management staff. Shift patterns of work force,
temporary hiring of work force
Tools, equipment, spares, workforce specialization
(mechanics, electricians, etc.), location of workforce
Predictive maintenance, or condition monitoring
technology, expert systems, maintenance technology
(intelligent maintenance)
In-house maintenance versus outsourcing and
relationship with suppliers
Organization structure (centralized, decentralized, or
mixed), responsibilities
Policies such as corrective, preventive, and predictive
maintenance. Concepts such as total productive
maintenance (TPM) and reliability-centered
maintenance (RCM)
Maintenance activity planning and scheduling. Control
of spares, costs, etc. Computerized maintenance
management systems (CMMS)
Recruitment policies, training and development of
workforce, and staff. Culture and management style
Maintenance modifications, equipment design
improvements, new equipment installations, and new
machine design support
Performance recognition, reporting and reward systems,
overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), and balanced
score card (BSC)

They are termed as structural, because decisions made in those areas are gen-
erally assumed to be fixed. For instance, a company outsourcing its entire main-
tenance activities cannot revert immediately to in-house maintenance. The majority
of the maintenance budget is consumed by these structural elements. The last six
infrastructure elements can be viewed as maintenance management elements. These
structural and infrastructure elements are interrelated. For instance, effective uti-
lization of maintenance resources depends upon the decisions taken in the infras-
tructure elements. Over a period of time, decisions must be made in all of these
maintenance strategy elements. The way these elements are managed or utilized can
have a major impact on the maintenance function’s ability to implement and sup-
port the company’s manufacturing and business strategies.
Companies mainly differ in their maintenance strategies by the combination of
decisions taken in these elements. Several operating aspects and business require-
ments influence these decisions. An effective maintenance strategy is one that fits
the needs of the business. Its performance is judged based on certain measurable
1.2 Maintenance Strategy 9

criteria. Cholasuke et al. (2004) studied the status of maintenance management in

UK manufacturing organizations based on a pilot survey. They categorized the
maintenance effectiveness measures into nine areas based on a literature study.
Most of these measures fall under the structural and infrastructure elements shown
in Table 1.4. The measures constitute the following:
• Policy deployment and organization,
• Human resources management,
• Financial aspects,
• Continuous improvement,
• Contracting out maintenance,
• Maintenance approach,
• Task planning and scheduling,
• Information management,
• Computerized maintenance management systems (CMMSs), and
• Spare parts management.
Maintenance management is an orderly and systematic approach to planning,
organizing, monitoring, and evaluating maintenance activities and their costs. The
maintenance management system is usually designed to optimize the management
of deferred maintenance and capital improvement activities throughout the service.
This can be achieved by using standardized procedures to document and prioritize
the field facility and resources needed and to report accomplishments. Several
activities should be supported by the maintenance management system, which can
be summarized (Piotrowski 2001) as follows:
• Work order generation, work prioritization, and tracking by asset;
• Tracking of scheduled and unscheduled maintenance activities;
• Historical tracking of all work orders generated;
• Storing of all technical documents and reports;
• Generation of real-time reports of ongoing activities;
• Capital and labor cost tracking by component as well as shortest, median, and
longest times to close a work order by component; and
• Complete asset, inventory, equipment, and material records.
Maintenance information systems, such as CMMS and enterprise resource
planning systems (ERP), has been developed for data storage and handling. The
main objectives of a CMMS can be summarized as follows (Wireman 1994):
• Improve maintenance efficiency,
• Reduce maintenance cost,
• Reduce asset downtime by scheduling preventive maintenance,
• Increase the design life of an asset,
• Provide historical records to assist in maintenance planning and budgeting, and
• Provide maintenance reports in a format that is required by the user.
10 1 Background of Systems Health Management

CMMS is computer-based software program used to control work activities and

resources used as well as to monitor and report work execution. CMMS is tools for
data capture and data analysis. Managing and processing maintenance operations
data constitutes probably the main contribution of current CMMS. CMMS
transform maintenance records with data into proper information for decision
making in maintenance. In order to do so, they need to have a suitable technical
database structure and an efficient work order management system for easy data
input, update and control.
With the rapid development of computer and advanced sensor technologies, data
acquisition facilities and technologies have been more powerful and less expensive,
making data acquisition for condition-based maintenance (CBM) implementation
more affordable and feasible.
CBM and prognostics and health management (PHM) are essential components
of a robust systems health management. The aim of CBM is diagnostic in nature.
Given the current condition, it tries to identify appropriate maintenance actions to
detect a fault condition before it turns into a failure. PHM is predictive in nature,
aiming to determine how long from now will a fault happen in a system given the
current operating conditions (Sreerupa et al. 2012). Both PHM and CBM analyses
determine a set of maintenance actions based on real-time or near real-time
assessment systems health.

1.3 From Maintenance to PHM

The concept and framework of PHM have been developed based on the well-known
maintenance methodologies and diagnostics techniques, such as preventative main-
tenance (PM), reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), and condition-based
maintenance (CBM). The future development of PHM will be mutually inspired
and promoted from various fields besides engineering. The related research topics in
meteorology/climatology, decision science/policy, financial/economic, and other
fields can also be followed to expand the vision of PHM.
CBM consists of data acquisition and data processing (condition monitoring),
resulting in actionable condition information on which maintenance decision
making can be based, thus avoiding unnecessary maintenance tasks. Currently,
more and more research effort has shifted toward prognostics and health manage-
ment which focuses more on incipient failure detection, current health assessment,
and remaining useful life prediction. However, in various maintenance scenarios
with different system complexities and uncertainties, the maintenance strategies
should be different. Figure 1.4 is the maintenance transformation map in which
diverse maintenance strategies are shown with the system complexity and
uncertainty.
CBM can be applied in systems that (1) can be regarded as being deterministic to
some extent, (2) is stationary or static, and (3) for which signal variables that can be
good health indicators can be extracted, despite low dimensionality. If the system is
1.3 From Maintenance to PHM 11

Fig. 1.4 Maintenance

transformation map (Lee et al.
2013)

a probabilistic system for which the output cannot be easily determined with a
known relationship model and is conditionally dependent upon the input, output
data will not always be repeatable in instances observed at different timings. Hence,
the future behavior cannot be predicted accurately based on the domain knowledge
of the system and the historical observations. In such an uncertainty laden system as
described, RCM is more suitable. RCM focuses on the ability of a system to have
expected reliability in a certain period of time and utilizes statistical tools such as
failure modes and effects criticality analysis (FMECA) to retrieve the information
that can help identify failure modes and possible durations before each of the modes
can happen. Since RCM relies on statistical estimation of the total operation life
expectation, it can reduce unscheduled or unnecessary maintenance if the system is
static and the failure modes are well studied. However, RCM is still prone to large
deviation of the system dynamic and it lacks significant insight into the actual
system performance. If the system uncertainty is more complicated, like in a highly
dynamic system in which the behavior varies over time, robust design should be
considered. In this scenario, resources should be allocated to the design processes,
rather than relying on inspection to ensure quality. As well, the product perfor-
mance, due to robust design being deployed, should have minimal sensitivity to
material, manufacturing, or operation variations.
Along the other axis in Fig. 1.4, if a system has a high level of complexity and a
large number of variables that represent different aspects of the system, such as
vibration, position, velocity, stress, current, environment, and controller parameters,
e-maintenance is preferred as CBM techniques usually deal with low dimension of
data. By using Internet and tether-free communication technologies, e-maintenance
enables a system to achieve near-zero-breakdown performance on a common
platform to integrate information. Moreover, by linking with industrial business
systems, e-maintenance is able to align the maintenance process with the business
12 1 Background of Systems Health Management

and operations processes to achieve optimally integrated production and asset

management. But if the system complexity is even higher so that only non-intrusive
approaches can be applied to the system, which means no or only very limited
instrumentation can be applied due to the product package, seal, and the concern
that externally added components will dramatically affect the precision and effi-
ciency of the products, preventive maintenance may be chosen rather than CBM or
e-maintenance which requires systems to be heavily instrumented. Preventive
maintenance is a time-driven maintenance strategy that schedules maintenance for a
machine or component based on the experience of the mean time between failures
(MTBF). This method follows strong assumptions that the machine is working
under deterministic and static conditions, and therefore cannot be applied to system
that operates in dynamic working regimes. Hence, preventive maintenance may
lead to untimely maintenance and non-optimal cost.
PHM can be treated as an evolved form of CBM. CBM techniques can be used
to provide input for the prognostics models in PHM and support the timely,
accurate decision making that prevents downtime and maximizes profit. For its
capability to assess the health status and predict the occurrence of failure and
downtime, PHM is considered to be the foundation, when complemented with other
techniques, for advanced areas including self-maintenance, resilient system, and
engineering immune systems. The disciplines of PHM need to be further developed
and extended to help building these areas.

1.4 Definitions and Terms of Systems Health Management

Both diagnostics and prognostics originally come from the medical field. As
machinery maintenance technology and engineering systems health management
emerged, diagnostics and prognostics gradually permeated all areas of systems
engineering. Nowadays, there are many kinds of professional instruments, such as
sensors, meters, controllers, and computational devices, for conducting fault diag-
nostics. These instruments can be used to acquire and analyze signals from a
machine or process. More and more sophisticated diagnostics methodologies are
available to determine the root causes of component failure. However, diagnostics,
which is conducted when a fault has already occurred, is a reactive process for
maintenance decisions and cannot prevent downtime as well as corresponding
expense from happening. In order to reduce the maintenance cost and maintain the
machine uptime at the highest possible level, maintenance should be carried out in a
proactive way that means a transformation of maintenance strategy from the tra-
ditional fail-and-fix practices (diagnostics) to a predict-and-prevent methodology
(prognostics).
Prognostics has been applied to the field of maintenance for more than 10 years;
however, most of these applications only address forecasting, or remaining useful
life (RUL) prediction, which is just one facet of PHM.
1.4 Definitions and Terms of Systems Health Management 13

As an engineering discipline, PHM aims to provide users with an integrated

view of the health state of a machine or an overall system. Diagnostics is also
included in prognostics and health management. Diagnostics can be summarized as
the process of identifying and determining the relationship between cause and effect
in that its function is to isolate faults and identify failure root causes. Prognostics
can be interpreted as the process of health assessment and prediction, which
includes detecting incipient failure and predicting RUL.
Health management is the process of taking timely, appropriate maintenance
actions and making accurate logistics decisions based on the outputs from
diagnostics and prognostics, available resources, and operational demand. It focuses
on assessing impact of failures and minimizing impact and loss with maintenance
management.
An effective PHM system is expected to provide early detection and isolation of
the precursor and/or incipient fault of components or subelements; to have the
means to monitor and predict the progression of the fault; and to aid in making or
autonomously triggering maintenance schedule and asset management decisions or
actions. The detected, incipient fault condition should be monitored, trended from a
small fault as it progresses to a larger fault, until it warrants some maintenance
action and/or replacement. By employing such a system, the health of a machine,
component, or system can be known at any point of time, and the eventual
occurrence of a failure can be predicted and prevented, enabling the achievement of
near-zero downtime performance. Unnecessary and costly preventive maintenance
can be eliminated, maintenance scheduling can be optimized, and lead time for
spare parts and resources can be reduced—all of which can result in significant cost
savings.

1.5 Preface to Book Chapters

This book details the technologies in data-driven PHM/CBM that have been
introduced over the recent past by researchers and practitioners and are making
significant inroads in such application domains such as mechanical, thermal,
electromechanical, and, more recently, electrical and electronics systems.
This book is structured as follows: Chapter 2 introduces those fundamental
system concepts that set the stage for the effective design of systems health man-
agement. We review systems-based methodologies that have a direct and significant
impact on the design of PHM/CBM systems.
Chapter 3 gives an overview of data-driven PHM/CBM approach. OSA-CBM
architecture is explained in detail which includes 7 layers: data acquisition, data
manipulation, condition monitor, health assessment, prognostics, automatic deci-
sion reasoning, and human–computer interface.
Following the contents above, Chaps. 4–8 address the key issues regarding data
acquisition processing and analysis, feature extraction and clustering, feature
14 1 Background of Systems Health Management

selection optimization, intelligent fault diagnosis and prognosis, and typical tech-
nical and methodology. Related case study will be exhibited.
Then, Chap. 9 emphasis utilizing data fusion strategy to improve the performance
of data-driven PHM/CBM, fusion architectures, and classical fusion methodology in
feature layer and decision layer, which will be described with engineering case
study.
The tenth chapter answers the question of the following: How to make decisions
based on the output results of anomaly detection, diagnosis, and prognosis? A
data-driven PHM/CBM-based intelligent maintenance platform will be proposed; in
addition, autonomous control and contingency management also will be introduced.
Future development of systems health management toward engineering immune
systems will be clarified at last.

References

Bengtsson M, Olsson E, Funk P, Jackson M (2004) Technical design of condition based

maintenance system—a case study using sound analysis and case-based reasoning. In:
Maintenance and reliability conference
Cholasuke C, Bhardwa R, Antony F (2004) The status of maintenance management in
UKmanufacturing organizations: results from a pilot survey. J Qual Maint Eng 10(1):5–15
DiStefano R, Covino L (2007) Enterprise reliability: changing the game. Asset Manag Mainten J
20(2):22–31
Han T, Yang BS (2006) Development of an e-maintenance system integrating advanced
techniques. Comput Ind 57(6):569–580
Helle A (2006) Development of prognostic concepts and tools. In: VTT symposium 243
Lee J et al (2013) Prognostics and health management design for rotary machinery
systems-reviews, methodology and applications. Mech. Syst Signal Process
Mechefske CK, Wang Z (2003) Using fuzzy linguistics to select optimum maintenance and
condition monitoring strategies. Mech Syst Signal Process 17(2):305–316
Muller A, Marquez AC, Iung B (2007) On the concept of e-maintenance: review and current
research. Reliab Eng Syst Safety
Pintelon L, Pinjala SK, Vereecke A (2006) Evaluating the effectiveness of maintenance strategies.
J Qual Mainten Eng 12(1):7–20
Piotrowski J (2001) Proactive maintenance for pumps. Archives. http://www.pump-zone.com
Sreerupa D, Richard H, Amar P et al (2012) An open architecture for enabling CBM/PHM
capabilities in ground vehicles. In: IEEE conference on prognostics and health management
Thorp B (2007) What is predictive maintenance and how it has benefited Seminole Electric Coop.
Inc. Asset Manag Mainten J 20(2):14–21
Vanier DJ (2001) Asset management: “A” to “Z.” In: APWA international public works congress,
pp 1–7
Waeyenbergh G, Pintelon L (2002) A frame for maintenance concept development. Int J Prod
Econ 77:299–313
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Wireman T (1994) Computerized maintenance management systems. Industrial Press, New York
Chapter 2
Design Approach for Systems Health
Management

2.1 Introduction

Over the last several decades, there has been a wide range of approaches and
implementation strategies for performing manual, semiautomated, or fully automated
fault diagnosis and prognosis (i.e., health management) on critical systems in
commercial and defense markets. Associated with these diagnostic and prognostic
systems, designs are an equally diverse number of philosophies and associated
architectures used to implement them for particular application.
Following the evolution of diagnostic systems in the modern industry, prog-
nostic initiatives stared to be introduced in order to try to take advantage of the
maintenance planning and logistics benefits. However, the early prognostic initia-
tives often were driven by infield failures that resulted in critical safety or high-cost
failures, and thus, retrofitted technology was hard to implement and costly to
develop. Hence, diagnostic and prognostic systems developers found the need to
analyze and describe the benefits associated with reducing infield failures and their
positive impact on safety, reliability, and overall lifecycle cost reduction. This leads
to many cost–benefit analyses and ensuing discussions and presentations to engi-
neering management about why the diagnostic and prognostic technologies need to
be included in the design process of the system and not simply an afterthought once
field failures occur. This had us to the point where many complex vehicle/system
designs such as advanced fighter and high-speed train are now developing “de-
signed in” health management technologies that can be implemented within an
integrated maintenance and logistics system that supports the equipment throughout
its lifetime. This “designed in” approach to health management is performed with
the hardware design itself and also acts as the process for systems validation and
managing inevitable changes from infield experiences and evaluating systems
design trade-offs, as shown in Fig. 2.1.

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore and Science Press, Beijing, China 2017 15
G. Niu, Data-Driven Technology for Engineering Systems Health Management,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2032-2_2
16 2 Design Approach for Systems Health Management

Fig. 2.1 The “designed in”

approach to health
management (Vachtsevanos
et al. 2006)

Realizing such an approach will involve synergistic deployments of component

health monitoring technologies, as well as integrated reasoning capabilities for the
interpretation of fault-detect outputs. Further, it will involve the introduction of
learning technologies to support the continuous improvement of the knowledge
enabling these reasoning capabilities. Finally, it will involve organizing these ele-
ments into a maintenance and logistics architecture that governs integration and
interoperation with the system, between its onboard elements and their
ground-based support functions and between the health management system and
external maintenance and operation functions.
Condition-based maintenance (CBM) is the use of machinery run-time data to
determine the machinery condition, and hence, its current fault/failure condition,
which can be used to schedule, required repair and maintenance prior to breakdown.
Prognostics and health management (PHM) refers specifically to the phase
involved with predicting future behavior, including remaining useful life (RUL), in
terms of current operating state and the scheduling of required maintenance actions
to maintain systems health. Detecting a component fault or incipient failure for a
critical dynamic system (aircraft, gas turbine, pump, etc.) and predicting its
remaining useful life necessitate a series of studies that are intended to familiarize
the PHM/CBM designer with the physics of failure mechanisms associated with the
particular system/component. Moreover, the designer must have a thorough
understanding of methods for optimal selection of monitoring strategies, tools, and
algorithms needed to detect, isolate, and predict the time evolution of the fault, as
well as systems approaches for designing experiments and testing protocols, per-
formance metrics, and means to verify and validate the effectiveness and perfor-
mance of the selected models.
This chapter will introduce the concept of a system, as well as an engineering
viewpoint for thinking about systems. The general consideration for systems health
management (SHM) life cycle and analysis models is described. Then, two
systems-based methodologies for the design of health management systems will be
introduced.
2.2 Systems Engineering 17

2.2 Systems Engineering

Systems engineering is presented as a framework organized around stages of the

product development life cycle. We specify a systems health management (SHM)
process view of the systems engineering life cycle which provides a basis for
understanding the broader issues of SHM and how they fit into the system life
cycle. This supports the very important notion that SHM is an essential property of
engineered systems that exerts considerable influence on system performance and
affordability—it, therefore, must be addressed with an appropriate level of concern
early on and throughout the product life cycle.
The term “systems engineering” was introduced by Bell Labs in the late 1940s,
and by the latter part of the twentieth century, the field of systems engineering was
recognized by most engineering organizations as a functional and integral part of
the design process.
Systems engineering is concerned with the use of work products, processes, and
tools to support and manage the design of complex engineering projects. A systems
engineering implementation is typically organized around the system life cycle,
addressing the identification and definition of customer requirements, creation, and
analysis of alternative design artifacts by performing relevant trade studies, the
implementation and integration of selected design approaches, verification and
validation of the implementation, and then production support and
evaluation/maturation of the embodiment of the design.
There is general agreement in the engineering community as to the nature and
components of the systems engineering life cycle (ISO 2008). Figure 2.2 illustrates
the most atomic stages of the systems engineering life cycle. These stages should
not be construed as discrete events in a timeline, but rather as evolutionary phases
with a necessary order of evolution, including the parallel utilization and support
stages.

Fig. 2.2 The components of

the systems engineering life Concept Stage
cycle (Stephen et al. 2011)

Development Stage

Production Stage

Utilization Stage Support Stage

Retirement Stage
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
not sufficiently ready some time ago) are already members of the
Visible Church.
Many of the men have been won to Christianity by a tragic
happening of last year. Dr. Logan, of the Presbyterian Mission, was
shot by a lunatic whom he had been asked to examine medically in
the General’s room. The General flung himself on the man to disarm
him and was himself shot in two places. A colonel who rushed into
the room on hearing the shots, saw both Dr. Logan and the General
on the floor, and asked the latter, “Shall I take the man out and shoot
him?” but the answer was “No.” The man, not being responsible for
his actions, was only to be put in a place of safety where he could
harm no one. Dr. Logan died in about an hour, but the General was
taken to hospital and recovered. A day or two later Mrs. Logan was
told by one of the officers that the lunatic was in fetters and that he
had struck him in the face, and was surprised at her indignation on
hearing it. She at once went to headquarters where the lunatic was
confined and ordered the astonished officer in charge to take off all
the man’s fetters. He naturally demurred, but on hearing who she
was, he exclaimed: “This man murdered your husband, and do you
mean to say that you want us to treat him kindly?” The result of her
deed was that a large number of the soldiers decided to become
Christians: they had expected severe reprisals to be demanded and
said that no religion could compare with a religion producing such
deeds as Mrs. Logan’s. The impression made was profound and
widespread.
All we saw and heard of General Feng made us anxious to see so
remarkable a man, and the missionaries very kindly arranged an
interview which took place about 8.30 a.m. The General and Mrs.
Feng received us in their simple home at headquarters, and we had
a long talk about China and other matters, for he is an ardent patriot
and shares the universal anxiety about the disturbed state of China
and the Japanese invasion. On a later occasion he asked what our
dresses were made of, and on hearing that it was Chinese silk, he
was pleased and said they were very nice. Our hats he did not like,
and said we ought to wear straw ones like his wife. She put hers on
to show us at his request, and of course we made such polite
remarks as the occasion demanded, so he sent out an orderly at
once to buy two, and we had to put them on, while our own hats
were put in a paper parcel for us to take home! The hat was certainly
much more suitable to the time of year than the one I was wearing,
and he asked if I should take it back to England: he had been trying
to persuade the other taitais (ladies) to wear them, but without much
success. Most of the Chinese are extremely keen to have European
things, and European headgear as seen in the bazaars is too
appalling for words. Often a charming Chinese costume is
completely spoiled by some garish woolwork cap, with artificial
flowers of varied hues.
The General believes in five things:

(i) Religion;
(ii) Work;
(iii) Education;
(iv) Discipline;
(v) Cleanliness.

These things are not a matter of theory, but of practice. He has

taken heed to the words, “Ye that love the Lord HATE EVIL,” and
while he puts down all that appears wrong, he is equally energetic in
promoting good things. For instance, he requires every officer as
well as every private to learn a trade or profession, so that when he
leaves the army he will not remain unemployed. We went all over the
army workshops where many trades are represented, and found
them extremely clean, well-ventilated and attractive. There is a ready
sale for all their products and they make all the army clothing,
towels, socks, boots, etc. Each soldier is required to do one year’s
training in the workshops for seven hours a day. There is also
educational work in full swing and special three-months’ courses of
instruction. To these one private and one lieutenant are elected for
each company at a time, and although no promotion follows special
success in the examinations, they are taken cognizance of when
there is a question of promotion. Much attention is paid to athletics
and physical drill, and efficiency is the hall-mark of every
department. They looked to my unprofessional eye the smartest,
best-turned-out soldiers in China, and the record of certain route
marches I dare not set down because they make too great a demand
on our belief, whose physical endurance is infinitely less. Woe betide
the man on whom the General’s eagle eye detects lack of polish or
scrupulous care in his accoutrements! To anyone who knows China,
I must seem rather untruthful in stating that bad smells do not exist in
the camp, and every bed is clean and provided with a mosquito net.
It must be added that the army is not all concentrated at
Changteh, but there are various camps scattered over the area
governed by General Feng, the population inhabiting which is
estimated at seven to eight million people. He is aided in the city by
an efficient young magistrate who is in sympathy with his aims, and
who was appointed by him. He certainly knows how to select men,
and is training a valuable body of officers to occupy—one cannot but
hope—a much wider sphere of service for the country later on. The
achievement of the last two years makes anything seem possible to
one who has seen it, and one of the Britishers who has been in close
touch with him while he has been in Changteh remarked on the
striking development of the General’s personality during that time.
He is a practical democrat, shares teaching and work with his men,
and has actually succeeded in getting his officers to take part in the
meanest work, such as water-carrying, to show that there is nothing
contemptible in honest labour. The General attends the English class
on Thursday evenings with the other officers and shows no official
arrogance of any kind. At the Sunday services he retires to a
backless bench at the far end of the hall like any “Tommy.”
This brings me to one of the strangest experiences of my life. The
evening after our interview with the General he sent one of his
officers to ask me to give the address at the military service on
Sunday morning. As he knew I was no missionary and no one could
have told him that I had ever preached or was accustomed to
speaking in public, the only explanation of the invitation seems to be
his intense desire to seize any possible chance of stirring his people
to fresh endeavour. His interpreter would act as mine unless I
preferred having my own. Having received my answer in the
affirmative, next day the officer came again to know what portion of
Scripture I wanted read in order that it might be well read. The
service took place at 7 a.m. on a lovely summer morning, and was
held in a big barrack-like hall with a platform at one end with pots of
flowers on it; a gallery ran round the hall, in which was the military
band, and beyond that some of the officers’ wives and children,
including the General’s family. The Chief of Staff conducted the
service, which was just like an ordinary Nonconformist service at
home, beginning with the National Anthem by the band. The prayers
were led by officers among the audience and were short and
impressive, the singing of the hymns was hearty, led by a choir, and
many of those present had Bibles as well as hymn-books so as to
follow the lesson. A boys’ school of officers’ sons sat at the front. It
was a wonderful inspiration to speak to such an audience as they
listened in rapt attention to the story of the “Contemptible Little
Army”, and other historical instances of God’s use of weak things to
confound the mighty; every now and then a little burst of irresistible
applause broke from them, and quite a number were taking notes all
the time. What would I not have given to speak in their own tongue!
for it is just paralysing to speak through an interpreter, and weak
words become weaker still. The text comforted my despair.
After service we went with the General to breakfast: it was a
cheerful meal, as he is full of humour and devoted to his family. The
characteristic Chinese love of children was very evident in the
involuntary caresses he bestowed upon the little girls while he was
talking, as they nestled against his arm. Rather an amusing instance
of his humour was told us by our charming Irish host, a tall, spare
man. He was crossing the drill ground one day with a short Chinese
officer to speak to the General, who was standing chatting with a
group of officers on the further side. As the General watched their
approach he made a remark which was greeted with laughter. Our
host’s curiosity being aroused, he inquired from one of them
afterwards what the joke was. “The General said, ‘Don’t you think the
missionary looks as if he ought to be the officer and the officer the
missionary?’” The breakfast was entirely Chinese with the exception
of knife, fork and spoon being provided for us, but we pleased our
host by our use of chopsticks instead. After breakfast we had a little
rest in Mrs. Feng’s room, and all the rooms we saw were
characterized by simplicity, extreme tidiness and cleanliness. We
noticed a bright little servant girl, and heard she had been rescued
from slavery some years ago by the General’s wife.
General Feng gave me the photograph of himself and family, and
at my request wrote the name of each of the children. His own name
is at the right hand of the photo.
What struck me most at the ladies’ meeting which followed was
the fact of the General coming to it and taking part, showing his real
interest in woman’s welfare; it is remarkable how keenly he is
working—not only for the army, but for women in general as well as
in particular, and for the whole population of his district. He and his
officers have pledged one another to work for the evangelization of
the civil population, each one making it a rule to try and win at least
one of the official class per annum. In this may be seen the instinct
for the continuation of a Christian policy if the Christian army should
be ordered elsewhere.
As we were taking leave of the General at the close of the
meeting, he said to me: “I think you will speak to my officers this
evening,” which meant the five o’clock service for officers. I felt
overwhelmed, as the two services had been very exhausting, but my
host suggested that I should give them an account of what we had
seen of the Chinese Home Missionary Society, and of the work
amongst the aborigines, and the General said that would interest
them very much. He said that the morning address had been not at
all like what he expected, but did not explain the statement. Of
course, it was impossible to decline, and I took for granted there
would be only a small gathering—perhaps two or three dozen men.
At five o’clock we were back at the hall and there must have been
from two to three hundred officers present and many ladies in the
gallery. Again the same quiet spirit of worship and eager expectancy
dominated, and the expression of those upturned faces will never
fade from my memory, as I told the story of the missionaries coming
to barbarian Britain, delivering their Message and leaving the living
Message to fulfil itself, the British Church in its turn becoming the
missionary to China, who, in its turn, is now called to take up the
task, and is beginning to do so. After the General had seen us out of
the hall he turned back, and did not rejoin us for some time, the
reason being (as I learned, after leaving Changteh, from my
interpreter, who was the friend of the General’s interpreter) that he
went back to urge the audience to pay heed to the thing which had
been said, and to say a few words about the speaker. In the whole
matter he acted with such striking self-forgetfulness and tact as I
have rarely, if ever, met.
It was not to be expected that such a happy state of affairs would
be allowed to continue more than a limited time; for the forces of evil
do not accept tamely such a defiance. As in the old days at Ephesus,
seeing the source of their wealth attacked, there were plenty of
people ready to counter-attack by fair means or foul. A few months
later General Feng got his orders to leave Changteh. No sooner had
he done so than the Southern troops swarmed back into the
undefended city. The houses of ill fame were at once reopened,
under military sanction, with soldiers posted at the doors. A time of
much unrest followed, and no one knows from day to day what will
happen. There is great disorder among the ill-paid troops, and
shooting among themselves took place in the streets. An officer was
shot close beside the mission premises where we stayed. The
schools have been closed and the opium dens and theatres
reopened. The Southern troops now hold all the important part of the
province, a serious loss to the Government at Peking. Business is at
a standstill.
Since Sun Yat Sen has been chosen President of the Southern
Government, there is a split among the Southern provinces. The
man who was looked on with such hopes by many as a sincere
patriot, has proved very much the reverse; he is now a fresh source
of discord, and bitter fighting is going on between the provinces of
Kwang-Tung and Kwang-si.
And what, meanwhile, of General Feng and his army? They were
ordered to go to Chu-ma-tien in Honan. This is on the railway line
from Peking to Hankow, and is some hundred and fifty miles north of
the latter. It was formerly a place of no importance, but since the
coming of the railway its trade has increased rapidly, and it is
becoming a big market for the agricultural produce of the
surrounding country. As there is a large depôt for railway material
and water tanks, it is no doubt important that the place should be
properly guarded. But Honan is under military governorship, and the
present Tuchun, General Chow Ti, is a bitter opponent of General
Feng, and is working hard to get rid of him. He has succeeded in
getting the Provincial Assembly to accuse Feng to the authorities at
Peking of illegally extorting money at a place called Hsuchow. There
are at present three military leaders at Peking, who so far have
refused to act in this matter, and they are trying to bring the two
generals to an agreement. They are afraid of fresh conflicts arising in
the province. The Honanese are not the easiest people to govern,
the province is densely populated. “They are of an independent turn
of mind,” says one who knows them well, “and will not brook reproof;
very conservative, they do not welcome foreign innovation.”
Meanwhile the troops are starving and urgent demands for arrears
of pay have no effect upon the War Lords at Peking.
What the outcome of the controversy will be, time will soon reveal.
 Chapter VIII
The New Chinese Woman—Miss Tseng, B.Sc.
(Lond.)

“There can be no question at all that the education of

women is, in every grade, quite as important as the education
of men, and that educational training is quite as important in
the case of women teachers as in the case of men. Indeed in
view of the fact that character is largely determined in the
early years and by the influence of the mother in the home,
the education of women acquires a place of first
importance.... All the women’s educational work in a district
should be planned in co-ordination with the corresponding
work for men and boys.”—World Missionary Conference
Report on Education, 1910.

Chapter VIII
The New Chinese Woman—Miss Tseng, B.Sc. (Lond.)

Unlike the women of other races of the East, the Chinese woman
has always shown a marked strength of character, and evidently, as
Mrs. Poyser so truly remarked, “God made ’em to match the men.”
That the men did not approve of this is equally plain, for, looking
back some thousands of years, we find the great Confucius teaching
the best way of counteracting this inborn self-will and strength of
character.
“It is a law of nature,” he says, “that woman should be kept under
the control of man and not allowed any will of her own. In the other
world the condition of affairs is exactly the same, for the same laws
 HAKKA BOAT AT CHAO CHOW.

govern there as here.”

“Women are as different from men as earth is from heaven....
Women are indeed human beings, but they are of a lower state than
men, and can never attain to a full equality with them. The aim of
female education therefore is perfect submission, not cultivation and
development of the mind.”
Not only Confucius spoke thus strongly about the education of
women, but all through the centuries Chinese writers of note refer to
the subject of woman’s duty and education, and her attitude towards
man. This is graphically set out in the important work, The Ritual of
Chau—What a revelation of Chinese home life it is!
“In conversation a woman should not be forward and garrulous,
but observe strictly what is correct, whether in suggesting advice to
her husband, in remonstrating with him, in teaching her children, in
maintaining etiquette, in humbly imparting her experience and in
averting misfortune. The deportment of females should be strictly
grave and sober, and yet adapted to the occasion; whether in waiting
on her parents, receiving or reverencing her husband, rising up or
sitting down, in times of mourning or fleeing in war, she should be
perfectly decorous. Rearing the silkworm and working cloth are the
most important of the employments of a female; preparing and
serving up the food for her husband and setting in order the
sacrifices follow next, each of which must be attended to. After them
study and learning can fill up the time.” This last detail shows clearly
that it was no unusual thing for the women to have a knowledge of
literature, and there is no mean list of women writers in the field of
belles-lettres, while one even wrote on the sacrosanct subject of
dynastic history in the fifth century. The first treatise on the education
of women was written by a Chinese woman some eighteen centuries
ago, and it is rather interesting to see what her ideal for womanhood
was, and to compare it with the present-day ideal. “The virtue of a
female does not consist altogether in extraordinary abilities or
intelligence, but in being modestly grave and inviolably chaste,
observing the requirements of virtuous widowhood, and in being tidy
in her person and everything about her; in whatever she does to be
unassuming, and whenever she moves or sits to be decorous. This
is female virtue.” In the Rules for Women, written by Lady Tsao, the
heading of no less than five out of the seven chapters refers to the
attitude of woman towards her menfolk, which shows that she was
wise in her generation: and this work naturally became a classic and
has been studied by all succeeding generations down to the present
day!
 A Chinese Leader of Thought.

Page 174

After this reference to the past, we come to a consideration of the

present-day Chinese woman, and it has been my good fortune to
meet some of the finest of the new school. They are taking a high
place and winning the respect and consideration not only of their
own countrymen, but of British, French and Americans by their
ability, their singleness of purpose and undaunted determination. In
the law school in Paris lately a Chinese girl took her degree; doctors
who have studied in America and England have attained great
distinction in their homeland after their return, and have overcome all
the opposition aroused, in early days last century, by their foreign
training and innovations.
Chinese women have evinced a keen patriotic spirit, sometimes
shown in strange ways. When we were at Changteh they had
demonstrated against the Japanese aggression by cutting their hair
short! This did not meet the approval of the civil authorities, and they
sent round the town crier, beating his drum, to prohibit women from
doing this, under pain of receiving six hundred stripes! If the girls’
action was ill judged, it meant at all events a great sacrifice, so the
penalty seems severe.
Perhaps the best way of showing the new trend of thought is to
give a sketch of one of the most remarkable of the new generation,
and who may be known to some of my readers, as she spent five
years in England and took a London degree in science, with honours
in botany, in 1917. Miss Pao Swen Tseng belongs to one of the great
families whose genealogies have been carefully kept for the last
twenty-five hundred years or so, and whose notable men have left
their mark on the page of history. In the sixth century b.c. a
philosopher of the family was one of the exponents of Confucian
teaching, another was a great general at the time of the Taiping
Rebellion and was largely instrumental in putting an end to it. For
these services he received a beautiful estate with buildings, temple,
lake and gardens in it from the Emperor, and also gifts from the
guilds of Changsha, in Hunan, where the estate is situated. Here his
descendant the Marquis Tseng lived, who became a well-known
figure at the court of St. James, being Chinese minister here and
afterwards at the Russian court. Even before he left Hunan—the
most foreign-hating province of China—he was an ardent student of
the English language, although he had no teacher and was obliged
to study it only from most inadequate books. The family library was
housed in a larger building than the family, which indicates the family
tradition; but as may be supposed, it was no easy task that the
Marquis had undertaken. When he lived in Peking he defied all
precedent, and allied himself with the foreign British community;
although his English was naturally most difficult to understand he
persevered, and continually entertained Englishmen at his house
and received their hospitality in return. This was done contrary to the
strong feeling of opposition then existing at the court of Peking,
where no Chinaman, even in a subordinate position, would be seen
in company with a European or entering his house. I mention these
facts because they reappear so vividly in the history of his
granddaughter, Pao Tseng.
Miss Tseng’s education began at an early age: she had a tutor
when she was three years old and two tutors by the time she was
five. No wonder that she rebelled, and history relates that one day
she took refuge in a tree, from which she was finally cajoled by one
of her Chinese teachers to come down by promises which he
forthwith ignored. It may be a source of surprise that she was able to
climb a tree, but happily for Pao Tseng she had an enlightened
grandmother, who, at a time when such a thing was unheard of, had
the strength of mind to save the girls of her family from the torture
and disablement of bound feet, knowing in her own person the cost
of such disablement.
At ten years old Pao Tseng was a keen student of Chinese history,
and the seed was sown, which later sprang up into an ardent
patriotism and desire for the ancient glory of her race to be restored.
She injured her eyesight by too close study, and two years later had
become a Chinese classical scholar, a feat of which it would be
impossible for anyone to realize the magnitude unless they knew
something of the classics. She then begged leave to go and study
Western knowledge, and was sent to one of the new Government
schools at Hangchow, some thousand miles distant, to reach which
there was no railway in those days. The tone of the school was so
displeasing to her, that she soon left it and went to the (C.M.S.) Mary
Vaughan High School for girls, where she found a sympathetic friend
as well as teacher in the head mistress, Miss Barnes. In the turmoil
and distress of mind caused by the condition of her country she
found comfort in the study of the Christian faith and wrote to her
father that she wished to become a Christian. He was evidently a
man of rare wisdom, and stipulated that before taking so important a
step she should study the writings of its European opponents. It is
strange to think of such a child being set down to a course of Herbert
Spencer, Frederick Harrison, and other leading non-Christian writers:
her views were not changed by it. She again wrote to her father to
this effect, and he gave his consent to her open profession of
Christianity, coupled with the wise advice that she should become
the best possible type of Christian. She decided to join no particular
sect, looking forward to the time when China would have a church
suitable to her needs and character.
In 1912 Pao Tseng obtained the family’s consent that she should
go to England for further training. She had accepted as her vocation
the call of her country to a life of educational work in China. Her
family would not allow her to go abroad without a guardian, and Miss
Barnes undertook the post, relinquishing the head mistress-ship of
the High School in order to do this. Pao Tseng entered the
Blackheath High School, and from there passed to Westfield
College. It was at this time that I had the pleasure of making her
acquaintance, having already heard of the impression she had made
at the college. No one could be with her without being aware of the
deep seriousness of her nature, and she was greatly liked by her
fellow-students. Chinese girls always seem to get on well in England,
and to fit in easily with our idiosyncrasies. There is nothing like the
gulf between them and us which seems to separate us in our ways
of thinking and of looking on life from our Indian fellow-subjects.
After taking her degree and studying educational methods and
training at St. Mary’s College, Paddington, she returned to China at
the age of twenty to begin her life work at her old home in Changsha,
the capital of Hunan.
When the monarchy was overthrown in 1911, the new republic
confiscated the property of many of the gentry, amongst others that
of the Tseng family, using the buildings as barracks for the troops:
they caused great havoc in them. It was only after much difficulty
and many delays that the family succeeded in getting the property
restored to them, though a part of it is still requisitioned for the
soldiers, and a flimsy partition put up to screen it from the rest. This
might prove a danger to the school, but so far, Miss Tseng told me,
they had behaved extremely well, their only misdeed being to cut
down two trees. It was necessary to rebuild the house for a school.
The garden is really charming, in true Chinese style, with carved
bridges over the winding stretch of water, shady paths and quaint
rockery; dazzling golden orioles and kingfishers make their home in
the classic willow trees that overhang the lake, and the stillness
which broods over all makes it an ideal spot for study.
But study is not the only thing in education, and Miss Tseng has
adopted English ideals with regard to the value of sport in a girl’s
education as well as in a boy’s. Since my visit the stillness of the tiny
lake is joyously broken by girls learning the art of boating, under the
coaching of Mr. and Miss Tseng, and they have two boats. They also
study American games, and were recently challenged by a boys’
school to a match at lacrosse. They had only been learning a very
short time and knew themselves too weak for their opponents, but a
sporting instinct prevented their declining the challenge. As may be
supposed, they sustained a severe beating, but bore it so gallantly
that the onlookers said that they were like the British: they had learnt
to take defeat smiling!
It is difficult to believe that some of these girls did not know their
alphabet two years ago; that discipline, as we understand it, was
unknown to them. They all learn English and some had got on
amazingly well with it. They have a “Round Table,” at which meetings
all must take a share in whatever is the subject under discussion:
this is to teach them how to take part in public meetings and how to
express themselves.
The spirit of service is strongly developed. In a three days’ public
holiday the girls set themselves to collect money from their friends
for the famine relief in the north. Their aim was five hundred dollars,
but they collected double the amount. Christianity is taught as the
basis of social service, as it is at the root of this fine piece of
educational work. The whole staff is united in this bond, and they
have already succeeded in setting a new standard among the
schools at Changsha.
In 1918 Miss Tseng opened her school, under the guardianship (if
one may so call it) of Miss Barnes, and splendidly helped by two of
her men cousins, whom I knew as fine students in London, and both
of whom are honorary workers. All the élite of Changsha were
present, including the Minister of Education, the British consul and
the missionary community. This was the planting of the mustard
seed destined one day to grow into a tree. There were but eight
pupils, varying in age from fourteen to twenty-two, a number which
was increased fivefold in two years. As befits a Chinese school, it
has a poetic name, I-Fang—“The Garden of Fragrance,” and the
school motto is “Loyalty and Sympathy,” the two words by which the
philosopher Tseng had summed up the teaching of Confucius some
two thousand five hundred years ago.
It was at a garden party in honour of the King’s birthday held at the
British Consulate that we met Miss Tseng last summer, and she most
kindly bade us to lunch next day, and asked me to speak to her
students. I had no idea at the time of what she had done since we
parted in London, or even that she lived at Changsha. It was with a
shock of delighted surprise that we passed from the hot, busy, dusty
street into the cool loveliness of the garden. Our time was woefully
limited, and I should like to have sketched all day as well as talked,
but there was so much to see and hear that it is impossible to do
justice to it in this brief account. If the Tseng family can leave their
impress on the charming bevy of girls we saw, they will have
rendered the greatest possible service to their country, and I feel
confident that such will be the case. When I reflect on the state of
unrest which existed during the birth of this school and the masterly
way in which Miss Tseng has overcome all the difficulties of the
situation, I find no words adequate to express my admiration.
In another chapter I have dealt with the student movement, which
produced strikes all over the Chinese empire: not a school or
university escaped its influence. Miss Tseng explained to her
students her feelings with regard to the movement, and told them to
reflect on the subject, and discuss it among themselves before
deciding whether they would strike. She brought no pressure to bear
on them, while very strong pressure was brought to bear on them
from outside, but their unanimous decision was to “carry on,” and
this school alone out of thirty-six in the city continued its work
steadily and continuously, while the others—both boys and girls—
were on strike. Miss Tseng wrote a letter to the Central Chinese
Post, a paper published in English, which won widespread
admiration. The editor of the paper wrote to her: “Allow me to
congratulate you on the sane and patriotic views which you hold, and
on your splendid mastery of the English language. Your letter is by
far the best thing which has appeared on the subject of the students’
boycott.” When it is considered that it is written by one so young it is
indeed remarkable, and I make no apology for quoting part of it, with
the explanation that the mistress-ship to which she refers was one
that she had been persuaded to accept by strong governmental
pressure—that of the first Normal School for Girls: she soon found
herself obliged to resign the post.

To the Editor, Central China Post.

Dear Sir,—You would have known by this time the details
of the extraordinary developments of the student activities in
Hunan. Perhaps you would allow me the use of your valuable
columns to make a few criticisms and an appeal in connexion
therewith.
The frank opinion, in Hunan at any rate, of every unbiased
observer is that the primary wrong rested with the Provincial
Government. As I have just sent in my resignation of the
Principalship of the first Provincial Normal School for Girls—a
post I was invited to fill by the educationists here only a few
months ago—I feel I can speak more freely and with a certain
amount of authority. The Government has neglected
education so much that all the schools dependent on
Government funds have been confronted with starvation and
bankruptcy in growing proportions for the last two or three
months. This absolute poverty has reduced the none too
perfect education in Hunan to the mere shadow of a name.
 Satan always finds evil work for every idle hand, so no
wonder discontents will foment.
The actual thunderbolt came on the 3rd inst., when the
Government interfered in the burning of Japanese goods by
students. There in front of hundreds of students and
thousands of onlookers, Chang Chingtang, the Governor’s
brother, forbade the destruction at the eleventh hour. He
struck with his own fist the secretary of the Chang Chun
Middle School, who had dared to show impatience at the
abusive language that was being poured out. At the same
time his soldiers welcomed the students with the butt-ends of
their rifles. Then of course the glove was down and the
students took it up. All the pent-up hatred against the
Government broke out with redoubled force. A secret meeting
was held on the 5th among the students, and by Sunday, the
7th, all the schools excepting one or two began to disperse,
declaring that they would never return till Chang Ching-yao is
driven out of Hunan. To-day only the Fang Siang School and
our School are in regular work. Even the Yale and Hunan Yale
medical colleges are given official “holidays.” The
Government has succeeded in wrecking the entire fabric of
education in the most masterly fashion, that even surprised its
ardent admirers.
In view of the foregoing one cannot but deeply sympathize
with the motive of the students, but their method of making a
protest will, I am afraid, have certain undesirable effects. Etc.
etc.

I was much struck with the frank, pleasant tone of the girls: some
were able to talk English. In connexion with the student strike a
master of one of the other schools said to one of the girls:
“Your Principal has managed splendidly to keep her students from
striking.”
“Yes, indeed,” she replied, “but our Principal did not force us, we
all agreed unanimously with her not to strike.”
 This detail is characteristic of both teacher and taught—Liberty
and Frankness. The Christian temper of “sweet reasonableness”
irradiates the place, but no one will be urged to become Christian.
Brightness, cleanliness and gaiety rule everywhere, and the
dormitories and classrooms are thoroughly attractive. What a
pleasant sphere for any English girl who goes as teacher there, and
the growing needs of the school demand such help at once; a B.Sc.
is required, and none but highly qualified teachers are suitable for
such educational posts in China.
It seemed passing strange to realize that Changsha was the
storm-centre of fighting between Northern and Southern troops, and
the very next day the latter were expected to invade the city.
“Girls,
Knowledge is now no more a fountain seal’d:
Drink deep.”
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