Patent Document ID: 7552005
Application ID: 10802151

Base Claim:
1. A method of analyzing a turbine engine to determine a normal engine condition or a faulty engine condition, said method comprising the steps of: acquiring at least one engine operating parameter; calculating at least one engine residual value from said at least one engine operating parameter; normalizing said at least one engine residual value to yield at least one normalized engine residual; mapping, via a clustering technique, said at least one normalized engine residual as at least one input vector into an engine condition space having a plurality of clusters, each of said plurality of clusters representing either a normal vector engine condition or a faulty vector engine condition; identifying a closest cluster within said engine condition space, said closest cluster being closer to said at least one input vector than any other of said plurality of clusters; and determining a normal engine condition for the engine undergoing analysis if said closest cluster represents a normal vector engine condition, and determining a faulty engine condition for the engine undergoing analysis if said closest cluster represents a faulty vector engine condition.

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Claim 7:
7. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of calculating said at least one engine residual value comprises the step of comparing said at least one engine operating parameter with standard engine characteristics obtained from a first principle engine model.