A Reference Stack for PHM Architectures

This paper suggests a reference model for PHM processes that aids the customer of PHM in developing a business case for adopting PHM in his or her supply chain. Various PHM systems have been envisioned and developed in order to produce a prognosis of system or component behavior by collecting physical data from some section of a system, analyzing it and reporting the results to the entity that benefits from it, notably the supply chain that manages the components and receives the resulting cost benefit from PHM. All these systems have varying configurations that involve the collection of different types of data in different ways, the analysis of varying types of physical behavior and have different types of customers (different supply chain configurations). The customer needs to include the cost and complexity of the PHM system in his or her business model but has no formal standard to determine bounds on the complexity of the PHM system. Just as there are reference stacks for service-oriented architectures, this paper proposes a functional stack for PHM that can become a reference architecture for developing or purchasing a PHM system for an organization. The stack of PHM services ranges from the data acquisition layer through analysis functions to supply chain decision support services.