Deep learning and similarity-based models for predicting turbofan engine remaining useful life: insights from the CMAPSS dataset

Abstract Turbofan engines are having a growing role in modern aircraft maintenance. Due to this increase, estimation of remaining useful life (RUL) of these engines is an important area of study in the field of reliability and maintenance optimisation. In this work, we propose a hybrid approach that combines deep learning models with similarity-based methods for accurate RUL estimation. For a better comparison, we evaluate four architectures: dropout long short-term memory (LSTM), bidirectional LSTM, convolutional neural network 1D (CNN 1D), and multi-layer LSTM. The FD002 subset of NASA’s Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation dataset is used in the case study. Root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) were used for performance metrics. The main output of the study suggests that the dropout LSTM model achieves the best prediction accuracy with an RMSE score of 26.547 and a MAE score of 18.749. It is worth noting that these are achieved despite requiring higher computational resources compared to multi-layer LSTM. Furthermore, all models had difficulties with smaller test trajectory lengths such as 50–100 due to training data imbalance. Overall, the findings highlight the promise of hybrid deep learning and similarity-based approaches for RUL prediction. However, potential advancements such as hyperparameter optimisation and data augmentation still hold potential for further improvements.