NSF - Turbine Engine Health Monitoring

Turbine blade crack monitoring is a hot topic for engine manufacturers. The weight of the engine is currently made much more than necessary for flying because of the requirement to build a containment shield in the engine so that if a blade fractures in flight it will not cause other damage. The ability to reliably detect incipient crack formation and predict remaining useful blade life would allow engine manufactures to reduce engine weight and thus save significant money over the life of the engine.

Funded by an NSF Phase II SBIR, TSi is working on the problem of vibration monitoring and crack detection using non-contact blade tip sensors. Specifically, we are using the General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GDAIS) eddy current sensors (ECS). A primary goal of our work has been minimizing the number of sensors needed for detection and monitoring of turbine blade vibration and blade damage.

This work is being completed in collaboration with Jim Paduano at MIT Gas Turbine Lab and our tests are being run in the MIT Gas Turbine Laboratory evacuated spin test facility. By evacuating the test section, rotor speeds of up to 12,000 RPM can be tested at relatively low cost. This allows the centrifugal environment unique to high-speed industrial compressors to be accurately approximated.

MIT Gas Turbine Laboratory evacuated spin test facility schematic