NSF  - Active Control of Gas Turbine Engines

TSi has worked for several years on signal processing for engine fault detection supported by NASA and NSF phase I and Phase II SBIRs.

Our work has focused on signal processing for non-contact blade tip sensors and in particular on the General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GDAIS) eddy current sensor (ECS). The GDAIS sensor was designed for engine monitoring and prognostics in the Joint Strike Fighter. The primary goal of our work has been minimizing the number of sensors needed for detection and monitoring of turbine blade vibration and detection of stall.

We have developed stall detection methods using a single ECS along with avoidance control methods that will be tested at NASA Glenn in Fall 2003.

The figure shows the performance of our ECS stall detection algorithm versus a Kulite pressure sensor, the current standard for stall prediction research in test engines.

This work is being completed in collaboration with Jim Paduano at MIT Gas Turbine Lab.