PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.06-9515 (Chron: 992122 )
PROJECT TITLE
Capacitance-Based Turbine Blade Vibration Monitor
TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Prevention of catastrophic failure of engine components is a major goal to the subtopic. Catastrophic failures of turbine engines are often caused by vibration-induced compressor and fan blade fatigue fractures. Existing capacitance systems have been unable to accurately measure blade vibration due to limited spatial resolution and limited system bandwidth. The proposed effort will develop a new capacitive system with significantly higher spatial resolution and wider bandwidth to provide high-accuracy time-of-arrival measurements for computing blade vibration. Successful demonstration of feasibility of the capacitive probe and electronics will lead to development of monitoring systems suitable for use on new engines as well as for retrofit on existing engines. The ability to detect excessibe blade vibration in flight will allow the pilot to change the engine operating parameters and thus prevent the occurrence of safety-significant blade fractures.
POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
Blade vibration monitoring of aircraft engines will involve the following applications:
1. Spin pit tests during engine development
2. Test engines during engine development
3. Production test equipment for engine manufacturing
4. Engine monitoring on flight engines
5. Engine monitoring and active clearance control on flight engines
The last step combines the blade vibration monitoring with blade tip clearance measurement for use in a control system to dynamically adjust the tip clearance to achieve optimum engine performance.
NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,
City/State/Zip)
Wayne C. Haase
Aerogage Corporation
22 Duggan Road, PO Box 733
Acton , MA 01720 - 0011
NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)
Aerogage Corporation
22 Duggan Road, PO Box 733
Acton , MA 01720 - 0011