Real Time Gas Turbine Engine Particulate Ingestion Sensor for Particle Size and Composition

Modern military and commercial gas turbine engines are subject to increased durability, performance, and safety issues when operating in austere environments where significant quantities of sand, volcanic ash and dust are present and can be ingested into the engines. These environments include desert regions, as well as, previously active/currently active volcanic areas. Military studies of turbine engine sand, dust, and ash ingestion have shown that certain constituents, typically those containing CMAS (calcium-magnesium-alumino-silicate) compound minerals and/or Chlorides and Sulfates, are particularly detrimental to engine turbine components. These compound minerals, known as ‘reactive media’, have one or more physical or chemical characteristics, including but not limited to size, mass, mineralogy and chemical composition. Reactive media has been found to have significant and rapid detrimental effects on engine performance, durability and operability. Currently, there are no aircraft/engine sensors that can provide the information needed to understand the specific composition, size and concentration of ingested reactive material, which is a key factor in determining if reactive media is being ingested into the engine. In response to this need, Innoveering is developing a novel sensor system that that can measure the composition, size and concentration of particles being ingested by a gas turbine in flight.