High Performance Cage Sensors for Rolling Element Bearing Health Monitoring

The objective of this project is to develop an autonomous cage sensor for a turbine engine bearing. The particular bearing of interest is a turbine engine inter-shaft bearing, a bearing that is inaccessible and therefore very difficult to monitor using traditional methods. The cage sensor must measure temperature and vibration, survive temperatures approaching 300 °C, and operate autonomously, communicating wirelessly with a remote receiver and, ideally, harvesting waste energy. Sentient demonstrated an autonomous, temperature-measuring cage sensor during the first part of Phase I, proving the feasibility of the approach. During the second part of Phase I, Sentient will incorporate vibration monitoring and will push the maximum operating temperature of the sensor to 200 °C. The Phase II goals are to push the maximum operating temperature to 300 °C, optimize sensor communication for the metallic environment inside the turbine engine, design and build a complementary receiver, and test the cage sensor on a representative system, if not on an actual turbine engine. By the end of Phase II, Sentient will have a fully functional, autonomous cage sensor that is ready for integration into a JSF turbine engine, and into the JSF PHM system.