Blade Trace Tracking Sensor System

To address the Navy need for High Speed Continuous Blade Health Monitoring for Turbine Engines, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Blade Trace Tracking Sensor (BTTS) system. Current non-contact stress measurement systems (NSMS) measure the exact time of arrival of each blade against a simulated non-vibrating blade to infer blade vibration modes. The technique operates, however, in an undersampled manner that severely limits the degree of NSMS application for the full spectrum blade vibration analysis. The proposed sensor, overcoming this limitation, is based on unique high-resolution non diffracting laser beam forming, and on synchronized high-speed scanning, implementing a major advance over present NSMS technology. The BTTS continuously senses blade location over a given arc by tracking the blade trace. The measured blade trace is compared to an ideal trace without vibration. Such continuously measured data are input into a Fourier analysis tool to deterministically calculate blade vibration modes. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of BTTS in a subscale demonstration prototype sensor with associated algorithms. In Phase II POC plans to develop a prototype capable of robust, reliable operation in the required Navy operating environments, and to design a flexible sensor installation and removal procedure.