Wireless Temperature Sensor for Rotating Turbine Blades

Natural gas fired turbine engines supply over 30% of the electricity in the United States. To maintain optimal efficiency and reliability, these engines require blade temperature sensors that can operate reliably for long periods of time (many years) in high temperature (>1200°C), oxidizing environments. In the proposed project, we will develop wireless temperature sensors for rotating turbine engine blades. The sensor consists of a passive sensor head located on the rotating turbine blade and wireless RFID reader mounted on the turbine case. The sensor head is made from a novel, high-temperature polymer derived ceramic and is unaffected by emissivity changes than can skew the results of IR based sensors. In the Phase I project we will perform a conceptual design of the entire turbine sensor system. This includes the wireless sensor head, the sensor reader, and the integration with a turbine engine. We will then design and build Phase I sensor hardware that mimics the key aspects of the engine sensor, but without engine packaging. We will test the sensor over a range of conditions to demonstrate the performance. Our wireless turbine temperature sensor will improve the reliability and performance of gas turbine engines while reducing maintenance cost. This will lead to lower costs for electricity and lower emissions from gas turbines.