This invention is related generally to the field of gas turbine engines, and more particularly to identifying a failure of a gas turbine engine airfoil.
Gas turbine engines are known to include a compressor for compressing air, a combustor for mixing the compressed air with fuel and igniting the mixture, and a turbine for expanding the hot combustion gases to produce mechanical shaft power. Combustors operate at temperatures that may exceed 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, thereby exposing the turbine blade and vane assemblies to these high temperatures. As a result, the turbine airfoils must be made of materials capable of withstanding such high temperatures. In addition, the airfoils often contain cooling systems for prolonging the life of the airfoils and reducing the likelihood of failure as a result of excessive temperatures.
Gas turbine airfoils have an outer skin defining the desired airfoil shape including a leading edge and a trailing edge and extending along a chord length. An outer skin of metal may by coated with a ceramic thermal barrier coating material for additional protection, especially in the first few rows of airfoils within the turbine, which are exposed to the highest temperatures and greatest fluid velocities. Inner structures of the airfoils typically define cooling channels for directing cooling fluid against the backside of the outer skin. The cooling fluid may be air extracted from the compressor/combustor flow path or it may be steam in some combined cycle plant applications. The cooling channels often include multiple flow paths designed to maintain all regions of the airfoil below a design temperature value, including impingement plates and holes for directing cooling fluid against the back side of the outer skin and film cooling holes through the outer skin for directing a layer of cooling air across the outer surface of the airfoil. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,937 issued on Apr. 30, 1996, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,386 issued on May 8, 1979. Centrifugal forces and flow boundary layers sometimes prevent certain areas of the airfoils from being adequately cooled, resulting in the formation of localized hot spots. Furthermore, contaminants in the cooling fluid can clog impingement orifices and film cooling orifices, resulting in additional localized hot spots. Also, debonding and/or spallation of the thermal barrier coating can result in such hot spots, as the thermal insulation material chips off, leaving the airfoil unprotected. Such hot spots can result in a premature failure of the airfoil and thereby necessitate replacement of the part. When an airfoil fails, portions of the airfoil may break off and strike downstream components of the turbine engine, thereby causing collateral damage that may be extremely costly.
A variety of systems have been used to monitor the performance of an airfoil during operation of a gas turbine engine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,298 issued on Jun. 17, 1986, describes a temperature detection system used on the exterior of a film cooled turbine airfoil. U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,034 issued on Jan. 8, 1991, describes a sensing fiber used to monitor strain levels at one or more locations of a composite member. U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,285 issued on Aug. 15, 1995, describes a stationary eddy current sensor used to examine a passing turbine blade. U.S. Pat. No. 6,838,157 issued on Jan. 4, 2005, describes the embedding of sensors within a ceramic thermal barrier coating of a gas turbine component. All of the patents mentioned in this Background section are incorporated by reference herein.
The accompanying drawings illustrate embodiments of the present invention and, together with the description, disclose the principles of the invention.
The present inventor has recognized a need for a tool that provides early detection of an actual failure of a gas turbine airfoil. The present inventor has further recognized that many existing diagnostic tools fail to provide practical information that can be used by an operator of a gas turbine engine to make a run-or-shutdown decision. For example, the measurement of stress in an airfoil or temperature in a thermal barrier coating may provide valuable information; however, such information is not necessarily directly indicative of failures of the airfoil that may give rise to a heightened risk of collateral damage. Furthermore, the measurement of blockage of coolant flow through impingement orifices or film cooling orifices does not provide a direct indication or prediction of actual failure of the airfoil.
Disclosed herein is a system and method of detecting a failure of the outer skin of an airfoil of a gas turbine engine. An airfoil 10 monitored by such a system is illustrated in
A failure of the outer skin 12, which is a condition indicating a high risk of downstream collateral damage, will result in a change in the pressure detected by the pressure transducer 52. For example, should a burn through occur along a high impact pressure region of the airfoil 10, such as at the leading edge 40 of the airfoil 10 as illustrated at point A of
A system 50 for detecting a failure of the airfoil 10 is illustrated in block diagram form in
System 50 further includes a storage device 60 such as a hard drive or solid-state memory device for storing executable instructions in the form of a computer code for correlating a change in the signal(s) 54, 58 to conditions of failure of the airfoil 10. A central processing unit 62 is operative with the computer code stored in the storage device 60 to correlate a change in the signal(s) 54 with a condition of failure of the airfoil, such as a breach in the outer skin 12. The computer code may implement further process steps for characterizing the breach location, such as at the leading edge 40 or other location of high external pressure loads on the airfoil 10. An output device 64 is responsive to output signal 66 to provide an indication of the condition of failure in any desired form, such as a warning light, an acoustic warning signal, or a warning indication in a data recorder. Output signal 66 is also available for further downstream processing.
For the embodiment where sensor 52 is a pressure sensor and sensor 56 is a temperature sensor, the executable instructions implemented by processing unit 62 may include logic for providing an indication of a failure of the outer skin 12 at a location on a pressure side of the airfoil, such as proximate the leading edge 40, when signal 54 indicates an increase in pressure and signal 58 simultaneously indicates an increase in temperature. Output signal 66 may be directed to a plant control computer where automatic shutdown of the gas turbine may be initiated upon the determination of such an airfoil failure. Output signal 66 may be connected to a remote monitoring system in one embodiment, as these kinds of failures normally develop over time. A skilled diagnostics engineer may monitor and evaluate the data received, and/or sophisticated diagnostic tools may be used to process the information.
Embodiments of the present invention provide an early, simple and reliable detection of a failure of the outer skin of a gas turbine engine airfoil. Such failures may be caused by the erosion or spallation of a portion of a thermal barrier coating and a subsequent burn through of an underlying metal layer. Small breaches of the airfoil pressure boundary are detectable with the present invention before the failure progresses to the point where large parts of the airfoil break loose and result in severe collateral damage downstream of the airfoil. In one embodiment, the pressure measured within the outer cooling chamber 24 is compared to a pressure in another portion of the cooling fluid system, such as in the combustor shell for an air-cooled airfoil receiving compressed air from the engine compressor as the cooling fluid, to develop a differential pressure value which is smaller than a pressure measured against atmospheric pressure. The magnitude of a change in pressure in the outer cooling chamber 24 resulting from a breach of the outer skin 12 will then be relatively large when compared to this differential pressure, providing increased sensitivity to small breaches. In one case, a failure due to loss of a portion of a thermal barrier coating will start by localized melting of the underlying metal skin. The skin material thus set free typically includes only small particles at first. As the size of the breach continues to grow, so does the risk of significantly larger particles breaking free. Experience indicates that early detection of a local burn through of the outer skin can provide adequate time for action prior to the occurrence of downstream collateral damage. The present invention provides such an indication without necessarily providing information related to stress, strain or temperature of the hardware itself and without the need for providing information related to the functionality of impingement or film cooling holes of a cooling system. Furthermore, the present invention does not require, and in the embodiment described herein does not use, any measurement of any cooling fluid parameter in the inner cooling chamber 26 of the airfoil 10, but rather utilizes a measurement of a parameter responsive to cooling fluid flow in the outer cooling chamber 24.
The foregoing is provided for purposes of illustrating, explaining, and describing embodiments of this invention. Modifications and adaptations to these embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art and may be made without departing from the scope or spirit of this invention.
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