Patent Application
20190376411
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to turbomachinery, and more specifically, to a system and method for turbomachinery blade prognostics and diagnostics via continuous markings.
Certain turbomachinery, such as gas turbine systems, generally include a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine. The compressor compresses air from an air intake, and subsequently directs the compressed air to the combustor. In the combustor, the compressed air received from the compressor is mixed with a fuel and is combusted to create combustion gases. The combustion gases are directed into the turbine. In the turbine, the combustion gases pass across turbine blades of the turbine, thereby driving the turbine blades, and a shaft to which the turbine blades are attached, into rotation. The rotation of the shaft may further drive a load, such as an electrical generator, that is coupled to the shaft. The flow and pressure of the fluids into the turbine may be dependent on the turbine blades. However, components of the gas turbine system may experience wear and tear during use. It would be beneficial to provide prognostic and diagnostic information for the blades of components of the gas turbine system.
Certain embodiments commensurate in scope with the present disclosure are summarized below. These embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed disclosure, but rather these embodiments are intended only to provide a brief summary of possible forms of the disclosure. Indeed, the disclosure may encompass a variety of forms that may be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth below.
In a first embodiment, a blade monitoring system is provided. The blade monitoring system includes a processor. The processor is configured to receive a sensor signal from a sensor configured to observe a blade of the turbomachinery, and to derive a measurement based on a marking disposed on the blade of the turbomachinery, wherein the marking comprises a continuous feature. The processor is also configured to display the measurement to an operator of the turbomachinery.
In a second embodiment, a turbomachinery system is provided. The turbomachinery system includes a blade configured to rotate during operations of the turbomachinery system, and a sensor configured to observe the blade of the turbomachinery. The turbomachinery system also includes a blade monitoring system. The blade monitoring system includes a processor. The processor is configured to receive a sensor signal from a sensor configured to observe a blade of the turbomachinery. The processor is also configured to derive a measurement based on a marking disposed on the blade of the turbomachinery, wherein the marking comprises a continuous feature; and to display the measurement to an operator of the turbomachinery.
In a third embodiment, a method is provided. The method includes receiving, via a processor, a sensor signal from a sensor configured to observe a blade of a turbomachinery. The method also includes deriving, via the processor, a measurement based on a marking disposed on the blade of the turbomachinery, wherein the marking comprises a continuous feature; and displaying the measurement to an operator of the turbomachinery.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements.
The techniques described herein provide for techniques to “encode” or otherwise mark individual blades in turbomachinery, such as blades in a gas turbine engine, via markings that may be placed on a blade portion (e.g., edge). The markings may include reflective and/or magnetic markings for use with sensors, such as optical laser-based sensors and/or magnetic sensors. A location at which a laser light (or magnet) is interrupted and reflected by a passing blade may change over time, potentially introducing error in the measurement. To determine where on the passing blade the laser light is being interrupt and reflected, a defined subset of blades are painted with a stripe containing a continuously varying feature, such as a continuous taper, that causes the reflected light (or magnets) to respond differently with varying radial location on the blades. The continuous taper may be created by masking a portion of the area being painted on the blade surface.
The painted pattern on all (or some) blades may be positioned at a precise, known location on the surface of the blade. When an operator is monitoring reflected light signal width in real-time, they will observe the blade's reflected light intensity width as significantly different and distinguishable from previous revolutions when at different radial position. The continuous taper of paint on the blade surfaces is essentially “coding” the rotating blades such that the operator may determine where on the blade surface the laser light is being interrupted and reflected. The patterns of paint on the individual blade surfaces may thus “code” the rotating blades such that the operator and/or the automated system may determine where on the blade surface the laser light is being interrupted and reflected. The patterns may also aid in deriving certain blade properties, such as blade speed, blade flutter, and so on, as further described below. The term “paint” is used in the remainder of the application to broadly denote actual paint, coatings, surface finishes, or combinations thereof. Likewise, the term “painting” and/or “painted” is used to broadly denote painting, coating, surface finishing, or a combination thereof.
Turning now to the figures,
An oxidant 64 flows from an intake 66 into the compressor 14, where the rotation of the compressor blades 16 compresses and pressurizes the oxidant 64. The oxidant 64 may include ambient air, pure oxygen, oxygen-enriched air, oxygen-reduced air, oxygen-nitrogen mixtures, or any suitable oxidant that facilitates combustion of fuel. The following discussion refers to air 64 as an example of the oxidant, but is intended only as a non-limiting example. The air 64 flows into a fuel nozzle 68. Within the fuel nozzle 68, fuel 70 mixes with the air 64 at a ratio suitable for combustion, emissions, fuel consumption, power output, and the like. Thereafter, a mixture of the fuel 70 and the air 64 is combusted into hot combustion products 72 within a combustor 74. The hot combustion products 72 enter the turbine 12 and force rotor blades 28 to rotate, thereby driving a shaft 38 into rotation. The rotating shaft 38 provides the energy for the compressor 14 to compress the air 64. More specifically, the rotating shaft 38 rotates the compressor blades 36 attached to the shaft 38 within the compressor 14, thereby pressurizing the air 64 that is fed to the combustor 74. Furthermore, the rotating shaft 38 may drive a load 78, such as an electrical generator or any other device capable of utilizing the mechanical energy of the shaft 38. After the turbine 12 extracts useful work from the combustion products 72, the combustion products 72 are discharged to an exhaust 80.
The control system 18 includes a controller 82 and a blade monitoring system 84. In some embodiments, the blade monitoring system 84 may be included in the controller 82, while in other embodiments the blade monitoring system 84 may be communicatively coupled to the controller 82. The controller 82 may include a memory 86 and one or more processors 88. The processor(s) 88 may be operatively coupled to the memory 86 to execute instructions for carrying out the presently disclosed techniques. These instructions may be encoded in programs or code stored in a tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as the memory 86 and/or other storage. The processor(s) 88 may be a general purpose processor, system-on-chip (SoC) device, or application-specific integrated circuit, or some other processor configuration.
Memory 86 may include a computer readable medium, such as, without limitation, a hard disk drive, a solid state drive, a diskette, a flash drive, a compact disc, a digital video disc, random access memory (RAM), and/or any suitable storage device that enables processor(s) 88 to store, retrieve, and/or execute instructions and/or data. Memory 86 may further include one or more local and/or remote storage devices. Further, the controller 82 may be operably connected to a human machine interface (HMI), a display, and so on, to allow an operator to read measurements, perform analysis, and/or adjust operations of the gas turbine system 10.
In use, the blade monitoring system 84 may detect current properties or conditions of the blades 28 of the turbine 12, for example, by using data from sensors 90. For instance, the sensors 90 may include optical sensor systems and or magnetic sensor systems that sense certain markings disposed on the blades 28, as further described below. The updates from the sensors 90 may be received in real-time, e.g., at a rate between, 1-4,000 microseconds, 1-100 milliseconds. Blade 28 properties or conditions derived by the blade monitoring system 84 may be displayed to an operator and/or provided to the controller 82. The controller 82 may control operations of the gas turbine system 10, for example by controlling fuel flow 70, air flow 64, measuring exhaust 80 temperature, measuring load 78 properties (e.g., electrical power produced), and the like, during operations.
More specifically,
The shifting of impingement points (e.g., points 120, 122, 124) may lead to inaccuracies in measurement. For example,
In the depicted embodiment, the sensor 90 may be used to measure displacement of the blade 28. However, because the light beam 110 may now impinge at different locations, it would be beneficial to derive where the light beam 110 is impinging, e.g., radially along direction 24 in real-time. The techniques described herein include the use of certain markings, as further described below, that may be used to determine where the light beam 110 may now be impinging, as well as to provide for derivation of blade 28 properties and conditions.
Turning now to
For example, because the marking 160 includes the sloping section (e.g., taper) 162, as the blade 28 rotates, differing reflects light differently than a remainder of the blade 28, a blade carrying the marking 160 may be uniquely marked when compared to a blade not carrying the marking 160, such as a single unmarked blade. Further as impingement points shift, the shift may be detected as the shift may now result in differing signals coming back to the sensor 90, as described in more detail below. It is to be noted that the sloping section 162 is illustrated as a straight line. However, the sloping section 162 may include a curve, such as a curve having the same start/end points as the sloping section 162 but dipping either below the sloping section 162 or above the slopping section 162.
As the blade 28 and sensor 90 shift positions with respect to each other, for example due to thermal dynamics, blade flutter, and so on, the impingement points may shift. For example, FIG. illustrates an embodiment of shifted impingement points 194, 196, 198 on the blade 28 that may then result in an embodiment of a graph 200 depicting time in an X axis 202 versus an intensity of returned light from the beam 110 in a Y axis 204. More specifically, as the blade 28 rotates in the direction 24, the sensor 90 may receive data reflected first off the first shifted impingement point 194, followed by point 196, and then point 198.
As illustrated, the points 194, 196, 198 are located at a narrow section of the marking 160 near a top of the marking 160. Accordingly, the graph 200 illustrates a curve 206 corresponding to the light intensity of returned light 110 read by the sensor 90 during traversal of the blade 28 through the sensing area(s) as a position between the sensor 90 and the blade 28 has shifted. As illustrated, the curve 206 may include a steeper slope and/or a smaller area under the curve when compared to the curve 192. By analyzing intensity of returned light curves, such as curves 192, 206, the controller 50 (or a computing system) may derive an amount as well as a position of the shift, including the position of the new impingement points after the shift. Accordingly, more precise measurements may now be provided.
In some embodiments, the process 400 may then derive (block 404) certain blade properties and/or characteristics. For example, blade speed in RPM may be derived, as well as actual location of impingement points for the light beam 110 may be determined. Blade flutter measurements, for example, may then be made more precise, and expansion/contraction of blade 28 material and/or stationary casing 102 may be determined. In some embodiments, each of the blades 28 may be uniquely identified. As mentioned above, unique blades may be identified through the use of an unmarked blade 28 while the other blades 28 have markings 160. The process 400 may then display (block 408) information related to the markings 160, including the properties and/or characteristics derived in block 406. For example, blade speed for each blade number may be displayed, blade flutter measures may be displayed, shifting of impingement points may be displayed, including location of new impingement points, and so on.
The process 400 may then issue (block 410) certain control actions, such as adjusting fuel flow, air flow, inlet guide van angles, and so on, based on the properties and/or characteristics derived in block 406. Because the derivations (e.g., derivations of block 406) may lead to more accurate measures, adjustments to blade 28 speed via fuel adjustments, air flow adjustments, inlet guide vane adjustments, and so on, may result in improved control of the gas turbine engine 12 and the power production system 10. By applying the markings 160, the techniques described herein may provide for improved blade measurements via the sensors 90, which may include optical and/or magnetic sensors. It is also to be understood that while the techniques are described in view of gas turbine blades, other bladed turbine machinery, such as compressors, wind turbines, hydroturbines, expanders, and so on, may be used with the techniques described herein.
Technical effects include blade markings having continuous features, such as a taper. The taper may be used to derive improve location information on beam impingement, magnetic pickup, or a combination thereof, as a position between a blade and a sensor shift, for example due to thermal changes. The information derived via the discretely marked blade may be used to improve accuracy in measurements such as more accurate blade flutter measurements, blade dynamic changes, individual blade speed, and so on.
This written description uses examples to disclose the present techniques, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the techniques, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the disclosure is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.
