The development of techniques for the health monitoring of the rotating components in gas turbine engines is of major interest to NASA's Aviation Safety Program. As part of this on-going effort several experiments utilizing a novel optical Moiré based concept along with external blade tip clearance and shaft displacement instrumentation were conducted on a simulated turbine engine disk as a means of demonstrating a potential optical crack detection technique. A Moiré pattern results from the overlap of two repetitive patterns with slightly different periods. With this technique, it is possible to detect very small differences in spacing and hence radial growth in a rotating disk due to a flaw such as a crack. The experiment involved etching a circular reference pattern on a subscale engine disk that had a 50.8 mm (2 in.) long notch machined into it to simulate a crack. The disk was operated at speeds up to 12 000 RPM and the Moiré pattern due to the shift with respect to the reference pattern was monitored as a means of detecting the radial growth of the disk due to the defect. In addition, blade displacement data were acquired using external blade tip clearance and shaft displacement sensors as a means of confirming the data obtained from the optical technique. The results of the crack detection experiments and its associated analysis are presented in this paper.

Date Published: 30 March 2012
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 8346, Smart Sensor Phenomena, Technology, Networks, and Systems Integration 2012, 834615 (30 March 2012);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8346:
Smart Sensor Phenomena, Technology, Networks, and Systems Integration 2012
Theodore E. Matikas, Editor(s)