Parameter distribution mapping in a gas turbine engine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10041859-B2
Application number	US-201514682393-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2015
Priority date	Mar 13, 2014
Publication date	Aug 7, 2018
Grant date	Aug 7, 2018

Abstract

A profile map of parameter values in a region is determined based on average values along linear paths through the region. In one example, a temperature map of a region of a gas turbine engine is created based on time-of-flight measurements from acoustic transceiver pairs arranged circumferentially around the region. A speed of sound for each transceiver pair is determined based on the time-of-flight measurements. An average temperature along each path is estimated from the time of flight, and the profile map is computed from the average temperatures. The profile map may be computed using a polynomial approximation technique, a grid optimization technique or a basis function technique.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing a profile of a parameter in a region of a gas turbine engine, comprising:
for each of a plurality of linear paths traversing the region, determining, by a processor, a measured average value of the parameter along the linear path;
defining, by the processor, at least one function for describing the profile of the parameter in the region;
for each of the plurality of linear paths traversing the region, evaluating, by the processor, the at least one function along the linear path to determine a calculated average value of the parameter along the linear path;
for each of the plurality of linear paths traversing the region, making a comparison, by the processor, of the measured average value with the calculated average value to determine a measure of differences between the measured average values and the calculated average values; and
based on the comparison, adjusting, by the processor, the at least one function and repeating the operations of evaluating the at least one function and making the comparison until the measure of differences between the measured average values and the calculated average values is below an error threshold,
controlling, by the processor, a combustion process of the gas turbine engine based on the produced profile of the parameter.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein defining at least one function for describing the profile of the parameter in the region further comprises:
creating bilinear functions along each of the plurality of linear paths reflecting the measured average value; and
transforming the bilinear functions into a polynomial approximation of the profile of the parameter in the region.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein evaluating the at least one function along the linear path to determine a calculated average value of the parameter along the linear path further comprises:
performing a line integration of the polynomial approximation along each linear path.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the bilinear functions have scale factors, and adjusting the at least one function further comprises:
adjusting the scale factors to create adjusted bilinear functions; and
transforming the adjusted bilinear functions into the approximation of the profile of the parameter in the region.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein creating bilinear functions along each linear path reflecting the measured average value further comprises:
holding end points of each of the bilinear functions equal to a single edge parameter value.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the edge parameter value is a value selected from the group consisting of a manually entered fixed value, an average path value, a minimum path value and an actual sensor reading.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein defining at least one function for describing the profile of the parameter in the region further comprises:
extracting a plurality of basis functions from a database of sensor measurements.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein evaluating the at least one function along the linear path to determine a calculated average value of the parameter along the linear path further comprises:
for each of the plurality of basis functions, sampling parameter values along each linear path.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein adjusting the at least one function further comprises:
assigning weights to each basis function.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein adjusting the at least one function further comprises minimizing the following by adjusting the weights a:

arg
⁢

⁢

min
a

⁢

∑

i
=
1

I

⁢

⁢



1
D

⁢

a
T

⁢

X
i

⁢

1
_

-

t
i



2

where i is an index of paths, I is a total number of paths, D is a vector length of sampled parameter values, X i is a matrix of sampled parameter values along path i for each basis function, and t i is a measured parameter value for path i.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein extracting a plurality of basis functions from a database of sensor measurements is performed using a principal component analysis statistical method.

12. A method of producing a profile of a parameter in a flow path measurement area of a gas turbine engine, comprising:
performing time-of-flight measurements along measurement paths in the measurement area by a plurality of acoustic transmitter-receiver pairs,
dividing the measurement area into a plurality of grid segments;
for each of the plurality of grid segments, determining a traverse length for each of the measurement paths intersecting the grid segment;
for each of the plurality of grid segments, determining a uniform speed of sound based on the time-of-flight measurements along the measurement paths and the traverse length for the measurement paths intersecting the grid segment; and
determining the profile of the parameter using the uniform speeds of sound in each of the plurality of grid segments,
controlling, by a processor in electrical communication with the plurality of acoustic transmitter receiver pairs, a combustion system of the gas turbine engine based on the produced profile of the parameter.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the parameter is selected from the group of parameters consisting of gas temperature and gas velocity.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining a uniform speed of sound further comprises solving the following equation system for a coefficient vector x:

[

t
1

t
2

⋮

t
n

Assignees

• Siemens Energy Inc

Inventors

• Desilva Upul P
• Claussen Heiko

Classifications

• G01K13/02

  for measuring temperature of moving fluids or granular materials capable of flow · CPC title

• G01K2213/00

  Temperature mapping · CPC title

• G01F1/668

  Compensating or correcting for variations in velocity of sound · CPC title

• G01K11/24 Primary

  of the velocity of propagation of sound · CPC title

• G01M15/14 Primary

  Testing gas-turbine engines or jet-propulsion engines · CPC title