Method for turbine component qualification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10104313-B2
Application number	US-201615205874-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 8, 2016
Priority date	Jul 8, 2016
Publication date	Oct 16, 2018
Grant date	Oct 16, 2018

Abstract

A method for evaluating a turbine component includes inducing a thermal response of the component at an initial time, capturing a two-dimensional infrared image of the thermal response of the component with a thermal imaging device, wherein the two-dimensional infrared image comprises a plurality of infrared image pixels, generating a two-dimension to three-dimension mapping template to correlate two-dimensional infrared image data with three-dimensional locations on the component, mapping at least a subset of the plurality of infrared image pixels of the two-dimensional infrared image to three-dimensional coordinates using the mapping template, and generating a three-dimensional infrared image and infrared data of the component from the mapped infrared image pixels to three-dimensional coordinates, wherein the three-dimensional infrared image and infrared data is used to qualify the component for use.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for evaluating a component for use in a gas turbine engine, the method comprising the steps of:
inducing a thermal response of the component at an initial time;
capturing a two-dimensional infrared image of the thermal response of the component with a thermal imaging device, wherein the two-dimensional infrared image comprises a plurality of infrared image pixels;
generating a two-dimension to three-dimension mapping template to correlate two-dimensional infrared image data with three-dimensional locations on the component;
mapping at least a subset of the plurality of infrared image pixels of the two-dimensional infrared image to three-dimensional coordinates using the mapping template;
generating a three-dimensional infrared image and infrared data of the component from the mapped infrared image pixels to three-dimensional coordinates, wherein the three-dimensional infrared image and infrared data is used to qualify the component for use;
wherein the step of generating a two-dimension to three-dimension mapping template comprises:
generating a three-dimensional solid model of the component;
generating a two-dimensional reference image of the component from the three-dimensional solid model, wherein the two-dimensional reference image comprises a plurality of reference pixels, each reference pixel being associated with three-dimensional coordinates of the component as a function of three-dimensional coordinates of the three-dimensional solid model of the component;
dividing the two-dimensional infrared image into a plurality of infrared sub-images, each infrared sub-image comprising a discrete spatial region of the component and a portion of the plurality of infrared image pixels; and
mapping at least a subset of the plurality of infrared sub-images to corresponding spatial locations on the two-dimensional reference image of the component such that a plurality of infrared image pixels are mapped to a corresponding plurality of reference image pixels.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of capturing a two-dimensional infrared image comprises capturing a rate of radiation heat transfer between the component and the thermal imaging device on each of the plurality of infrared image pixels.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of mapping the two-dimensional infrared image of the component to three-dimensional coordinates comprises mapping at least a subset of the plurality of infrared image pixels to three-dimensional coordinates associated with the plurality of corresponding reference image pixels, wherein each of the plurality of infrared image pixels comprises a rate of radiation heat transfer between the component and the thermal imaging device.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the step of mapping the two-dimensional infrared image of the component to three-dimensional coordinates comprises:
mapping each of the plurality of infrared image pixels in an infrared sub-image to three-dimensional coordinates associated with the plurality of corresponding reference image pixels.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising the step of:
calculating a surface temperature for a plurality of locations along a surface of the component using the three-dimensional infrared image and data.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the step of calculating a surface temperature comprises:
calibrating the surface temperature calculation algorithm to correct for three-dimensional spatial variations in radiation heat transfer between the plurality of locations along the surface of the component and the thermal imaging device, wherein calibrating comprises determining a view angle of the thermal imaging device for each of the plurality of locations along the surface of the component.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the step of calculating a surface temperature comprises:
calibrating a surface temperature calculation algorithm to correct for environmental factors selected from the group consisting of environmental humidity, material emissivity, external radiation sources, and combinations thereof.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the steps of:
changing the thermal response of the component over a period of time following the initial time;
capturing a plurality of additional two-dimensional infrared images, wherein each of the additional two-dimensional infrared images are separated by a time interval within the period of time over which the thermal response changes, and wherein each of the additional two-dimensional infrared images captures a different thermal response than each of the other additional two-dimensional infrared images; and
generating the three-dimensional infrared image and data for at least a subset of the plurality of additional two-dimensional infrared images.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein calibrating a surface temperature calculation algorithm is done using the three-dimensional infrared image and data for at least one of the additional two-dimensional infrared images.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising the step of:
flowing a cooling fluid through an internal channel of the component;
determining a flow rate of the cooling fluid; and
assigning a qualitative performance indicator to the component based on the maximum internal heat flux and a flow rate of the cooling fluid, wherein the qualitative performance indicator designates an end use of the component including one or more environmental conditions within a range of environmental conditions the component is qualified for use in.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising the step of:
estimating a maximum internal heat flux for the component based on the three-dimensional infrared image and data for at least a subset of the plurality of additional two-dimensional infrared images.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of mapping the two-dimensional infrared image of the component to three-dimensional coordinates comprises using a technique selected from the group consisting of predetermined matched template correlating, projection mapping, and polynomial interpolation.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising the steps of:
changing the thermal response of the component over a period of time following the initial time;
capturing a plurality of additional two-dimensional infrared images, wherein each of the additional two-dimensional infrared images are separated by a time interval within the period of time over which the thermal response changes, and wherein each of the additional two-dimensional infrared images captures a different thermal response than each of the other additional two-dimensional infrared images; and
generating the three-dimensional infrared image and data for at least a subset of the plurality of additional two-dimensional infrared images.

14. A method of evaluating a component for use in a gas turbine engine, the method comprising:
uniformly heating the component at an initial time such that surface temperatures are approximately equal at all surface locations on the component;
capturing a two-dimensional infrared image of the component at the initial time with a thermal imaging device, wherein the two-dimensional infrared image comprises a plurality of infrared image pixels;
generating a two-dimension to three-dimension mapping template to correlate two-dimensional infrared image data with three-dimensional locations on the component;
mapping at least a subset of the plurality of infrared image pixels of the two-dimensional infrared image to three-dimensional coordinates using the mapping template;
generating a three-dimensional infrare

Assignees

• United Technologies Corp

Inventors

• Slavens Thomas N
• Styborski Jeremy
• Schneider Alex J
• Castle Lea Kennard
• Warner Rodney H
• Auxier James Tilsley

Classifications

• G01M15/14 Primary

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

• G06T7/0006

  using a design-rule based approach · CPC title

• G06T2207/30164

  Workpiece; Machine component · CPC title

• G01N25/72 Primary

  Investigating presence of flaws · CPC title

• G06T7/0081

  Physics · mapped topic