Optical in-situ inspection system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12435642-B2
Application number	US-202318238065-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 25, 2023
Priority date	Aug 25, 2023
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

An in-situ system for a gas turbine engine blade inspection including a sensor system configured to capture images of a forward surface of at least one gas turbine engine blade; a processor coupled to the sensor system, the processor configured to determine damage to the at least one gas turbine engine blade based on video analytics; and a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored therein that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising receiving, by the processor, data for the forward surface of at least one gas turbine engine blade from the sensor system; determining, by the processor, a rotational speed of a fan; and determining, by the processor, a fan synchronization.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for in-situ inspection of a gas turbine engine fan, comprising:
positioning a sensor to capture images of a surface of at least one gas turbine engine fan blade;
coupling a processor to the sensor, the processor configured to determine damage to the at least one gas turbine engine fan blade based on image analytics; wherein the processor performs operations comprising:
receiving, by the processor, imaging data for the surface of the at least one gas turbine engine fan blade from the sensor;
determining, by the processor, a rotational speed of the fan; and
determining, by the processor, a fan synchronization;
recording a segment of footage to perform a principal component analysis;
performing the principal component analysis to create a list of dominant modes of a series of footage in the segment;
projecting all the footage in the segment onto a leading order mode; and
providing a frequency modulated sinusoidal time variation of coefficients plot, wherein each point on the plot of coefficients corresponds to a particular frame of the blade appearing in front of the sensor.

2. The method for in-situ inspection of a gas turbine engine fan of claim 1 , further comprising:
recording a brightness of at least one of a light diode or a pixel or as a feature in a frame to produce a periodic plot.

3. The method for in-situ inspection of a gas turbine engine fan of claim 1 , further comprising:
predetermining an optimal image frame passing in front of the sensor;
using a predetermined optimal image frame phase to trigger a shutter in the sensor; and
identifying a predetermined optimal image frame pose as a trigger phase.

4. The method for in-situ inspection of a gas turbine engine fan of claim 3 further comprising:
comparing a value of the coefficients with a value of the trigger phase; and
producing a trigger signal to control the sensor to take an image of the blade, responsive to the value of the coefficients matching with the value of the trigger phase.

5. The method for in-situ inspection of a gas turbine engine fan of claim 4 further comprising:
repeating the steps of comparing a value and producing a trigger as time progresses until a blade on a rotor ceases to rotate.

6. The method for in-situ inspection of a gas turbine engine fan of claim 5 further comprising:
producing the image of the at least one blade to include the same pose, illumination and exposure condition.

7. The method for in-situ inspection of a gas turbine engine fan of claim 1 wherein images are captured during gas turbine engine operational conditions selected from the group consisting of coasting, spool-up, and spool-down, including at least one complete revolution.

8. The method for in-situ inspection of a gas turbine engine fan of claim 1 wherein said sensor comprises at least one of, multiple sensors, a camera, a video camera, a high-speed camera, a high-frame-rate camera, and a depth sensor.

Assignees

• Rtx Corp

Inventors

• Lee Jeremiah C
• Lincoln David L
• Goyette Scott
• Chaudhry Zaffir A
• Seto Danbing

Classifications

• G01P3/38

  using photographic means · CPC title

• G01N2291/2693

  Rotor or turbine parts · CPC title

• G01N21/88

  Investigating the presence of flaws or contamination · CPC title

• F05D2260/80

  Diagnostics · CPC title

• F05D2260/10

  Particular cycles · CPC title