Instrumented damper and performance monitoring system comprising such a damper

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9709124-B2
Application number	US-201414767302-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 5, 2014
Priority date	Feb 15, 2013
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

A damper having an external armature that is symmetric about a longitudinal axis, an internal armature that is arranged partially inside the external armature and a vibration absorber that in a damped manner couples the internal and external armatures together. The damper having •an arm parallel to the longitudinal axis, fixed in the manner of a cantilever to one of the armatures and provided with a magnetic dipole; •at least one 3D Hall-effect magnetic sensor, secured to the other armature and positioned facing the dipole parallel to the longitudinal axis and separated from the dipole by a determined gap; •at least one temperature sensor positioned in thermal contact with the vibration absorber; •at least one force sensor arranged in such a way as to generate data indicative of pressures or loads experienced by the vibration absorber; •a transmitter of the data generated by the sensors; •an electrical power supply.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A helicopter rotor drag damper comprising:
a first hollow cylindrical frame, symmetrical relative to a longitudinal axis, and closed at one end;
a second frame symmetrical relative to the longitudinal axis and arranged partially inside the first frame;
a vibration absorbing element mechanically coupling the first and second frames together,

wherein the helicopter rotor drag damper further comprises:
an arm parallel to the longitudinal axis, fixed cantilever-fashion to just one of the first or second frames, and provided with a magnetic dipole of north-south direction parallel to the longitudinal axis;
at least one 3D Hall-effect magnetic sensor secured to the frame which does not bear the arm provided with the magnetic dipole, the 3D Hall-effect magnetic sensor being arranged facing the dipole parallel to the longitudinal axis and separated from the dipole by a determined air gap, the sensor being capable of generating data on the relative displacement of the two frames parallel to the longitudinal axis;
at least one temperature sensor arranged in thermal contact with the vibration absorbing element so as to generate temperature data;
at least one force sensor arranged so as to generate data on pressures or loads to which the vibration damper is subjected;
a transmitter of the displacement, temperature and load data generated by the 3D Hall-effect magnetic sensor, the temperature sensor and the force sensor;
an electrical power supply linked electrically to the sensors and to the transmitter.

2. The damper as claimed in claim 1 , in which the transmitter is a wireless transmitter.

3. The damper as claimed in claim 1 , in which the data are generated by the sensors continuously or according to a determined sequence.

4. The damper as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a memory for storing the data generated by the sensors.

5. The damper as claimed in claim 1 , in which the power supply ( 90 , 900 ) comprises at least one battery.

6. The damper as claimed in claim 1 , in which the power supply comprises at least one mechanical energy harvesting system.

7. The damper as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a data processing unit linked electrically to the electrical power supply, and capable of processing the data generated by the sensors before their transmission by the transmitter.

8. The damper as claimed in claim 7 , in which the processing of the data by the data processing unit consists in conditioning and/or sampling the data generated by the sensors.

9. The damper as claimed in claim 7 , in which the data processing unit is a microcontroller.

10. The damper as claimed in claim 7 , in which the data processing unit is capable of comparing the processed data to a predetermined threshold value, of generating an alarm signal when the threshold value is exceeded, and of communicating this alarm signal to the transmitter.

11. The damper as claimed in claim 1 , in which the vibration absorbing element is a liquid and the force sensor is a liquid pressure sensor.

12. The damper as claimed in claim 1 , in which the vibration absorbing element consists of at least one layer of elastomer material, in which the force sensor is a load sensor arranged on the inner frame so as to generate data on load to which the second frame is subjected, the damper comprising two of said 3D Hall-effect magnetic sensors arranged facing and on either side of the dipole relative to the longitudinal axis.

13. The damper as claimed in claim 12 , in which the load sensor is a bridge of strain gauges secured with the second frame and arranged in such a way as to measure the axial load on the longitudinal axis.

14. A device comprising at least one damper as claimed in claim 1 and a system for monitoring performance said damper, comprising:
a receiver of the data generated by the sensors and transmitted by the transmitter;
a data processing unit capable of processing the data generated by the sensors and of comparing the duly processed data to a predetermined threshold value;
an alarm that can be activated by the data processing unit when the threshold value is exceeded.

15. The device as claimed in claim 14 , in which the data processing unit is a microcontroller.

Assignees

• Hutchinson

Inventors

• Sautier Pascal
• Levallard Patrice

Classifications

• F16F2230/24

  Detecting or preventing malfunction, e.g. fail safe · CPC title

• F16F9/19

  with a single cylinder {and of single-tube type} · CPC title

• F16F15/00 Primary

  Suppression of vibrations in systems ({damping of non-rotary systems using inertia effect F16F7/10; prevention or isolation of vibrations in machine tools B23Q11/0032; suppression of driveline vibrations in hybrid vehicle transmissions B60W30/20} ; vehicle seat suspension devices B60N2/50; {methods or devices for protecting against, or damping of, acoustic waves, e.g. sound G10K11/16}); Means or arrangements for avoiding or reducing out-of-balance forces, e.g. due to motion ({vibration absorbing or balancing means for aircraft propellers B64C11/008, for rotorcraft rotors B64C27/001} ; testing static and dynamic balance of machines or structures G01M1/00) · CPC title

• F16F2230/0047

  Measuring, indicating · CPC title

• F16F9/3292 Primary

  Sensor arrangements · CPC title