Active measurement of gas flow temperature, including in gas turbine combustors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9709448-B2
Application number	US-201414207741-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2014
Priority date	Dec 18, 2013
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

Active acoustic pyrometry-based gas flow temperature measurement, such as for monitoring of gas turbine combustors, including industrial gas turbine (IGT) combustors is incorporated into the combustion monitoring and control system by addition of an acoustic transmitter or acoustic transceiver that transmits a sound wave in a line-of-sight with a plurality of acoustic sensors, such as dynamic pressure sensors. For temperature measurement, in some embodiments sound transmission time-of-flight that is directed generally transverse the gas flow path is measured by the controller and correlated with gas flow temperature along the line-of-sight. In other embodiments line-of-sight correlated gas flow temperatures in up and down stream planar paths are interpolated. In an integrated thermoacoustic pressure-based sensor and monitoring/control system embodiment, the controller determines absolute active path temperatures with acoustic transmission and time-of-flight analysis techniques.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for actively monitoring gas flow temperature, comprising:
placing at least one first acoustic transmitter and at least one first acoustic sensor respectively oriented in a common axial plane in the gas flow path and in a distinct first line-of-sound path relative to each other, the first sensor capable of generating first sensor output signals indicative of first thermoacoustic oscillations;
coupling the at least one first transmitter and the at least one first sensor to the controller that is capable of causing the at least one first transmitter to transmit first acoustic signals within the gas flow path and capable of correlating the first sensor output signals time-of-flight with gas flow temperature;
processing, via a processor, the first time-of-flight for the first acoustic signals traveling along the first line of sound paths to determine respective gas flow temperature along each respective first line-of-sound path;
placing at least one second acoustic transmitter and at least one second acoustic sensor respectively oriented in a common axial plane in the gas flow path downstream of the first acoustic transmitter and sensor, and in a distinct second line-of-sound path relative to each other, the second sensor capable of generating second sensor output signals indicative of second thermoacoustic oscillations;
coupling the at least one second transmitter and the at least one second sensor to the controller that is capable of causing the at least one second transmitter to transmit second acoustic signals within the gas flow path and capable of correlating the second sensor output signals time-of-flight with gas flow temperature;
processing, via the processor, the second time-of-flight for the second acoustic signals traveling along the second line of sound paths to determine respective gas flow temperature along each respective second line-of-sound path; and
interpolating determined respective gas flow temperatures along each respective first and second line-of-sound path to create a volumetric temperature map.

2. A method for controlling combustion in an industrial gas turbine combustor using the interpolated gas flow temperatures determined by the method of claim 1 .

3. A method for mapping temperature in an industrial gas turbine combustor, comprising tomographically mapping the gas flow temperatures along each respective first and second line-of-sound path that were determined by the method of claim 1 .

4. A method for determining gas flow velocity in an industrial gas turbine combustor, using the interpolated gas flow temperatures determined by the method of claim 1 .

5. The method of claim 1 , the processing to determine respective gas flow absolute temperature along each respective first line-of-sound path, including compensation for gas specific heat ratio, gas constant and speed of sound thermodynamic influences on the first time-of-flight.

6. The method of claim 5 , the processing to determine respective absolute gas flow temperature including compensation for variations in temperature and gas constant on the speed of sound, comprising:
substituting for the first transmitters first transceiver/transducers that are capable of transmitting and receiving acoustic signals, and generating output signals;
substituting for the first sensors second transceiver/transducers that are capable of transmitting and receiving acoustic signals and generating output signals;
coupling the respective at least one of the respective first and second transceiver/transducers to the controller that is capable of causing either to transmit first acoustic signals within the gas flow path and capable of correlating transceiver/transducer output signals time-of-flight with gas flow velocity;
transmitting first acoustic signals from the at least one first transceiver/transducer;
receiving the first acoustic signals from the at least one first transceiver/transducer and generating first dynamic sensor output signals with the at least one second transceiver/transducer that includes contributions of the received first acoustic signals;
transmitting reversed first acoustic signals from the at least one second transceiver/transducer;
receiving the reversed first acoustic signals from the at least one second transceiver/transducer and generating first reversed dynamic sensor output signals with the at least one first transceiver/transducer that includes contributions of the received reversed first acoustic signals;
determining a first time-of-flight for the respective first and reversed first acoustic signals traveling along each of the first line of sound paths; and
processing the first time-of-flight for the respective first and reversed first acoustic signals traveling along their respective first line of sound paths to determine the speed of sound and using the determined speed of sound to determine respective absolute gas flow temperature along each respective first line-of-sound path.

7. The method of claim 1 , the processing of the first time-of-flight described by the equation:

t
BC

=

∫
B
C

⁢

1

c
⁡

(

x
,
y
,
z

)

+

p
→

BC

·

u
→

⁡

(

x
,
y
,
z

)

⁢

⁢
d
⁢

⁢
s

where:
t BC is the time of flight from the first transmitter to the first sensor;
c is the speed of sound in the gas flow for the temperature and gas constant;
{right arrow over (p)} BC is the unit vector along the first line of sound path; and
{right arrow over (u)}(x,y,z) is velocity vector in the gas flow.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining the speed of sound c by:
substituting for the first transmitters first transceiver/transducers that are capable of transmitting and receiving acoustic signals, and generating output signals;
substituting for the first sensors second transceiver/transducers that are capable of transmitting and re

Assignees

• Siemens Energy Inc

Inventors

• Desilva Upul P
• Claussen Heiko

Classifications

• F23N2225/08

  temperature · CPC title

• F23N2241/20

  Gas turbines · CPC title

• G01K13/02

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

• G01K11/24 Primary

  of the velocity of propagation of sound · CPC title

• F01D17/085

  to temperature · CPC title