Nonintrusive transceiver and method for characterizing temperature and velocity fields in a gas turbine combustor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9752959-B2
Application number	US-201414341924-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2014
Priority date	Mar 13, 2014
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

Abstract

An acoustic transceiver is implemented for measuring acoustic properties of a gas in a turbine engine combustor. The transceiver housing defines a measurement chamber and has an opening adapted for attachment to a turbine engine combustor wall. The opening permits propagation of acoustic signals between the gas in the turbine engine combustor and gas in the measurement chamber. An acoustic sensor mounted to the housing receives acoustic signals propagating in the measurement chamber, and an acoustic transmitter mounted to the housing creates acoustic signals within the measurement chamber. An acoustic measurement system includes at least two such transceivers attached to a turbine engine combustor wall and connected to a controller.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A transceiver for measuring acoustic properties of a gas in a turbine engine combustor, comprising:
a housing defining a measurement chamber and having at least a first opening, the housing being adapted for attachment to a turbine engine combustor wall of the turbine engine combustor to permit propagation of acoustic signals between the gas in the turbine engine combustor and gas in the measurement chamber through the first opening;
an acoustic sensor mounted to the housing for receiving acoustic signals propagating in the measurement chamber, wherein the acoustic sensor is in communication with the measurement chamber through a second opening in the housing and wherein the measurement chamber comprises a substantially horn-shaped wave guide between the first opening and the second opening, the wave guide having a first cross sectional area near the first opening that is substantially larger than a second cross sectional area near the second opening; and
an acoustic transmitter mounted to the housing for creating acoustic signals within the measurement chamber.

2. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the housing is a substantially cylindrical housing having first and second ends, the first opening being at the first end of the housing, the acoustic transmitter being at the second end of the housing and the second opening being in a wall of the housing between the first and second ends.

3. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the acoustic transmitter is a spark generator comprising a spark gap within the measurement chamber and an electrical energy source connected to the spark gap.

4. The transceiver of claim 3 , wherein the spark generator further comprises a step-up transformer in proximity to the spark gap to step up a voltage of the electrical energy source.

5. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the acoustic transmitter is a whistle acoustic signal source.

6. The transceiver of claim 5 , wherein the whistle acoustic signal source is activated by a cooling gas flow outside the turbine engine combustor.

7. The transceiver of claim 5 , wherein the whistle acoustic signal source is separated from the measurement chamber by a membrane that prevents flow from the measurement chamber and conducts acoustic signals from the whistle acoustic signal source to the measurement chamber.

8. The transceiver of claim 5 , wherein the whistle acoustic signal source emits an acoustic signal having one or more dominant frequencies whereby amplitude ambiguities of the acoustic signal are spaced apart by a period longer than a range of expected time-of-flight measurements.

9. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the acoustic sensor is selected from a group consisting of a piezoelectric microphone, a piezoresistive microphone and a fiber optic microphone.

10. A system for measuring properties of a gas in a turbine engine combustor, comprising:
a first housing mounted to the turbine engine combustor and defining a first measurement chamber in communication with an interior of the turbine engine combustor through a first opening in a wall of the turbine engine combustor, the first opening permitting propagation of acoustic signals between the gas in the turbine engine combustor and gas in the first measurement chamber;
a first acoustic sensor mounted to the first housing for receiving acoustic signals propagating in the first measurement chamber;
a first acoustic transmitter mounted to the first housing for creating acoustic signals within the first measurement chamber;
a controller coupled to the first acoustic sensor and the first acoustic transmitter, the controller further coupled to a second acoustic sensor arranged to receive acoustic signals propagating in the gas in the turbine engine combustor, the controller further coupled to a second acoustic transmitter for creating acoustic signals in the gas in the turbine engine combustor, the controller comprising:
a processor; and
computer readable media containing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the following operations:
transmitting by the first acoustic transmitter a first acoustic signal;
receiving by the second acoustic sensor a signal including contributions from the first acoustic signal;
transmitting by the second acoustic transmitter a second acoustic signal;
receiving by the first acoustic sensor a signal including contributions from the second acoustic signal;
determining times of flight for the first and second acoustic signals including propagation times within the turbine engine combustor;
processing the times of flight to determine the properties of the gas in the turbine engine combustor.

11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising:
a second housing mounted to the turbine engine combustor and defining a second measurement chamber in communication with the interior of the turbine engine combustor through a second opening in the wall of the turbine engine combustor, the second opening permitting propagation of acoustic signals between the gas in the turbine engine combustor and gas in the second measurement chamber;
the first and second openings defining a line-of-sound path through the turbine engine combustor;
the second acoustic sensor being mounted to the second housing for receiving acoustic signals propagating in the second measurement chamber.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the properties of the gas in a turbine engine combustor comprise an average speed of sound along the line-of-sound path, and wherein the operations further comprise:
determining an average temperature of the gas in the turbine engine combustor along the line-of-sound path based on the average speed of sound along the line-of-sound path.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the properties of the gas in the turbine engine combustor comprise an absolute gas flow velocity along the line-of-sound path, and wherein the operations further comprise:
determining an average temperature of the gas in the turbine engine combustor along the line-of-sound path based on the speed of sound along the line-of-sound path; and
determining the absolute gas flow velocity along the line-of-sound path based on the speed of sound along the line-of-sound path and further based on the temperature of the gas along the line-of-sound path.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first and second openings are located in separate axial planes in a combustion zone of the turbine engine combustor containing a flame.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first and second openings are located in separate axial planes in an exit zone of the turbine engine combustor proximate a turbine inlet.

16. A method for actively monitoring gas flow characteristics in a turbine engine combustor, comprising:
transmitting, by a first acoustic transmitter, first acoustic signals in a first measurement chamber, the first measurement chamber being in communication with an interior of the turbine engine combustor through a first opening to permit propagation of the first acoustic signals from the first measurement chamber to the interior of the turbine engine combustor;
providing a first acoustic sensor that is in communication with the first measurement chamber through a second opening in the housing;
receiving, by a second acoustic sensor, the first acoustic signals in a second measurement chamber, the second measurement chamber being in communication with the interior of the turbine engine combustor through a second opening to permit propagation of the first acoustic signals from the interior of the t

Assignees

• Siemens Energy Inc

Inventors

• Desilva Upul P
• Claussen Heiko

Classifications

• G01F1/662 Primary

  Constructional details · CPC title

• G01M15/14 Primary

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

• G01N29/07

  by measuring propagation velocity or propagation time of acoustic waves · CPC title

• G01F1/667

  Arrangements of transducers for ultrasonic flowmeters; Circuits for operating ultrasonic flowmeters · CPC title

• F02C3/04 Primary

  having a turbine driving a compressor (power transmission arrangements F02C7/36; control of working fluid flow F02C9/16) · CPC title