General Electric Company

Vincent Carmona

Kurt Kramer Schleif

Andrew David Ellis

Mario Joseph Arceneaux

Michael Allen Ball

A method for determining an arrival-time of a rotor blade that includes attaching an RF reader to a stationary surface and an RF tag to the rotor blade. Time-of-flight data points are collected via an RF monitoring process that includes: emitting an RF signal from the RF reader and recording a first time; receiving the RF signal at the RF tag and emitting a return RF signal by the RF tag in response thereto; receiving the return RF signal at the RF reader and recording a second time; and determining the time-of-flight data point as being the duration occurring between the first time and the second time. The RF monitoring process is repeated until multiple time-of-flight data points are collected. A minimum time-of-flight is determined from the multiple time-of-flight data points, and the arrival-time for the rotor blade is determined as being a time that corresponds to the minimum time-of-flight.

Methods and systems for monitoring rotor blades in turbine engines

A method for determining an arrival-time of a rotor blade that includes attaching an RF reader to a stationary surface and an RF tag to the rotor blade. Strength-of-signal data points are collected via an RF monitoring process that includes: emitting an RF signal from the RF reader; receiving the RF signal at the RF tag and emitting a return RF signal by the RF tag in response thereto; receiving the return RF signal at the RF reader; measuring a signal strength of the return RF signal as received by the RF reader; and determining the strength-of-signal data point as being equal to the measured signal strength. The RF monitoring process is repeated until multiple strength-of-signal data points are collected. A maximum strength-of-signal is determined from the multiple strength-of-signal data points, and the arrival-time for the rotor blade is determined as being a time that corresponds to the maximum strength-of-signal.

A method for determining an arrival-time of a rotor blade in a turbine engine that includes the steps of: having an RF reader attached to a stationary surface in the turbine engine; having an RF tag attached to a first region of the rotor blade; having a reference RF tag attached to a rotating structure near the RF tag; in relation to a first revolution of the rotor blade occurring during the operation of the turbine engine, collecting an arrival-time for each of the RF tag and the reference RF tag with the RF reader via an RF monitoring process; comparing the arrival-time of the RF tag to the arrival-time of the reference RF tag to determine an arrival-time test result for the first region of the rotor blade for the first revolution.

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Birr, Switzerland

Vincent Carmona