PREPARATIONS FOR SMART SENSOR USAGE IN AIRCRAFT GAS TURBINE TESTING

摘要

The preparation and planning process for smart sensor usage in aircraft gas turbine testing is described. The smart sensors are planned for usage in a process called Snap-In/ Snap-Out (SISO). The current instrumentation setup process for testing in an altitude test cell requires a multitude of aerodynamic pressure lines (up to 600 lines) and electrical cables for instrumentation measurement and excitation (up to 800 cables) be routed through patch panels to pressure scanners, power supply/signal conditioners, analog-to-digital (A/D) systems, and acquisition systems for processing, display, recording, analysis, and transmission of the data. The process is manpower intensive in both setup and configuration control. The SISO process will use smart sensors with calibrations and measurement information on the sensors plus consolidation of all sensor outputs before they exit the engine test stand; this configuration offers the opportunity to reduce the number of connections for measured data to one or at most a few wires. Measurement information stored with the sensor reduces the probability of configuring the instrumentation system incorrectly. The SISO process is presented here along with attendant cost reductions for instrumentation setup time, configuration management, and infrastructure maintenance. The discussion of planning activities includes certifying the smart sensor units for operation in the test cell environment, assessing the uncertainty of the sensor units, the schedule for implementation, and future requirements for smart sensors. Also discussed are the use of state-of-the-art smart sensors and legacy sensors, for several applications (pressure, temperature, position, and voltage) and for both transient and dynamic measurements.