Electronic Analysis of Electrostatic Pulse to Detect Imminent Jet Engine Gas-Path Failure.

摘要

A jet engine gas-path wear rate monitor has been designed and tested. The monitor observes gas-path component rubbing, chaffing, burning, or erosion by measuring the electrostatic charge in the engine exhaust. This system continuously monitors the exhaust during engine operation, and periodically checks the total metal content in the exhaust to determine the deterioration rate of gas-path components. The design of the monitor is based on 4000 hours of early TF41 electrostatic count data and on 2000 hours of recent analog tape recorded data produced by TF41 engines undergoing severe distresses. This thesis describes the theory and operation of the wear rate monitor. First the design and installation of the optimized probes is presented. Next the theory and operation of the analog and digital circuits in the wear rate monitor is discussed. Circuit diagrams are given for all of the electronic components of the monitor. Then the techniques for adapting the monitor to engines other than the TF41 turbofan engine are presented.