Gas turbine engine drive system torsional health monitoring
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorSheridon Everette Haye
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drive system of a gas turbine engine includes at least one drive shaft operable to rotate within the gas turbine engine, a phonic wheel coupled to the at least one drive shaft, a speed sensor operable to detect rotation of the phonic wheel indicative of rotation of the at least one drive shaft, and a processing system coupled to the speed sensor. The processing system is operable to detect a phonic wheel pulse train indicative of rotation of the at least one drive shaft via the speed sensor, determine a torsional mode of the at least one drive shaft based on the phonic wheel pulse train, and record one or more trends of the torsional mode indicative of a health status of the drive system.
Claims15
A drive system of a gas turbine engine, the drive system comprising:
- at least one drive shaft operable to rotate within the gas turbine engine;
- a phonic wheel coupled to the at least one drive shaft;
- a speed sensor operable to detect rotation of the phonic wheel indicative of rotation of the at least one drive shaft;
- a second shaft of the gas turbine engine having a second phonic wheel;
- a second speed sensor operable to detect rotation of the second phonic wheel;
- and
- a processing system coupled to the speed sensor and the second speed sensor, the processing system operable to detect a phonic wheel pulse train indicative of rotation of the at least one drive shaft via the speed sensor, track a timing variation between a first position indicator of the phonic wheel and a second position indicator of the second phonic wheel, determine a torsional mode of the at least one drive shaft based on the phonic wheel pulse train, and record one or more trends of the torsional mode indicative of a health status of the drive system.
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a first drive shaft operable to drive a fan of the gas turbine engine;
- a second drive shaft operable to be driven by a turbine of the gas turbine engine;
- a fan drive gear system coupled to the first drive shaft and the second drive shaft;
- a first phonic wheel coupled to the first drive shaft;
- a second phonic wheel coupled to the second drive shaft;
- a first speed sensor operable to detect rotation of the first phonic wheel indicative of rotation of the first drive shaft;
- a second speed sensor operable to detect rotation of the second phonic wheel indicative of rotation of the second drive shaft;
- and
- a processing system coupled to the first and second speed sensors, the processing system operable to detect one or more phonic wheel pulse trains, determine a torsional mode based on the one or more phonic wheel pulse trains, perform a frequency domain analysis of the one or more phonic wheel pulse trains and identify a dominant mode as a shaft frequency and a lower amplitude frequency domain component as the torsional mode, and record one or more trends of the torsional mode indicative of a health status of the drive system.
A method of monitoring a drive system in a gas turbine engine, the method comprising:
- detecting a phonic wheel pulse train indicative of rotation of at least one drive shaft via a speed sensor operably coupled to a processing system;
- tracking a timing variation between a first position indicator of a first phonic wheel on a first drive shaft of the at least one drive shaft and a second position indicator of a second phonic wheel on a second drive shaft of the at least one drive shaft;
- determining, by the processing system, a torsional mode of the at least one drive shaft based on the phonic wheel pulse train;
- and
- recording one or more trends of the torsional mode indicative of a health status of the drive system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.