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US 11,988,105 B2Granted
Acoustical health monitoring for turbomachinery
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsKent E. Karnofski, Ariel F. Irizarry, R. Eugene Iverson, Franz D. Betz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A health monitoring system including an array of microphones, a data collection system, and analytic software used to detect health status, pending malfunctions, or faults of several disparate, engine subsystems. The system can be used to monitor health of the main engines, the engine nacelles, and auxiliary power units (APU) on the aircraft.
Claims22
A system, comprising:
- a plurality of acoustic sensors outputting signals in response to acoustic waves transmitted to the acoustic sensors from a plurality of distinct engine subsystems of an engine when the distinct engine subsystems are acoustically coupled to the acoustic sensors;
- and
- wherein the signals comprise information used to monitor a health status of each of the distinct engine subsystems,
- the engine comprises a gas turbine engine for propelling an aircraft or an auxiliary power unit for the aircraft;
- the distinct engine subsystems comprise components;
- the acoustic sensors are distributed on or around the engine so as to receive the acoustic waves from the distinct engine subsystems in different zones of the engine, so that one or more sources of the acoustic waves in the distinct engine subsystems can be determined;
- and
- a computer connected to the acoustic sensors, wherein the computer:
- localizes one of the sources of the acoustic waves using a sound source localization method;
- monitors at least one characteristic of the acoustic waves selected from one or more frequencies of the acoustic waves and one or more amplitudes of the acoustic waves from the one of the sources localized using the sound source localization method, and
- uses a change in the at least one characteristic to determine the health status of at least one of the components located at the one of the sources.
8 more elements
A method of making a system, comprising:
- positioning a plurality of acoustic sensors outputting signals in response to acoustic waves transmitted to the acoustic sensors from a plurality of distinct engine subsystems of an engine when the distinct engine subsystems are acoustically coupled to the acoustic sensors;
- and
- wherein the signals comprise information used to monitor a health status of each of the distinct engine subsystems,
- the engine comprises a gas turbine engine for propelling an aircraft or an auxiliary power unit for the aircraft;
- the distinct engine subsystems comprise components;
- the acoustic sensors are distributed on or around the engine so as to receive the acoustic waves from the distinct engine subsystems in different zones of the engine, so that one or more sources of the acoustic waves in the distinct engine subsystems can be determined;
- and
- connecting a computer to the acoustic sensors, wherein the computer:
- localizes one of the sources of the acoustic waves using a sound source localization method;
- monitors at least one characteristic of the acoustic waves selected from one or more frequencies of the acoustic waves and one or more amplitudes of the acoustic waves from the one of the sources localized using the sound source localization method, and
- uses a change in the at least one characteristic to determine the health status of at least one of the components located at the one of the sources.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.