Using scanned vanes to determine effective flow areas
AssigneeRolls-Royce Engine Services Oakland, Inc.
InventorBradley W. Burkett
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A computing device for determining effective flow areas of a turbine or turbine engine includes optically scanning and digital modeling of turbine components to produce virtual vanes, virtual vane segments, and virtual ring assemblies. The computing device determines both individual effective flow areas between vanes and the total effective flow area of a vane ring assembly. Based on the virtual vanes and determined effective flow areas, the computing device may compare one or more turbine components to a reference turbine to determine whether the turbine is out of specification and aid in repair, modification, or reassembly of the turbine or turbine engine.
Claims20
A computing device comprising instructions embodied in one or more non-transitory machine accessible storage media, the instructions executable by the computing device to cause the computing device to:
- optically scan a vane segment that includes a first vane and a second vane;
- create a virtual vane segment comprising a first virtual vane corresponding to the first vane and a second virtual vane corresponding to the second vane based on the optical scan;
- determine at least one chokepoint of the virtual vane segment by (i) sectioning the virtual vane segment into one or more sections and (ii) determining a distance across a flow area between an edge of the first virtual vane and an edge of the second virtual vane for each of the one or more sections, wherein each chokepoint comprises a point of the first virtual vane and a point of the second virtual vane that restrict a flow area between the first virtual vane and the second virtual vane;
- calculate a virtual vane segment effective flow area based at least in part on the at least one chokepoint;
- and
- determine an effective flow area of the vane segment based on the virtual vane segment effective flow area.
A computing device comprising instructions embodied in one or more non-transitory machine accessible storage media, the instructions executable by the computing device to cause the computing device to:
- determine an effective flow area of a vane ring for a turbine by:
- optically scanning the vane ring that includes a plurality of vanes;
- based on the optical scanning, creating a virtual vane ring comprising a plurality of virtual vanes corresponding to each of the plurality of vanes, wherein the plurality of virtual vanes defines a plurality of virtual vane segments;
- determining at least one chokepoint for each of the plurality of virtual vane segments, wherein each of the at least one chokepoint comprises a point that limits a flow area between virtual vanes of the virtual vane segment, and wherein determining the at least one chokepoint comprises (i) sectioning each virtual vane segment into one or more sections and (ii) for each of the one or more sections, determining a distance across the flow area between edges of the virtual vanes of the virtual vane segment;
- calculating an individual effective flow area of each of the plurality of virtual vane segments based at least in part on the at least one chokepoint;
- and
- calculating a vane ring effective flow area by calculating a sum of the individual effective flow areas.
A method comprising:
- determining, by a computing device, an effective flow area of a vane segment for the turbine or the turbine engine by:
- optically scanning, by the computing device, the vane segment, wherein the vane segment comprises a first airfoil and a second airfoil;
- creating, by the computing device, a virtual vane segment based on the optical scanning, wherein the virtual vane segment comprises a first virtual airfoil corresponding to the first airfoil and a second virtual airfoil corresponding to the second airfoil;
- determining, by the computing device, at least one chokepoint of the virtual vane segment, wherein each chokepoint comprises a point of the first virtual airfoil and a point of the second virtual airfoil that restrict a flow area between the first virtual airfoil and the second virtual airfoil, and wherein determining the at least one chokepoint comprises (i) sectioning the virtual vane segment into one or more sections and (ii) for each of the one or more sections, determining a distance across the flow area between an edge of the first virtual airfoil and an edge of the second virtual airfoil;
- and
- calculating, by the computing device, a virtual vane segment effective flow area based at least in part on the at least one chokepoint.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.