Actively driven remote mount optical probe
AssigneeRtx Corporation
InventorBryan James Hackett
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A gas turbine engine includes a fan duct, an engine casing, and a gaspath casing. A thermal imaging device is integrated with the gas turbine engine. The thermal imaging device includes: a main body comprising processing circuitry, where the main body is mountable to the fan duct or a mounting structure separate from the fan duct. The thermal imaging device includes a probe mounted to the engine casing. The probe includes one or more sensors configured to detect thermal energy, and the probe is configured to transmit an optical signal based on the detected thermal energy, to an aperture of the main body, over an air gap between the probe and the main body. The processing circuitry is configured to provide temperature information in response to processing the optical signal.
Claims18
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a fan duct;
- an engine casing;
- and
- a gaspath casing,
- wherein a thermal imaging device is integrated with the gas turbine engine, the thermal imaging device comprising:
- a main body comprising processing circuitry, wherein the main body is mountable to the fan duct or a mounting structure separate from the fan duct;
- and
- a probe mounted to the engine casing, wherein:
- the probe comprises one or more sensors configured to detect thermal energy;
- and
- the probe is configured to transmit an optical signal based on the detected thermal energy, to an aperture of the main body, over an air gap between the probe and the main body,
- wherein the processing circuitry is configured to provide temperature information in response to processing the optical signal.
The gas turbine engine of claim 5, wherein the IR band is a long-wave IR band.
A method of controlling a thermal imaging device for a gas turbine engine, comprising:
- detecting, by a probe of the thermal imaging device, thermal energy associated with the gas turbine engine;
- transmitting, by the probe, an optical signal based on detected thermal energy associated with the gas turbine engine, wherein the optical signal is transmitted to an aperture of a main body of the thermal imaging device, over an air gap between the probe and the main body;
- and
- providing temperature information associated with the gas turbine engine in response to processing the optical signal.
The method of claim 13, further comprising:
- generating, by control circuitry, one or more control signals associated with maintaining the air gap between an end portion of the probe and the main body.
The method of claim 13, further comprising:
- generating, by control circuitry, one or more control signals associated with maintaining an alignment between the probe and the main body.
The method of claim 13, further comprising:
- emitting, by an emitter integrated with the main body, light of an infrared (IR) band;
- generating, by a set of photodetectors located at an end portion of the probe, an electrical signal in response to detecting the emitted light;
- and
- generating, by control circuitry, one or more control signals associated with positioning the main body based on the electrical signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.