Detection of gas turbine airfoil failure

An apparatus for detecting a failure of an airfoil of a gas turbine engine, the airfoil comprising an outer skin having an outer surface defining an airfoil shape and an inner surface, an impingement structure spaced from the inner surface to define an outer cooling chamber between the inner surface and the impingement structure and an inner cooling chamber, and impingement holes in the impingement structure for directing a cooling fluid front the inner cooling chamber into the outer cooling chamber and against the outer skin inner surface, the apparatus comprising:

• a sensor providing a signal responsive to at least one of a temperature and a rate of flow of a fluid flowing through the outer cooling chamber of the airfoil;
• a storage device staring a computer code for correlating changes in the signal to a condition of failure of the airfoil;
• a central processing unit operative with the computer code to correlate a change in the signal with the condition of failure of the airfoil;
• and
• an output device providing an indication of the condition of failure.

A vane monitoring system for a gas turbine engine comprising:

• a plurality of stationary vanes, each vane comprising an inner cooling chamber and an outer cooling chamber, the outer cooling chamber comprising an outer skin of the vane, the vane monitoring system comprising;
• a plurality of sensors providing a respective plurality of signals responsive to a respective condition of fluid flowing through the respective outer cooling chamber of a plurality of the vanes;
• a controller responsive to the plurality of signals to detect a change in the condition of the fluid flowing through the outer cooling chamber of one of the vanes compared to a corresponding condition of the fluid flowing through the outer cooling chamber of another of the vanes resulting from a breach of the outer skin of the one of the vanes;
• and
• an alarm signal output by the controller in response to the change in condition exceeding a predetermined value.