Nonintrusive transceiver and method for characterizing temperature and velocity fields in a gas turbine combustor

A system for measuring properties of a gas in a turbine engine combustor, comprising:

• a first housing mounted to the turbine engine combustor and defining a first measurement chamber in communication with an interior of the turbine engine combustor through a first opening in a wall of the turbine engine combustor, the first opening permitting propagation of acoustic signals between the gas in the turbine engine combustor and gas in the first measurement chamber;
• a first acoustic sensor mounted to the first housing for receiving acoustic signals propagating in the first measurement chamber;
• a first acoustic transmitter mounted to the first housing for creating acoustic signals within the first measurement chamber;
• a controller coupled to the first acoustic sensor and the first acoustic transmitter, the controller further coupled to a second acoustic sensor arranged to receive acoustic signals propagating in the gas in the turbine engine combustor, the controller further coupled to a second acoustic transmitter for creating acoustic signals in the gas in the turbine engine combustor, the controller comprising:
• a processor;
• and
• computer readable media containing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the following operations:
• transmitting by the first acoustic transmitter a first acoustic signal;
• receiving by the second acoustic sensor a signal including contributions from the first acoustic signal;
• transmitting by the second acoustic transmitter a second acoustic signal;
• receiving by the first acoustic sensor a signal including contributions from the second acoustic signal;
• determining times of flight for the first and second acoustic signals including propagation times within the turbine engine combustor;
• processing the times of flight to determine the properties of the gas in the turbine engine combustor.

A method for actively monitoring gas flow characteristics in a turbine engine combustor, comprising:

• transmitting, by a first acoustic transmitter, first acoustic signals in a first measurement chamber, the first measurement chamber being in communication with an interior of the turbine engine combustor through a first opening to permit propagation of the first acoustic signals from the first measurement chamber to the interior of the turbine engine combustor;
• providing a first acoustic sensor that is in communication with the first measurement chamber through a second opening in the housing;
• receiving, by a second acoustic sensor, the first acoustic signals in a second measurement chamber, the second measurement chamber being in communication with the interior of the turbine engine combustor through a second opening to permit propagation of the first acoustic signals from the interior of the turbine engine combustor to the second measurement chamber;
• guiding the first acoustic signals from the first opening through the first measurement chamber to the second acoustic sensor by using a substantially horn-shaped wave guide comprising a shape of the first measurement chamber having a first cross sectional area near the first opening that is substantially larger than a second cross sectional area near the second opening;
• determining, using a processor, a time-of-flight for the first acoustic signals along a fixed line-of-sound path in the turbine engine combustor from the first opening to the second opening;
• and
• processing, via a processor, the time-of-flight to determine the gas flow characteristics in the turbine engine combustor.