The need for non-destructive testing/structural health monitoring (SHM) is becoming increasingly important for gas turbine manufacturers. Incipient cracks have to be detected before catastrophic events occur. With respect to condition-based maintenance, the complex and expensive parts should be used as long as their performance or integrity is not compromised. In this study, the main failure modes of turbines are reported. In particular, we focus on the turbine blades, turbine vanes and the transition ducts of the combustion chambers. The existing monitoring techniques for these components, with their own particular advantages and disadvantages, are summarised in this review. In addition to the vibrational approach, tip timing technology is the most used technique for blade monitoring. Several sensor types are appropriate for the extreme conditions in a gas turbine, but besides tip timing, other technologies are also very promising for future NDT/SHM applications. For static parts, like turbine vanes and the transition ducts of the combustion chambers, different monitoring possibilities are identified and discussed.

A Review of NDT/Structural Health Monitoring Techniques for Hot Gas Components in Gas Turbines

Damage is an inevitable occurrence in metallic structures and when unchecked could result in a catastrophic breakdown of structural assets. Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) is adopted in industries for assessment and health inspection of structural assets. Prominent among the NDE techniques is guided wave ultrasonic testing (GWUT). This method is cost-effective and possesses an enormous capability for long-range inspection of corroded structures, detection of sundries of crack and other metallic damage structures at low frequency and energy attenuation. However, the parametric features of the GWUT are affected by structural and environmental operating conditions and result in masking damage signal. Most studies focused on identifying individual damage under varying conditions while combined damage phenomena can coexist in structure and hasten its deterioration. Hence, it is an impending task to study the effect of combined damage on a structure under varying conditions and correlate it with GWUT parametric features. In this respect, this work reviewed the literature on UGWs, damage inspection, severity, temperature influence on the guided wave and parametric characteristics of the inspecting wave. The review is limited to the piezoelectric transduction unit. It was keenly observed that no significant work had been done to correlate the parametric feature of GWUT with combined damage effect under varying conditions. It is therefore proposed to investigate this impending task.

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/3/811/pdf

Review of Current Guided Wave Ultrasonic Testing (GWUT) Limitations and Future Directions.

Measurement uncertainty evaluation of ultrasonic wall thickness measurement

There are many fields such as online monitoring of manufacturing processes, non-destructive testing in nuclear plants, or corrosion rate monitoring techniques of steel pipes in which measurements must be performed at elevated temperatures. For that high temperature ultrasonic transducers are necessary. In the presented paper, a literature review on the main types of such transducers, piezoelectric materials, backings, and the bonding techniques of transducers elements suitable for high temperatures, is presented. In this review, the main focus is on ultrasonic transducers with piezoelectric elements suitable for operation at temperatures higher than of the most commercially available transducers, i.e., 150 °C. The main types of the ultrasonic transducers that are discussed are the transducers with thin protectors, which may serve as matching layers, transducers with high temperature delay lines, wedges, and waveguide type transducers. The piezoelectric materials suitable for high temperature applications such as aluminum nitride, lithium niobate, gallium orthophosphate, bismuth titanate, oxyborate crystals, lead metaniobate, and other piezoceramics are analyzed. Bonding techniques used for joining of the transducer elements such as joining with glue, soldering, brazing, dry contact, and diffusion bonding are discussed. Special attention is paid to efficient diffusion and thermo-sonic diffusion bonding techniques. Various types of backings necessary for improving a bandwidth and to obtain a short pulse response are described.

/pdf/high-temperature-ultrasonic-transducers-a-review-pisv6ojd50.pdf

High Temperature Ultrasonic Transducers: A Review

Our planet has abundant renewable and conventional energy resources but technological capability and capacity gaps coupled with water-energy needs limit the benefits of these resources to citizens. Through IoT technology solutions and state-of-the-art IoT sensing and communications approaches, the sustainable energy-related research and innovation can bring a revolution in this area. Moreover, by the leveraging current infrastructure, including renewable energy technologies, microgrids, and power-to-gas (P2G) hydrogen systems, the Internet of Things in sustainable energy systems can address challenges in energy security to the community, with a minimal trade-off to environment and culture. In this chapter, the IoT in sustainable energy systems approaches, methodologies, scenarios, and tools is presented with a detailed discussion of different sensing and communications techniques. This IoT approach in energy systems is envisioned to enhance the bidirectional interchange of network services in grid by using Internet of Things in grid that will result in enhanced system resilience, reliable data flow, and connectivity optimization. Moreover, the sustainable energy IoT research challenges and innovation opportunities are also discussed to address the complex energy needs of our community and promote a strong energy sector economy.

/pdf/internet-of-things-in-sustainable-energy-systems-5gbtqh15st.pdf

Internet of Things in Sustainable Energy Systems

A novel technique for simultaneously measuring the moduli of elastic isotropic material, as a function of temperature, using two ultrasonic guided wave modes that are co-generated using a single probe is presented here. This technique can be used for simultaneously measuring Young's modulus (E) and shear modulus (G) of different materials over a wide range of temperatures (35 °C-1200 °C). The specimens used in the experiments have special embodiments (for instance, a bend) at one end of the waveguide and an ultrasonic guided wave generator/detector (transducer) at the other end for obtaining reflected signals in a pulse-echo mode. The orientation of the transducer can be used for simultaneously generating/receiving the L(0,1) and/or T(0,1) using a single transducer in a waveguide on one end. The far end of the waveguides with the embodiment is kept inside a heating device such as a temperature-controlled furnace. The time of flight difference, as a function of uniform temperature distribution region (horizontal portion) of bend waveguides was measured and used to determine the material properties. Several materials were tested and the comparison between values reported in the literature and measured values were found to be in agreement, for both elastic moduli (E and G) measurements, as a function of temperature. This technique provides significant reduction in time and effort over conventional means of measurement of temperature dependence of elastic moduli.

Simultaneous moduli measurement of elastic materials at elevated temperatures using an ultrasonic waveguide method.

Multi-level temperature measurements using ultrasonic waveguides

Ultrasonic bent waveguides approach for distributed temperature measurement.

This paper reports the feasibility of using an ultrasonic waveguide sensor for distributed temperature measurement in two different case studies, that is: 1) skin temperature of a solid structure (pipe) and 2) fluid (water). This technique improves upon the conventional multiple thermocouples approach for multi-level temperature measurements. The range of temperatures is from room temperature to maximum utility temperature for the two case studies (85 °C for water and 200 °C for pipe). Using the interaction of the propagating ultrasonic waves in a thin rodlike waveguide with intentionally designed geometric discontinuities (bends, axisymmetric, non-axisymmetric notches, and so on), the localized information on the temperature is extracted. An ultrasonic technique for accurate temperature measurement by tracking the time-of-flight of reflected guided wave modes from appropriately spaced notch reflectors is therefore proposed here, while using the reflection from a bend is used as a reference. Using a finite element model approach, the notch size and/or the bend radius were selected in order to reduce mode conversion effects as well as to obtain uniform amplitudes of the reflected signals from these designed discontinuities. The numerical results were experimentally validated for the L(0,1) wave mode using a stainless steel waveguide sensor. This paper is of interest to industrial applications including mould cooling jacket temperature monitoring during the steel manufacturing process as well as for furnace wall temperature measurements in petrochemical industries.

Ultrasonic Waveguide-Based Multi-Level Temperature Sensor for Confined Space Measurements

This paper introduces a novel technique for multi-level temperature measurement using a single reconfigurable ultrasonic wire waveguide that is configured in the form of a helical spring. In this embodiment, the multiple sensing levels located along the length of the helical waveguide wire can be repositioned by stretching or collapsing the spring to provide measurements at different desired spacing in a given area/volume. This method can measure over a wide range of temperatures. The transduction is performed using Piezo-electric crystals that are attached to one end of the waveguide which act as transmitter as well as receiver. The wire will have multiple reflector embodiments (notches was used here) that allow reflections of input L(0,1) mode guided ultrasonicwave, in pulse echo mode, back to the crystal. Using the time of fight measurement at multiple predefined reflector locations, the local average temperatures are measured and compared with co-located thermocouples. The finite element modeling simulation was used to study the effect of excitation frequency and the mean coil diameter of the “spring-like” waveguide. This technique improves on the limitations of a straight waveguide technique earlier reported.

Suresh Periyannan

Papers

Simultaneous moduli measurement of elastic materials at elevated temperatures using an ultrasonic waveguide method.

Multi-level temperature measurements using ultrasonic waveguides

Ultrasonic bent waveguides approach for distributed temperature measurement.

Ultrasonic Waveguide-Based Multi-Level Temperature Sensor for Confined Space Measurements

Re-configurable multi-level temperature sensing by ultrasonic “spring-like” helical waveguide