Flame monitoring of a gas turbine combustor using multiple dynamic pressure sensors in multiple combustors

• Main Authors: Ulerich Nancy H, Claussen Heiko, Momin Zainul, Flohr Patrick Ronald
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 04.04.2017
• Subjects: BLASTING; CASINGS, LININGS, WALLS OR DOORS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FORCOMBUSTION CHAMBERS, e.g. FIREBRIDGES; COMBUSTION APPARATUS; COMBUSTION PROCESSES; DETAILS OF COMBUSTION CHAMBERS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; DEVICES FOR DEFLECTING AIR, FLAMES OR COMBUSTION PRODUCTS INCOMBUSTION CHAMBERS; HEATING; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; LIGHTING; MEASUREMENT OF MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS OR ULTRASONIC, SONIC ORINFRASONIC WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING FORCE, STRESS, TORQUE, WORK, MECHANICAL POWER,MECHANICAL EFFICIENCY, OR FLUID PRESSURE; MEASURING QUANTITY OF HEAT; MEASURING TEMPERATURE; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; PHYSICS; REGULATING OR CONTROLLING COMBUSTION; SAFETY ARRANGEMENTS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR COMBUSTIONAPPARATUS; TESTING; TESTING STATIC OR DYNAMIC BALANCE OF MACHINES ORSTRUCTURES; TESTING STRUCTURES OR APPARATUS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; THERMALLY-SENSITIVE ELEMENTS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; WEAPONS

The state of a flame in a subject combustor of a gas turbine engine is acoustically monitored using a dynamic pressure sensor within the subject combustor and one or more additional sensors in nearby combustors. Dynamic pressure sensor output signals from the sensors are cross correlated to identify acoustic oscillations generated by a flame in the subject combustor and received by the sensors. The cross correlation may be constrained by a maximum time delay between correlated components of the signals, based on physical characteristics.