James A. Moryl

Embedded Thin-Film Sensor for Crack Detection and Monitoring in Fracture Critical Turbine Engine Components

The development and implementation of an integrated health management system has the potential to significantly enhance the reliability and readiness of high-value assets, while concurrently decreasing sustainment costs. A key aspect of this approach is on-board sensing to provide continual feedback on the evolving damage state at the material and component level. This paper summarizes the development and status of an embedded, thin-film, wireless, sensor for detecting and monitoring material damage state (i.e., cracking) in critical turbine engine components at elevated temperature. The potential benefits of on-board detection and monitoring of defects, as compared to periodic depot inspections, were previously assessed using probabilistic simulations. These results provided target sensitivities for the development of the thin-film sensor. The status of the sensor system is summarized including its ability to generate elastic waves and detect/monitor fatigue cracks in engineering materials at temperatures to 500°F (260°C). Crack detection sensitivities with and without load application are compared, as well as those for wired versus wireless signal transmission.© 2006 ASME