Health monitoring of mechanical transmission systems is an important area of research. Mechanical transmission systems, especially gear boxes in aircraft, automobiles, and wind turbines etc. account for many of the maintenance costs due to repairs, replacements and downtime. Gear boxes can experience high level of failure due to varied load conditions and harsh environments. Replacing the gear box is quite an expensive process and has significant downtime. Current gear box monitoring involves mainly measuring vibrations, however vibrations occur when the fault in the gear has already progressed significantly. Gear teeth monitoring lacks sensor technology to successfully detect tooth damage and misalignment. This paper presents a new concept gear teeth damage detection using eddy current sensors fitted on to the teeth of an idler gear at various locations. These sensors detect various faults encountered in a gear such as micro and macro pitting of the tooth surface, contact wear etc. Eddy current sensors are already being used to detect turbomachinery blade vibrations and tip clearance as they are robust and immune to contamination. In the present case, we use an idler gear that incorporates miniature eddy current sensors and state of the art electronics with wireless data transmission to enable the device to operate remotely and in harsh environments. A rotating rig with gears (spur and helical) and oil supply was built to test and validate the sensor by seeding various faults on the tooth surface. The results show that the idler sensor gear was able to detect various faults. The new eddy current sensor idler gear concept will enable health monitoring of the gearbox and ensure timely maintenance and reduction in operation costs.

The advent of tip-timing systems makes it possible to assess turbomachinery blade vibration using non-contact systems. The most widely used systems in industry are optical. However, these systems are still only used on developmental gas turbine engines, largely because of contamination problems from dust, dirt, oil, water etc. Further development of these systems for in-service use is problematic because of the difficulty of eliminating contamination of the optics. Eddy current sensors are found to be a good alternative and are already being used for gas turbine health monitoring in power plants. Experimental measurements have been carried out on three different rotors using an eddy current sensor developed in a series of laboratory and engine tests in-house to measure rotor blade arrival times. A new tip-timing algorithm for eddy current sensors based on integration has been developed and is compared with two existing tip-timing algorithms: peak-to-peak and peak-and-trough. Among the three, the integration method provided the most promising results in the presence of electrical noise interference. The main aim of this work is to develop an algorithm that can be used to build a simple, robust, real-time and low cost analogue electronic circuit for use in-service health monitoring of engines.

Gas turbine health monitoring is an important area of research. As the performance of aircraft and power plants increase, they will require better sensors for health monitoring systems to prevent failures. Health monitoring systems help in preventive maintenance reducing unnecessary downtime and maintenance costs. Gas turbine blades are subjected to dynamic loads caused by rotor imbalances, distortions in the intake flows etc. These loads cause low or high cycle fatigues and the blades can fail over time. Tip-timing and tip-clearance systems makes it possible to assess turbomachinery blade vibration by using non-contact measurement systems such as optical, eddy current, hall effect, capacitve etc. The most widely used systems in industry are optical, however, these systems are still largely prone to contamination problems from dust, dirt, oil, water etc. Further development of these systems for in-service use is problematic because of the difficulty in eliminating contamination of the optics. Other systems, although immune to contamination, may not be able to measure both tip-clearance and tip-timing at the same time due to their operating principle. Another limitation is that they cannot be used in high temperature applications such as in a high pressure turbine where the temperatures can reach 1400°C. Eddy current sensors are found to be quite robust and can measure both tip-timing and tip-clearance. They are currently being used for gas turbine health monitoring applications at low temperatures such as in the compressor stage and last stage of a steam turbine. A new high temperature eddy current sensor has been developed in-house at the University of Oxford for application in gas turbine tip-timing and tip clearance measurements to assess blade vibrations. The current sensor is a modified version of the existing eddy current sensor that is able to operate at high temperatures of about 1400°C. The paper presents the development of the sensor and experimental results of tip clearance measurements in the high pressure turbine stage of a jet engine. In the engine tests, two blades were reduced in height to increase the tip-clearance and the measurements were taken at both idle and max operating speeds. The sensor was found to work in these harsh environments and was sufficiently sensitive to accurately determine the tip clearance at these elevated temperatures. Tests were carried out mainly to demonstrate the technique of obtaining good tip clearance measurements and the survivability of the sensors in the high temperature and pressure environment.

The proposed device could non-destructively detect the water content in organic solvents at low concentrations with high accuracy and without any specific reagent. It could determine the water content in methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol at 0–1% w/w.

A new high temperature eddy current sensor has been developed for application in turbomachinery tip-timing and tip clearance measurements to assess blade vibrations. Present industrial standard sensors used in tip timing systems such as optical, capacitance, Hall effect etc. are unable to operate at elevated temperatures > 400 • C for long durations without active cooling and these sensors are not sufficiently robust to withstand the harsh environment. Eddy current sensors are found to be a good alternative and are currently being used for gas turbine health monitoring applications at low temperatures, for example in the first stage of compressors and in the low pressure section of steam turbines. The newly developed sensor is a modified version of the eddy current sensor that is able to operate at high temperatures of about 800 • C. The sensor can be used to measure stator-rotor clearances in shaft seal applications, or in a turbine stage of a gas turbine engine where the temperatures are significantly higher. This paper presents the characteristics of the high temperature eddy current sensor, driving electronics and various validation results. The experiments were carried out on a rotor with blades and flat sectors simulating a stator/rotor seal to measure tip clearances. The sensor system is demonstrated at varying temperature intervals starting from room temperature to over 800 • C. Comparisons are made against an existing industrial standard capacitance sensor system up to 250 • C. The results show good agreement between the eddy current and the capacitance probe for the flat sectors over the temperature range, giving credence to the eddy current probe data, but that the eddy current probe achieves a more accurate, repeatable and reliable measurement for the blades, as well as extending the temperature range. The eddy current sensor is immune to dust, dirt, oil and water contamination and therefore is considered a better solution than the capacitance sensor.