Data Acquiring System for Gas Turbine Engine’s Dynamic Performance; Build and Validate

Abstract

ABSTRACT Gas Turbine Engines (GTE) have the highest power-to-weight ratio among Internal Combustion Engines (ICE). Its modularity and ability to utilize various types of fuel make it highly recommended in power plants, naval transportation, and, of course, the most equipped in aviation. The lack of GTEs’ real data is increasing a recognized need for collecting informative real data sets from GTEs for modeling, monitoring, and fault diagnosis and isolation (FDI). In the present article, a robust versatile data acquisition measuring system has been built to collect real-time data from an axial turboshaft GTE. The system facilitates connectivity and integrity by means of two wiring harnesses connecting the data acquisition card (DAQ), the engine’s control unit, and the operator’s control console. Mobility is guaranteed using a wireless connection between DAQ and a customized programmable LabVIEW interface application. Many experiments have been conducted in different operating conditions to collect the engine and controller’s data in different regimes. The measured signals have been filtered using software-implemented filters and transformed into the right measurement quantities. The experiment data have been analyzed for different regimes, and the milestone documented readings were compared with the measured ones to validate the accuracy and precision of the measuring system. The system is valid for collecting informative data sets that are usable for modeling the engine’s dynamic performance and fault detection.