Acoustic Detection of Aircraft Turbine Cooling Hole Clogging

This research effort is aimed at developing a method to detect turbine blade cooling hole clogging or erosion due to sand or volcanic ash ingestion. The goals of the research are to understand the propagation of high frequency noise from actively cooled turbine components and determine the feasibility of detecting changes due to clogging and ablation of turbine components.

Ash encounters are generally very dangerous because the pilots have little to no direct feedback from the aircraft of the event. This proposed research could lead to onboard indication of an encounter via detection of anomalies in turbine cooling. However, detection of noise from these components may be difficult due to the greater propensity of high frequency noise to be attenuated. Other available methods, such as direct measurement in the gas path, are difficult to implement due to the extreme environment.