New Indices for Detection of Turbine blade Tip Deformation and Estimation of Clearance Extent Using Scattering Parameter

Reliability of gas turbine power plant is related to the blade normal operation. In this paper, a new on-line condition monitoring method has been presented to evaluate two important factors affecting the turbine blades that are the tip clearance and tip deformation.
A K band’s microwave sensor has been simulated and optimized in CST Microwave Studio software. Scattering parameters of the near field sensor has been used as a finger print for the turbine blade. A set of measuring indices has been introduced to compare the amplitude and phase of the scattering parameters and received power. The simulation results show that the proposed indices can effectively detect deformation of the blade tip and tip clearance extent can also be estimated.