Custom strain gauges play a pivotal role in this process, offering insights that are crucial for optimizing performance and ensuring operational reliability. At HITEC, we provide custom sensor solutions tailored specifically for turbomachinery applications. In this article, we delve into the significance of strain monitoring in turbomachinery, the advantages of choosing custom strain gauges from HITEC, and the real-world applications that demonstrate their effectiveness.
What is Turbomachinery?
Turbomachinery refers to machines that transfer energy between a rotor and a fluid, such as air, water, steam, or gas. These machines are commonly used in various industries for tasks like generating electricity, propelling vehicles, compressing gases, or pumping fluids.
Turbomachinery plays an important role in many aspects of modern life, from power generation to transportation and industrial processes. The design, efficiency, and reliability of turbomachinery are areas of ongoing research and development.
Turbines
These machines extract energy from a moving fluid and convert it into useful work. Steam turbines, gas turbines, and water turbines are examples. Steam turbines are widely used in power plants to generate electricity, while gas turbines are common in aircraft propulsion and industrial applications.
Compressors
Compressors do the opposite of turbines; they take in a low-pressure fluid and increase its pressure. This is essential in processes like gas pipelines, refrigeration, and air conditioning systems. Centrifugal compressors and axial compressors are two common types.
Pumps
Pumps transfer fluids from one place to another by increasing their kinetic energy. They're used in applications such as water supply, wastewater treatment, and oil refineries.
Why gauge Turbomachinery?
Turbomachinery including components such as turbine blades are subject to extreme temperature and forces during operation, which can cause them to fatigue and crack if not properly designed and produced. A cracked blade can lead to a catastrophic failure of the turbine and be very expensive to replace ($15k+ per blade, $3B+ for a gas turbine), so stress analysis testing is done on scale models of the blades and vanes to validate the designs.
Strain gauges serve as the eyes and ears of these machines, capturing crucial data on stress distribution, deformation, and vibration. By monitoring these parameters, engineers can assess the health of components, identify potential issues before they escalate, and optimize performance for maximum efficiency.
Custom strain gauges are particularly vital in turbomachinery applications due to the unique challenges posed by high temperatures, vibrations, and corrosive environments. Off-the-shelf solutions often fall short in providing the accuracy and reliability required for such demanding conditions. HITEC's expertise in crafting custom strain gauges ensures that these sensors are precisely tailored to the specific requirements of each application, delivering unparalleled performance and longevity.
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Difficulties with gauging Turbomachinery
Installing strain gauges onto turbomachinery, particularly onto components like blades, can be challenging due to several factors including;
Harsh Environment
Turbomachinery operates in extreme conditions, including high temperatures, high pressures, and often corrosive or erosive environments. These conditions can degrade the adhesive used to attach strain gauges, leading to premature failure or inaccurate measurements.
Limited Access
Turbomachinery components, especially blades within a turbine or compressor, are often located in tight spaces with limited access. Installing strain gauges in such confined spaces can be physically challenging and may require specialized tools and techniques.
Dynamic Loads
Blades in turbomachinery are subject to dynamic loads, including centrifugal forces, vibration, and high-speed rotation. These dynamic loads can cause strain gauge installations to fail or produce inaccurate readings if not properly accounted for during installation.
Material Compatibility
The materials used in turbomachinery components, such as nickel-based superalloys or ceramic composites, may not be compatible with standard strain gauge adhesives or bonding techniques. Specialized materials and procedures may be required to ensure proper adhesion and measurement accuracy.
Temperature Variations
Turbomachinery components experience significant temperature variations during operation, which can affect the performance and reliability of strain gauges. Specialized strain gauges designed to withstand high temperatures may be necessary for accurate measurements.
Resonance and Vibration
Turbomachinery components can experience resonance and vibration, which can affect the stability and durability of strain gauge installations. Proper damping and isolation techniques may be needed to mitigate these effects and ensure accurate measurements.
Because of the extreme conditions involved, specialized strain gauges and installation techniques are required to ensure the survival of the sensors; the standard instrumentation techniques familiar to most technicians are not adequate for this application.
Strain Gauge Solutions from HITEC
With over 50 years experience designing and installing custom strain gauges for the turbomachinery market, HITEC Sensors are able to support your requirements for custom sensors solutions. We perform instrumentation services in our world-class facility or at the customer site. We work directly with the customer to analyze the placement of the gauges and ensure highly accurate data.
Our experience in the field is extremely very beneficial to our customers, saving time and expense of not having to acquire the skilled personnel and knowledge to do the work in-house. Working with HITEC speeds up our customers time to market, helping them stay competitive and meet the needs of their customers.
Our team of expert engineers are able to make recommendations on strain gauge selection, location of sensors, orientation, wire routing and flame spray installation.
Do you have an applications you would like to discuss with our team? Complete the form below to contact us and we will be in touch!
