View article

The primary goal of the development project was to demonstrate the feasibility of detecting changes in blade bending natural frequencies (such as those associated with a blade crack) on a turbine using non-contact, non-intrusive measurement methods. The approach was to set up a small experimental apparatus, develop a torsional vibration detection system, and maximize the dynamic range and the signal to noise ratio. The results of the testing and analysis clearly demonstrated the feasibility of using torsional vibration to detect the change in natural frequency of a blade due to a change in stiffness such as those associated with a blade crack. However, it was found that harmonics of shaft operating speed, created as an unwanted artifact of the measurement method, resulted in spectral regions in which the effective dynamic range was inadequate to detect low-level torsional vibration associated with the natural frequencies. The loss of effective dynamic range was due to the “skirts” created by the sampling window. Application of order resampling, followed by frequency resampling, to the torsional vibration waveform increased the effective dynamic range and improved the ability to identify shaft torsional and blade bending natural frequencies.