The Irsching test site is an exciting place for control/instrumentation engineers. Some 2,838 sensors and associated wiring are deployed to monitor the turbine. Of these, 597 turn with the rotor, with data brought out to telemetry units at each end. Most numerous are temperature and pressure sensors (1,688 and 616, respectively), and strain-gages (357), besides accelerometers and other sensors for clearance, blade vibration, and flow/force measurement. All test information goes to onsite computers for monitoring by a small staff; then, data are transmitted for detailed analysis to Siemens facilities in Orlando and Jupiter, FL, and Mülheim, Germany. “Data flow is near real time. One hour of testing produces 90 gigabytes of data,” Fischer explains.
Since a BFR will be operating at a higher frequency (about 100 KHz in the full size unit) data streams will contain a lot more bits. Figure about 20 Mbs (megabits a second) for every high frequency channel. That is 9 GB an hour per high speed channel.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
What blows me away is that the sensor are INSIDE the turbine and turn with the buckets. I wonder how the sensors are powered and how do they return a signal under those conditions.
Billy Catringer wrote:What blows me away is that the sensor are INSIDE the turbine and turn with the buckets. I wonder how the sensors are powered and how do they return a signal under those conditions.
Power: batteries. Signal: wireless.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Billy Catringer wrote:What blows me away is that the sensor are INSIDE the turbine and turn with the buckets. I wonder how the sensors are powered and how do they return a signal under those conditions.
Power: batteries. Signal: wireless.
That's still mindblowing. Each instrument has its own transmitter and battery and the system works under the conditions found inside a gas turbine? Golly gee! Son-of-a-gun!