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Temperature Measurement Problems In An Aero Gas Turbine Engine

Conference Paper · December 2004

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 Proceedings of International Conference on Instrumentation INCON 2004, Dec 19-21, Pune
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT PROBLEMS
IN AN AERO GAS TURBINE ENGINE
R.K. Mishra, S. Elangovan and U. Nagesh
Gas Turbine Research Establishment, Bangalore-560093
Abstract: The operating temperature at different
stations inside an aero gas turbine engine varies
significantly. The temperature and pressure levels at
various components limit the life and greatly control the
thrust and overall performance of the engine. It is
mandatory to test the engine for its performance
validation prior to its integration in the airframe.
Therefore it is very essential to measure and monitor the
temperatures at every station very accurately. The
number of temperature probes and number of sensing
points in each probe is dictated by the passage geometry.
At certain locations of the engine though it is desirable to
measure the temperature, but neither it is possible nor it
is recommended to install probes. This paper describes
the methods and techniques adopted for measuring
temperature in an aero gas turbine engine during testing
at ground test bed. This paper also highlights the
limitations of instrumentation and difficulties encountered
during the testing.
Key words: Gas turbine engine, turbine entry
temperature, and thermocouple.
1. INTRODUCTION
The aero gas turbine engine developed for a modern
fighter aircraft is meant for operation in all weather
condition and to take off from un-prepared airfields at sea
level to high altitude airfields. To complete the mission it
has to undergo different maneuvers in the altitude and
experience high altitude ambient conditions. The engine
cycle starts from ground idle to full load take-off and
maneuvering at high altitude conditions. In case of flame
extinction, all components momentarily experience the
ambient condition till the pressure and temperature build
up after relight. The engine components experience a
wide range of operating conditions and measuring and
monitoring these temperatures very accurately is essential
from the performance point of view and also from the
health monitoring point of view. To meet the preliminary
flight rating test requirement of an aero gas turbine
engine, the components as well as the full engine must be
extensively tested in test facilities to validate their design
objectives and to evaluate their design and off-design
performances before its integration to the airframe. In
view of this, the engine is tested at normally aspirated
mode in the ground test bed.
This paper contains the details of instrumentation
provided for the measurement of temperature at various
stations of the engine. Due to the complicated flow
passages at different locations inside the engine and
availability of space and mounting of probes, engine
instrumentation has become a difficult task. This paper
also describes the limitations of the conventional
instrumentation with respect to engine testing.
Sophisticated new diagnostic techniques such as Raman
scattering and laser Doppler velocimetry, radiation
pyrometer etc. are expected to provide new and important
information for velocity, temperature and gas composition
in engine combustor models. [1][2] However, because of
their complexity and expense and also mounting
difficulties, their use is restricted to model testing in
laboratory stage. It is clear that the conventional methods
of using probes will continue to find application and
consequently, there is incentive to refine these techniques
and expand their range of applicability.
2. ENGINE CONFIGURATION
The aero gas turbine engine under study is a two-spool
bypass turbofan engine having a low-pressure compressor
driven by a low-pressure turbine. The core engine consists
of transonic compressor driven by high-pressure turbine.
The engine is a variable cycle-flat-rated engine and is
controlled by full authority digital control unit. The
engine is provided with a compact annular combustor
with airblast atomizers for uniform outlet temperature
profile and reduced emission. The engine is fitted with an
Afterburner
Figure 1 Configuration of an Aero Gas
Turbine Engine
1
 Proceedings of International Conference on Instrumentation INCON 2004, Dec 19-21, Pune

afterburner to augment thrust during take-off and other 4. TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT IN

critical operations. The configuration of an aero gas ENGINE
engine is shown schematically in fig.1 with its major
components. The variation of air temperature at different stations of the
engine during the ground idle, max power and one typical
3. TEST FACILITY altitude condition is shown in figs.3. The max power
condition with afterburner “On” is also shown in the
The engine test facility is fully equipped for testing full- figure.
scale engine under normally aspirated mode. The test
2400
facility has a number of sub systems such as dedicated Ground Idle
engine control system, data acquisition, data recording Max Power
Altitude
2000
and data processing system, fuel system, oil system etc. Afterburner On

The data acquisition system caters nearly 1000 channels 1600

of measurements comprising of air pressures, air

Temperature(K)
temperatures, fuel pressure, fuel flow rate, fuel 1200
temperature, oil pressure and temperature, shaft speeds
etc. A number of critical parameters are closely monitored 800

during testing. The engine mounted on the test facility

with extensive instrumentation is shown in fig.2. 400

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Engine Stations

Figure 3 Variation of Temperature along the Engine

where stations 0 to 7 represent the ambient, low-pressure
compressor inlet, high-pressure compressor inlet, high-
pressure compressor exit, turbine entry, turbine exit, jet
pipe entry and jet pipe exit planes respectively.

As it is evident from the figure, the ambient temperature

varies from 303 K at sea level to 217 K at an altitude
beyond 11 km. Similarly; the turbine entry temperature
varies from 900 K at ground idle to a maximum of 1700
K at max power condition. With an average of 1700 K
temperature, the local gas temperature may reach 2100 K
Figure 2 Engine mounted on the test facility at turbine entry. The jet pipe exit temperature generally
varies from 600 K to 1000 K under normal operation. But
Engine instrumentation parameters include: with the activation of afterburner combustion, this
temperature may go beyond 2100 K.
 Temperature
 Pressure To cover this large range of temperatures, different types
 Vibration of thermocouples are used at different stations. But
 Strain Gauging sometimes the thermocouple selected for a particular
 Engine Accessories location gives best readings under normal operating
 Skin Temperature conditions but is found to be out of range at extreme
 Fuel System Instrumentation conditions. Copper-Constantan thermocouples are
 Integrated Nozzle Actuation System generally used for temperature measurement of ambient
Instrumentation air and at compressor inlet. Most of the medium range
 Lubrication System Instrumentation temperatures and skin temperatures are measured by
using Nickel-Chromium (Chromel) and Nickel-
All the sensors and instruments are strictly calibrated to Aluminium (Alumel) thermocouples. Platinum –Rhodium
meet the measurement stipulated by MIL-E-5007E thermocouples of different combinations are generally in
standard. use in the engine hot regions. Single point grounded
thermocouples of each type is shown in fig.4. The
Chromel-Alumel thermocouples are gradually being

2
 Proceedings of International Conference on Instrumentation INCON 2004, Dec 19-21, Pune
replaced by Nickel-Chromium and Nickel-Silicon-
Magnesium thermocouples for their better performance
and stability.
a.Copper-Constantan type b.Chromel -Alumel type
c. Platinum –Rhodium type
Figure 4 Different types of thermocouple probes used
in Engine
At jet pipe entry and exit where radial variation of
temperature is also important, Kiel type probes having 4
to 9 sensing points are used. These multipoint probes are
designed as per Bristol Syddeley standard. [3] In order to
have high response, thermocouples with exposed
junctions are also used in these probes. The life of such
thermocouple junctions are very less and of the order of 2
to 3 hours at elevated temperature. A typical 5-point
Platinum13%Rhodium-Platinum thermocouples probe is
shown in fig.5.
Figure 5 Typical Multi point Platinum–Rhodium
thermocouple probe
Similar probes are used during combustor stand-alone
tests to measure the exit gas temperature, but installation
of such probes in engine is not feasible due to space
constraint. [4] The gas temperature in the combustor
primary zone and temperature in afterburner when it is
„On‟, go beyond 2100 K. To measure this high
temperature, generally Tungsten-Tungsten6%Rhodium
thermocouples are used. The selection of sheath material
is very important in this type of thermocouples. High
temperature ceramic sheathed thermocouple assemblies as
shown in fig.6a gives reliable measurement under engine
environment. Impervious mullite and impervious
recrystallised alumina sheaths are very suitable for this
application whose maximum operating temperature are
1900 K and 2100 K respectively. Alternatively, water
cooled probes can be used in engine during ground tests.
[5]
The main drawback of the ceramic probes is that they are
highly brittle. The probes may break during testing; one
such probe is shown in fig.6b. In gas turbine due to the
presence of by-pass duct, the probe length is to be more.
To measure temperature in core region the probe has to
pass through by-pass duct. This causes the probe stem to
experience differential thermal and pressure load leading
to bending and failure of the probe. In recent years, the
development of Laser instruments and pyrometers has
helped for engine diagnosis and health monitoring. Some
of these instruments require a quartz window in the casing
and signal cables are to be routed from the core casing
through the by-pass duct. Fixation of quartz window on
metal casing is a difficult task. Because of these
complexity and mounting problems on the engine casing,
their use is restricted to model testing in laboratory stage.
The metal temperature of combustor liner, afterburner
liner, by-pass duct and nozzle guide vanes are some of the
important parameters of gas turbine engine and their
accurate measurement is desired for heat transfer analysis
as they are the life limiting components of the engine.
Figure 6 High temperature ceramic-sheathed
thermocouple assemblies before and after test
But routing the thermocouple cables inside engine is a
difficult task and more number of cables would cause
flow disturbance. Figure 7 shows the combustor liner with
embedded thermocouples. Due to the limitations in using
more number of thermocouples on liner, temperature
3
 Proceedings of International Conference on Instrumentation INCON 2004, Dec 19-21, Pune
sensitive paints are generally applied on liner surface that
gives a good mapping of temperature contours.
Figure 7 Embedded thermocouples for Liner
temperature measurement
In engine, only some few vanes are generally welded with
thermocouples. Presence of thermocouple cables restricts
the cooling passages and affects the cooling effectiveness.
5. LIMITATIONS IN INSTRUMENTATION
Due to the complicated flow passages in the engine and
limitations in the conventional instrumentation, the
following difficulties are encountered during engine
testing. These are to be replaced by advanced non-
intrusive measurements techniques in future.
 More number of sensing points in temperature probes
is desired within the available passage height for
better averaging and plotting of temperature profiles.
 Flame temperature in the combustion chamber
primary zone and gas temperatures inside the flame
tube are to be measured.
 Installation of temperature probes at turbine entry is
not feasible. Traversing cooled temperature probes
are used at combustor exit plane in combustor stand-
alone tests but are not recommended for use in
engine.
 Routing the combustor liner thermocouple cables
through the combustor end flange is a difficult task
and restricts the number of channels that can be
practically welded to the surface. Also more number
of cables would cause flow disturbance in the
annulus passages.
 Measurement of surface temperature of nozzle guide
vanes restricts the cooling passages causing erosion
of the instrumented vanes.
 Thermocouples used for high temperature
measurements need to be corrected for radiation.
 In afterburner, gas temperature goes beyond 2100 K,
which no standard thermocouple can measure.
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 Laser instruments and radiation pyrometer etc are yet
to come into use in practical gas turbine engines.
 Calibration of thermocouples is mandatory prior to
their use in aero gas turbine engine. But calibrating
the thermocouples at elevated temperatures may
deteriorate the properties of thermocouple itself.
6. CONCLUSION
Engine should be instrumented extensively and
judiciously to evaluate its performance effectively. The
following conclusions are drawn on instrumentations
based on the full-scale engine testing in the test facility.
 Use of conventional temperature measurement
systems during engine testing has resulted in very
useful input.
 Conventional measurement techniques pose
difficulties for measuring temperature in the
complicated passages of engine.
 Measurement of high temperatures in engine is a
challenging job.
 Sophisticated laser techniques are yet to be used in
practical full-scale aero gas turbine engine testing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are highly grateful to the Director, GTRE for
his kind permission to publish this technical paper. They
are also very grateful to the staff of Test Facilities, GTRE,
for their help during the engine and component testing.
REFERENCES
[1] Jan B. Kennedy, „Combustion Instrumentation‟, von
Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Lecture series
1990-02, vol.2, pp1-39.
[2] Alan C. Eckbreth, Robert J. Hall and John A. Shirley,
„Investigation of Coherent Anti-stokes Raman
Spectroscopy for Practical Combustion Diagnostics‟,
AGARD-CP-281, September 1980, pp18-1 to 18-14.
[3] “Design standard for Instruments”, Bristol Syddeley
Engines Ltd, Aero Division, UK, 1969.
[4] R.K. Mishra et al., „Instrumentation of full scale
annular aero gas turbine combustor for performance
validation tests‟, 27th National Symposium on
Instrumentation, Bharathiar University, November
2002.
[5] K. Anil kumar, et al, „Design and development of
water cooled probes for high temperature, high
pressure application‟, 27th National Symposium on
Instrumentation, Bharathiar University, November
2002.