This report on the Sumatra-Andaman great earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004 describes the event and its impacts in southern Thailand. It includes the observations of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Reconnaissance Team gathered one month after the event. The report covers the effects of the tsunami on the natural and built environment, and the recovery process in relation to social and economic issues. Lessons applicable to the understanding and potential mitigation of tsunami risk in New Zealand are presented and discussed.
Turbine blades and nozzle guide vanes (NGVs) are operated at extreme temperatures in order to maximise thermal efficiency and power output of an engine. In this paper the suitability of existing temperature monitoring systems for turbine blades and nozzle guide vanes are reviewed. Both offline and online methods are presented and their advantages and disadvantages are examined. The use of offline systems is well established but their online equivalents are difficult to implement because of the limited access to components. There is the need for an improved sensor that is capable of measuring temperature in real time with minimum interference to the operating conditions of the engine, allowing operating temperatures to be increased to the limits of the components and maximising efficiency. Acoustic monitoring techniques are already used for a large number of structural health monitoring applications and have the potential to be adapted for use in temperature monitoring for turbine blades and NGVs. High temperatures severely affect the response of ultrasonic transducers. However, waveguides and buffer rods can be used to distance transducers from extreme conditions, while piezoelectric materials such as Yttrium Calcium Oxyborate single crystals and Aluminum Nitride have been developed for use at high temperatures. A new monitoring approach based on ultrasonic guided waves is introduced in this paper. The geometry of turbine blades and NGVs allows Lamb waves to propagate through their structure, and the presence of numerous cooling holes will produce acoustic reflections that can be utilised for monitoring temperature at a number of locations. The dispersive nature of Lamb waves makes their analysis difficult; however, wave velocity in dispersive regions is particularly sensitive to changes in temperature and could be utilised for monitoring purposes. The proposed method has the potential to provide high resolution and accuracy, fast response times, and the ability to place sensors outside of the gas path. Further research is required to develop a monitoring system based on the use of guided waves in extreme environments.
The computer modelling of condition monitoring sensors can aide in their development, improve their performance, and allow for the analysis of sensor impact on component operation. This article details the development of a COMSOL model for a guided wave-based temperature monitoring system, with a view to using the technology in the future for the temperature monitoring of nozzle guide vanes, found in the hot section of aeroengines. The model is based on an experimental test system that acts as a method of validation for the model. Piezoelectric wedge transducers were used to excite the S0 Lamb wave mode in an aluminium plate, which was temperature controlled using a hot plate. Time of flight measurements were carried out in MATLAB and used to calculate group velocity. The results were compared to theoretical wave velocities extracted from dispersion curves. The assembly and validation of such a model can aide in the future development of guided wave based sensor systems, and the methods provided can act as a guide for building similar COMSOL models. The results show that the model is in good agreement with the experimental equivalent, which is also in line with theoretical predictions.
Increasing the perforation ratio of the composite bone changes the resonance frequency and the amplitude of the composite bones. Similar results can be observed at 20 cm along composite bone.
A preliminary investigation has been carried out to understand the effect of temperature on the propagation of Lamb waves, which will propagate through the structure of an NGV.
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