ENGINES, TRANSMISSIONS & PROPULSION
TURBINE REPAIR REPORTING SYSTEM WILL CUT COSTS AND BOOST CLIENT SATISFACTION THANKS TO GRANT
Patrice Flot, Chief Technical Officer at CMR Group, considers new digital sensor technology for high horsepower engine platforms.
An EGT sensor measures the temperature of the engine exhaust gas to prevent damage to critical components such as the after-treatment system, turbines and cylinder head exhaust valves. It can also be used inside the combustion chambers where hot gases are generated.
But today, while purely digital engines lie in the future, the first steps are being taken by far-sighted manufacturers, who are starting to adopt digital sensors to sit alongside traditional ones on their engines.
These sensors can incorporate unique series numbers embedded in their software and delivered with temporary addresses, or with pre-set ones. And when plugged into the CAN loop, they can easily be recognised as different sensors because of their series number, despite ‘carrying’ the same address. Software tools enable the engine builder to create the address in the factory via a PC and a simple CAN interface, address that is uniquely allocated to given and unique function on the engine.
The superior ‘intelligence’ digital sensors offer is set to herald a whole new world of possibility when it comes to new functionalities. For example, it will be possible to have the various sensors communicating with each other, sharing their respective values. This will enable them to calculate an average value and deliver pre-alarm and alarm when an individual value starts to stray too far from the mean.
The EGT sensors can also record the number of low frequency cycles (start/stop of the engine;
start/stop of voltage supply to sensor) and the high frequency combustion cycle. It can then perform residual lifetime estimation and provide the expected ‘date for change’ information, which delivers improved condition-based maintenance and longer term cost savings.
Eventually, considering that similar intelligence will be embedded in every sensor, this approach will see the possibility of splitting the software of the ECU into sub-programs that, if one sensor fails, will re-route to another one, delivering improved reliability and all round system performance.
There’s no question that EGT sensors are becoming a ‘must have’ technology to assess the health of the valve actuators for fuel injection, whether liquid or gas, and the health of the after- treatment systems on industrial engines.
Any issues surrounding digital complexities can be overcome as most engine end-users are industrial organisations, who have requisite experience in dealing with automated systems and digital device management. Indeed, we are seeing confident users, who know that sensor manufacturers such as CMR Group will provide them with easy-to-use maintenance and management tools.
Engine builders are also recognising the benefits of digital technology that facilitates rapid implementation of additional sensors, without any physical change in input/output ports of the ECU. This is allowing almost unlimited additional reserves of sensors compared to original design capabilities - the complexity of harness design is reduced as any additional sensors only require an additional harness connector, without an increase in size or additional wiring.
Finally, digitisation is pushing back the spares’ business from third parties to OEMs who are managing the whole engine control software. This is providing greater safety for the end- user thanks to the availability of original parts, while reducing instances of engine damage caused by incorrectly sourced instrumentation and component parts.
Current technologies have minimum and easy-to-use functionalities but no doubt the future will offer much more: the capability to release the ECU from its high load and support CBM systems while offering an ‘Internet of Things’ sensor that can deliver clever data to remote parts of the world, regardless of time zones.
www.cmr-group.com
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