Reconstructed Order Analysis-Based Vibration Monitoring under Variable Rotation Speed by Using Multiple Blade Tip-Timing Sensors

On-line vibration monitoring is significant for high-speed rotating blades, and blade tip-timing (BTT) is generally regarded as a promising solution. BTT methods must assume that rotating speeds are constant. This assumption is impractical, and blade damages are always formed and accumulated during variable operational conditions. Thus, how to carry out BTT vibration monitoring under variable rotation speed (VRS) is a big challenge. Angular sampling-based order analyses have been widely used for vibration signals in rotating machinery with variable speeds. However, BTT vibration signals are well under-sampled, and Shannon's sampling theorem is not satisfied so that existing order analysis methods will not work well. To overcome this problem, a reconstructed order analysis-based BTT vibration monitoring method is proposed in this paper. First, the effects of VRS on BTT vibration monitoring are analyzed, and the basic structure of angular sampling-based BTT vibration monitoring under VRS is presented. Then a band-pass sampling-based engine order (EO) reconstruction algorithm is proposed for uniform BTT sensor configuration so that few BTT sensors can be used to extract high EOs. In addition, a periodically non-uniform sampling-based EO reconstruction algorithm is proposed for non-uniform BTT sensor configuration. Next, numerical simulations are done to validate the two reconstruction algorithms. In the end, an experimental set-up is built. Both uniform and non-uniform BTT vibration signals are collected, and reconstructed order analysis are carried out. Simulation and experimental results testify that the proposed algorithms can accurately capture characteristic high EOs of synchronous and asynchronous vibrations under VRS by using few BTT sensors. The significance of this paper is to overcome the limitation of conventional BTT methods of dealing with variable blade rotating speeds.