SBIR-STTR Award

There is a need to increase engine time on wing of aircraft engines to eliminate $1.1 billion in in operational and sustainment costs across 2,823 Air Force aircraft, while increasing availability of aircraft to assist the USAF in its mission to fly, fight, and win. Sensatek Propulsion Technology, Inc. in collaboration with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University proposes to assist the USAF Arnold Engineering Development Complex in carrying out its mission in conduct developmental test and evaluation for the nation through simulation, model, ground and flight test, from providing a propulsion health monitoring systems that features passive Radio Frequency sensors embedded for increased hot section component durability as a measurement tool to reduce life cycle costs and repair of propulsion systems. As part of this Phase I STTR, Sensatek with Embry-Riddle will identify customers and end-users within the USAF propulsion systems directorate, Arnold Engineering Development Complex, and life cycle management and sustainment operations for this advanced instrumentation system. We would tailor the Minimum Viable Prototype and create a test-plan to demonstrate its capabilities as required by the identified stakeholders. The final deliverables for this project would be a report and a 100 second video of the Phase I findings.

During AFWERX STTR Phase I, Sensatek Propulsion Technology, Inc. (Sensatek) and Research Institution (RI), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), engaged over 1,500 Air Force stakeholders that resulted in over 160 customer discovery interviews, discovered that the uncertainty involved in managing engine operations is one of the most attributing factors to the mission capable aircraft readiness. Air Force legacy aircraft weapon systems are being pushed beyond their design limits from use in military operations. This creates a vulnerability in safety and aircraft fleet readiness by exposing the engines to premature turbine blade failure, and in some cases catastrophic failure that resulted in loss of life. This causes the aircraft to be unavailable for flight due to the maintainers having to remove engine off wing and replace with a spare. In some cases, the engine with damaged blades can be shipped back to the engine maker or the depot managed by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) for maintenance, where engine can be out of service up to one year before being placed back on wing. Also, due to the uncertainty and complexities around obtaining blade metal temperature during propulsion system design and test, design and test engineers have used a temperature and strain dependent algorithm to predict the maintenance cycle on the engines. These algorithms consider data mostly taken from hot gas path temperature sensors that only have a 20% chance of survivability in the hot section of an engine. During Phase 2, Sensatek will demonstrate a propulsion health monitoring system (PHMS) for increased blade durability for Air Force stakeholders AFLCMC, AEDC, and AFRL, with participation from engine maker General Electric (GE) and Northrop Grumman. Sensatek’s solution features on-blade sensors applied as multi-functional thin film erosion-resistant coatings to enable continuous and real-time, resonant frequency-based measurement of temperature and strain in-situ on rotating turbine blades. The sensors are air plasma sprayed directly on blades and do not require a battery source or cable from being passive. The probe antenna is inserted into the engine port provided by AEDC and AFRL. The antenna probe is used to transmit and receive the RF signals from the sensors. The Software Defined Radio (SDR) provides the transceiving circuit that enables the high-speed interrogation of the sensors on rotating blades at 17,000 rpm. The software reports and exports temperature and strain in real-time. Phase 1 objectives: (1) Demonstrate 200% time-reduction in post processing data with high speed telemetry electronics software. (2) Demonstrate 1% increase in accuracy for in-situ measurements. (3) Demonstrate 300% increased survivability of hot section component