Paddle Wheel Blade with Sensor Attached |
VEXTEC's small turbine testing offers a quick, inexpensive way to test instrumentation prior to using it in a very expensive full size gas turbine. If the instrumentation fails in our rig, the costs are fairly small, so it makes economic sense to verify instrumentation before the real test. In a program with Environetix, VEXTEC's rig was used to evaluate a new adhesive to attach sensors to turbine blades. For this testing, sensors were attached with the adhesive to "Paddle Wheel" blades. Since the blades are rotated by the electric motor in our rig instead of the air flow, they do not need to have an airfoil shape. Paddle wheel blades have a simple flat shape, and a dovetail type attachment at the base. |
Split Rotor with Blades |
VEXTEC used a split rotor design to hold these blades. The rotor has two halves which are bolted together. Shown on the left is a split rotor bolted together with 10 test blades. To put the blades into the rotor, the 6 bolts are removed so that the rotor halves can be separated. The blades are then placed between the 2 rotor halves, which are bolted back together. By using paddle wheel blades & the split rotor, VEXTEC was able to significantly shorten the lead time & reduce expense for this program. |
Attached Sensor Pre-Test 
Attached Sensor Post-Test |
These airfoils were subjected to increasingly hostile conditions,
with optical inspections before stepping up to a more demanding condition:
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