In RF communications with a rotorcraft such as a helicopter, the rotor blades can impart a modulation onto the received signal called Rotor Blade Modulation (RBM). This modulation is caused by the reflection of a signal off the rotating blades. The reflected signal is Doppler shifted based on where the signal is reflected along the length of the blade as well as the angle between the axis of rotation and the emitter. RBM is known to degrade the performance of RF communications on rotorcraft and can be used in radar applications to detect and classify aircraft, but there is little on its usefulness in other areas. This thesis looks at the ability to utilize the RBM phenomenon on the rotorcraft itself to geo-locate and track a signal emitter on the ground. To do this a 3D RF ray tracing program was developed in C++ to produce simulations of RBM signals. The developed program is based on optical ray tracing algorithms with modified physical propagation effects for RF signals, and swapping lights and cameras for RF transmitters and receivers respectively. The ray tracer was then run over a realistic set of physical parameters to determine their effects on the received signal; this includes transmitter azimuth and elevation angle, receiver position, blade pitch, etc. along with their combinations. The simulations of the azimuth and elevation angle produce predictable modulations on the received signal. Based on the trends in the signal's modulation, a DSP algorithm was distilled down that accurately determines the azimuth and elevation angle of the transmitter from simulated signal data.

This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of transitional flows in the blade boundary layers of axial compressors. Two experiments are described, the first examining in detail the transitional boundary layer on a simulated controlled-diffusion blade and the second surveying the mid-height flowfield in an embedded stage of a low-speed axial compressor. The velocity distribution on the simulated blade is identical to the Velocity distribution on the suction surface of the blades in the axial compressor. At 2 Reynolds numbers and 3 levels of freestream turbulence, a single hot wire was used to conduct a boundary layer survey on a simulated controlled-diffusion blade. Integral parameters of the boundary layers are explored to dene the length and nature of transition. At low Reynolds number there is a separated or near separated region at the leading edge which does not lead to turbulence. Transition covers a length of approximately 20% of the blade chord, starting between 20% and 30% chord. The position of transition is strongly influenced by the level of freestream turbulence. Most of the transition process occurs within the decelerating flow region which exists from 20% of the chord. At high Reynolds number, a leading edge separation bubble leads to transition within 2% of the blade chord. Abu-Ghannam & Shaws correlation for the start and length of transition was found to predict the start of transition well for attached flows, but could not be relied upon for separated flows. It is apparent that the correlation was not designed for the very strong Velocity gradients in the leading edge region, and probably not for separated flow. _ Three flow conditions in the axial compressor were used: design speed, peak efficiency, low Reynolds number at peak efficiency (the machine was slowed to one-quarter speed) and design speed near the stall. Using hot wires at mid-height, axial and circumferential velocity and turbulence information was obtained. Wakes and structure within wakes are visible in the turbulence and Reynolds stress distributions. The wakes of more than one upstream blade row are visible; the region where two wakes intersect gives some information about interaction between a stator blade Wake and a rotor blade boundary layer. Some information is available about the length scale 'distribution inside and outside wakes. Secondary flow in the axial-circumferential plane shows motion within wakes and a vortex in the near-stall flowfield, shed preferentially at one point in the blade-passing cycle.

This work presents a model of the fouling mechanism and the evaluation of compressor washing on line. The results of this research were obtained from experimental and computational models. The experimental model analyzed the localization of the particle deposition on the blade surface and the change of the surface roughness condition. The design of the test rig was based on the cascade blade arrangement and blade aerodynamics. The results of the experiment demonstrated that fouling occurred on both surfaces of the blade. This mechanism mainly affected the leading edge region of the blade. The increment of the surface roughness on this region was 1.0 μm. This result was used to create the CFD model (FLUENT). According to the results of the CFD, fouling reduced the thickness of the boundary layer region and increased the drag force of the blade. The model of fouling was created based on the experiment and CFD results and was used to calculate the engine performance in the simulation code (TURBOMATCH). The engine performance results demonstrated that in five days fouling can affect the overall efficiency by 3.5%. The evaluation of the compressor washing on line was based on the experimental tests and simulation of the engine performance. This system demonstrated that it could recover 99% of the original blade surface. In addition, this system was evaluated in a study case of a Power Plant, where it proved itself to be a techno-economic way to recover the power of the engine due to fouling. The model of the fouling mechanism presented in this work was validated by experimental tests, CFD models and information from real engines. However, for further applications of the model, it would be necessary to consider the specific conditions of fouling in each new environment.

Prehistoric quarries in America are poorly understood and thus problematical to take into account when making inferences about past behavior. A microwear analysis of Clovis blades from the 2000 Texas A&M University excavations at the Gault site (41BL323), located in southern Bell County, Texas, provided a window into this problem. Texas A&M excavations on the site produced an extraordinarily large number of Clovis artifacts in two bounded geologic units, 3a and 3b. Included in the artifact types are blades, specialized elongate flakes associated with a core and blade technology. In conducting a microwear analysis of the Clovis blades from Gault, I proposed the following questions: (1) were the Clovis blades utilized at Gault?; (2) is there a difference in the use-wear patterns of Clovis blades from the geological units 3a and 3b?; and (3) is Gault, as a quarry/workshop site, a place to just obtain raw materials or did it also serve as a craft site? Observations from experiments, stereomicroscope analysis, compound microscope analysis, and SEM/EDS analysis led to answers for two research questions: (1) blades were used at Gault and (2) there is a difference between Clovis units 3a and 3b. Eight Clovis 3a blades, or 3.0% of the total Clovis 3a blade/blade fragment population (n=264), exhibit use-wear. Six Clovis 3b blades, 3.3% of the total Clovis 3b blade/blade fragment population (n=182), exhibit use-wear. In general, Clovis 3b blades were used on harder contact materials (wood to bone) than those in Clovis Unit 3a (softer contact materials similar to grass, sinew, and rawhide). The function(s) of quarries and quarry-related workshops were interpreted by William Henry Holmes as a place to obtain raw materials, while Kirk Bryan interpreted them as a place to bring other materials to work in craft activities. Following the microwear analysis of Clovis blades/blade fragments at Gault, I compared Gault to three other Paleoindian quarry-workshop sites (Wells Creek, Dutchess Quarry, and West Athens Hill). My intent is to provide supplemental data for the consideration when applying Holmes’ and Bryan’s respective hypotheses.

HVDC is usually used to link two AC power systems with same or different system frequencies. Nevertheless, even the two AC power systems linked have the same rated system frequency, the actual frequencies of the two AC systems may be different from time to time due to different load conditions. As a result, asynchronous operation occurs to the HVDC system, which leads to a lot of harmonics to be induced. The frequencies of the main harmonic are within several to several tens Hz (i.e. sub-harmonics), which coincide with the turbine resonant frequency range. Therefore, it has the potential of producing the sub-synchronous resonance phenomena. Usually, the sub-synchronous resonance arising from the excitation by the sub-harmonics currents persists only a very short period of time, thereby the induced fatigue loss would not so serious. However, due to the cumulating characteristics, the fatigue loss may reach the dangerous degree if the shafts and blades are persistently subjected to such resonance excitations. According to such a situation, the fatigue life expenditure of the turbine shafts and blades are evaluated in the thesis. It is anticipated that the potential danger of the turbine-generators in conjunction with the operations of HVDC system can be found.

A two-dimensional numerical model for compressible branching flow through a slot is described for the purpose of predicting the discharge coefficients of film cooling holes in gas turbine blades. The method employs free-streamline theory and the hodograph transformation. It calculates the area ratio of hole to duct and the contraction coefficient from a set of prescribed boundary conditions. An approximate method for calculating the compressible contraction coefficients is also discussed in the thesis. It employs the incompressible theory previously developed by McNown and Hsu (1951) for the free efflux, the 'compressibility factor' and the flow parameter (P_o-P_j)/(P_o-P₁), where P_o, P_j, P₁ represent the stagnation pressure, the static pressure of the jet and the static pressure of the approach flow, respectively. The advantages of using this method are the direct input of the area ratio of hole to duct and its speed of calculation. Experimental tests were performed using a specially designed rig in a supersonic wind tunnel. The investigations included sharp-edged slots with three different widths, a single hole and a row of two holes. The approach velocity in terms of the characteristic Mach number ranged from 0.18 to 0.58 and the pressure ratio P_o/P_j, ranged from 1.10 to 1.97. Agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical values was good to within the experimental accuracy (typically around +/- 5%) for the slots and the 2-hole configuration. For the 1-hole configuration, less bleed flow than predicted was observed, with the discrepancy varying from 7% to 18%. The latter case is a very severe test of a purely two-dimensional theory. The results for the 2-hole plate suggest that the slot theory can in fact be used to predict the flow through a row of holes with small pitch to diameter ratios.

Wind power industry is expected to be one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources inthe world. The growth specially focuses on growing industries and markets, because ofeconomical condition for wind power development besides political decisions.According to growth of wind turbine industries, wind turbine blades are growing fast in both sizeand number. The problem that now arises is how to deal with the blades at the end of their lifecycle. This Master Thesis describes existing methods of disposing wind turbine blades.Moreover, the thesis considers alternative method of disposing blades, based on environmentaland safety consideration.

Canada has aggressive targets for introducing wind energy across the country, but also faces challenges in achieving these goals due to the harsh Canadian climate. One issue which has received little attention in other countries not experiencing these extremes is the behaviour of composite blades in winter conditions. The scope of the work presented is to analyze the static stresses and fatigue response in cold climates using finite element models of the blade. The work opens with a quantification of the extremes of cold experienced in candidate Canadian wind turbine deployment locations. The thesis then narrows its focus to a consideration of the stresses in the root of the composite blades, specifically two common blade-hub connection methods: embedded root carrots and T-bolts. Finite element models of the root are proposed to properly simulate boundary conditions, applied loading and thermal stresses for a 1.5MW wind turbine. It is shown that the blade root is strongly affected by the thermal stresses caused by the mismatch and orthotrophy of the coefficients of thermal expansion of the blade root constituents. Fatigue analysis of a blade is then presented using temperature dependent material properties including estimated fatigue coefficients.It was found that the natural frequencies of a 1.5MW wind turbine blade are not significantly altered at cold temperatures. Additionally, cold temperatures slightly increase stresses in the composite blade skin when the blade is loaded, due to an increase in stiffness. Cold temperatures also lead to higher cyclic flapwise bending moments acting on the blade. However, this increase was found not to affect the lifetime fatigue damage. Finally, it was found that the cold climate as seen in Canada improves the fatigue strength of the saturated composite materials used in the blade. The predicted fatigue damage of the triaxial fabric and the spar cap layers in cold climates was therefore predicted to be half that of the fatigue damage at room temperature. This is caused solely by the temperature dependence of the fatigue coefficient b which requires further experimental verification to validate the numerical results of the current study. / Graduate

Cooling channels are designed in blades to protect the blades from damage at high temperature in a gas turbine. ELE Advanced Technology Ltd. is a UK company specialised in machining cooling channels in turbine blades using electro-chemical techniques. The wall thicknesses between these cooling channels and the surface of the turbine blade influences the performance of cooling channels and are required to be accurately machined and then inspected. At present, the company measures the wall thicknesses using a hand-held contact ultrasonic probe, which is time-consuming and not very accurate. In this project, an inspection machine has been designed and built for the purpose of automating the procedure of measuring wall thicknesses in turbine blades. The inspection machine measures wall thicknesses based on immersion ultrasonic testing technique and the actuator is a six-axis industrial robot controlled by a computer. Control algorithms have been developed to automate the entire measuring process. Acquired ultrasonic data is also automatically processed using Matlab scripts for wall thickness evaluation. However, prior to the ultrasonic measurement, the probe path has to be calculated. Matlab script has been developed to automatically calculate a probe path using a point cloud of the blade digitized on a CMM as an input. The calculation of the probe path, in general, involves triangulation, parameterisation and B-spline surface approximation. Normal 3D triangulation methods were tested; nevertheless, the results were unsatisfactory. Therefore, a triangulation algorithm is developed based on B-spline curve and 2D Delaunay triangulation. After the probe path is calculated, a localisation method, based on iterative closest point algorithm, is implemented to transform the probe path from CMM to the inspection machine. Several experiments were designed and conducted to study the capability of the ultrasonic probe. Experimental results confirmed the feasibility of using an immersion ultrasonic probe for measuring the wall thicknesses; however, the experiments revealed several limitations of immersion ultrasonic testing, such as the angle of incidence of ultrasonic waves must be maintained within an angular deviation of ±1° from the surface normal to achieve accurate test results. Wall thicknesses of three turbine blades from one batch were measured on the inspection machine. A CT scan image was used as reference to compare the measured wall thicknesses with results obtained using contact probes. The comparison showed the wall thicknesses measured on the inspection machine were much more accurate than using contact probes.

Esta pesquisa busca determinar se a película cinematográfica Blade Runner pode ser entendida como mito segundo a concepção de Joseph Campbell, bem como procura desvendar qual o significado do filme enquanto mito. Para o primeiro tópico, foi usado o método de análise textual, amparado no paradigma indiciário. Para o segundo tópico, foi feita uma comparação do Teste de Turing e do programa de conversação ELIZA, de Joseph Weizenbaum com Blade Runner. Nossa conclusão final remete à idéia da máquina como espelho simbólico do ser humano.