Temperature and Pressure Measurement Techniques for an Advanced Turbine Test Facility

A high pressure, high-temperature turbine test facility is being constructed at the NASA Lewis Research Center for use in turbine cooling research. Several recently developed temperature and pressure measuring techniques will be used in this facility. This paper describes these measurement techniques, their status, previous applications and some results. Noncontact surface temperature measurements will be made by optical methods. Radiation pyrometry principles combined with photoelectric scanning will be used for rotating components and infrared photography for stationary components. Contact (direct) temperature and pressure measurements on rotating components will be handled with an 80-channel rotary data package which mounts on and rotates with the turbine shaft at speeds up to 17,500 rpm. The data channels are time-division multiplexed and converted to digital words in the data package. A rotary transformer couples power and digital data to and from the shaft.