Non-Harmonic Fourier Analysis for bladed wheels damage detection

The interaction between bladed wheels and the fluid distributed by the stator vanes results in cyclic loading of the rotating components. Compressors and turbines wheels are subject to vibration and fatigue issues, especially when resonance conditions are excited. Even if resonance conditions can be often predicted and avoided, high cycle fatigue failures can occur, causing safety issues and economic loss. Rigorous maintenance programs are then needed, forcing the system to expensive shut-down. Blade crack detection methods are beneficial for condition-based maintenance. While contact measurement systems are not always usable in exercise conditions (e.g. high temperature), non-contact methods can be more suitable. One (or more) stator-fixed sensor can measure all the blades as they pass by, in order to detect the damaged ones. The main drawback in this situation is the short acquisition time available for each blade, which is shortened by the high rotational speed of the components. A traditional Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) analysis would result in a poor frequency resolution. A Non-Harmonic Fourier Analysis (NHFA) can be executed with an arbitrary frequency resolution instead, allowing to obtain frequency information even with short-time data samples. This paper shows an analytical investigation of the NHFA method. A data processing algorithm is then proposed to obtain frequency shift information from short time samples. The performances of this algorithm are then studied by experimental and numerical tests.