Discussion of the available methods for blade vibration measurement

Blade vibration has been recognized as one major and costly cause of failure in turbo-machinery. Its vibration measurement has attracted many investigators where until now there is no single reliable approach can be identified. Blade vibration measurement techniques can be classified into two broad categories, namely; (1) the direct approach that includes using strain gages, optical/laser methods, etc., to monitor directly the blade motion at one or more points on the blade span, (2) the indirect approach by extracting some vibration information form the lateral main rotor vibration and the casing/bearing cap vibration, pressure fluctuations, performance monitoring and thermal changes. Recently, a new indirect method has received attention of investigators which is monitoring the torsional vibration of the main rotor. This technique has been investigated by theoretical and experimental studies. The direct and indirect techniques are described in this survey paper and advantages and draw backs are discussed. From the results of this survey it seems that the indirect approach using the torsional vibration measurement is the most promising among all indirect techniques and further theoretical and experimental investigations are recommended.