CPRE 491 / CPRE 492

Project No. May0012

Graphical Output Package for Industrial Sensors

Project Design Document

Nov 30, 1999

Client:

Delavan Incorporated Des Moines, IA

Faculty Advisor:

Dr. Doug Jacobson

Team Members:

Bower, Steven Patrick (CprE)

Hall, Kenneth Eugene (CprE)

Lien, Roar (CprE)

Matus, Rich M. (CprE)

Sproul, James (CprE)

1

Document Prepared for English 314 by

Jim Sproul

E-mail:

Table Of Contents

1. Abstract

1.2 Definition of Terms

2.1 General Background

2.2 Technical Problem

2.3 Operating Environment

2.4 Intended User(s) and Use(s)

2.5 Assumptions and Limitations

2.5.1 Assumptions

2.5.2 Limitations

6. Design Requirements

3.1 Design objectives

3.2 Functional requirements

3.2.1 Data acquisition module

3.2.2 LabVIEW front panel module

3.2.3 Data analysis module

3.2.4 E-mail module

3.2.5 Data visualization module

3.3 Design constraints

3.4 Measurable milestones

4. End-product description

5. Approach and design

5.1 Technical Approaches

5.1.1 Data Acquisition Module

5.1.2 LabVIEW front panel interface

5.1.3 Data analysis module

5.1.4 Data visualization module

5.1.5 E-mail module

6. Testing criteria

6.1 Technical design

6.1.1 Data acquisition module

6.1.2 LabVIEW front panel module

6.1.3 Data analysis module

6.1.4 Data visualization module

6.1.5 E-mail module

6.2 Testing description

6.3 Risk and risk management

7. Budgets

7.1 Personnel effort budget:

7.2 Financial budget

8. Project team information

8.1 Computer engineers

8.2 Academic advisor

8.3 Client contact

9. Summary

10. References:

Listing of Figures

Figures will be listed below according to the section in which they appear

Section 1None

Section 2

Figure 2.1: LabVIEW Front Panel. 6

Figure 2.2: LabVIEW code 6

Section 3None

Section 4None

Section 5None

Section 6None

Section 7

Figure 7.1Project Schedule 21

Figure 7.2 Relationship of Software Modules 22

Section 8None

Section 9None

Section 10None

Listing of Tables

Tables will be listed below according to the section in which they appear

Section 1None

Section 2None

Section 3None

Section 4None

Section 5None

Section 6

Table 6.1Personnel Effort Budget 18

Table 6.2Financial Budget 19

Section 7None

Section 8None

Section 9None

Section 10 None

1.Abstract

Delavan Inc, a leading producer of high performance jet engine fuel nozzles, has requested our assistance in creating a new test stand for their lean blow out (LBO) testing station. LBO occurs when the incoming fuel rate is either too small or the incoming air velocity is too great to sustain continuous combustion of fuel in a turbine engine. The current test stand is completely manual that is the data must be collected by a person and recorded. This situation can have several places where errors can be introduced to the data.

To determine the LBO conditions of jet propulsion nozzles, software will be written to automatically collect data from several sensors before and after the LBO occurs. This data will graphically display the fuel flow, airflow and flame temperature during the transition from ignition to flameout. The data will be automatically entered into two and three-dimensional graphs. The graphs will be available for the local user via the computer monitor and the remote user via e-mail. The computer program will provide valuable information to the designers of jet engines by documenting conditions contributing to Lean-Blow Out. The developed software will display to engineers the correlation between fuel flow, airflow, flame temperature, and LBO of jet propulsion nozzles.

1.1 Definition of Terms

Data Acquisition Card (DAQ)

A data acquisition card allows a computer to collect electrical information from a device by converting an electrical property to a digital value. Typically a voltage is monitored from a device. This voltage is then changed to a digital number so a computer can process it. We will use it to collect data from our sensors.

Gas Turbines

Gas turbines are devices, which use the expansion of heated gas to mechanically move blades or to provide thrust. A gas turbine would contain a fuel nozzle that our software tested.

Highway Addressable Remote Transmission Protocol (HART)

HART communication protocol is used to communicate with embedded microprocessors installed in industrial controls like pressure transducers, temperature sensors, and flow sensors. With HART, it is possible for a user to read data from a remote device and also send commands to the device for re-configuration. We will use HART to talk to our fuel pressure sensor.

HiQ

Hi-Q is a 3-dimensional data-modeling package developed by National Instruments. We will use HiQ to display our 3-dimensional graphs of the test data.

LabVIEW

LabVIEW is a graphical computer-programming environment developed by National Instruments. We will use LabVIEW to create the interface between the user and the test stand. More information on LabVIEW User Manual is available in 1313 Coover Hall.

Lean Blow-Out (LBO)

LBO occurs when the incoming fuel rate is either too small or the incoming air velocity is too fast to sustain continuous combustion of fuel in a jet engine. This is the condition we are going to test for with our software. If a gas turbine engine on a jet airplane experienced LBO under normal operating conditions it would fall out of the sky and cause catastrophic damage to the plane and its occupants.

Virtual Instrument (VI)

A virtual Instrument is a name used for by the LabVIEW programming language for programs. We will use multiple VI’s to create the every part of the software package. More information on LabVIEW User Manual is available in 1313 Coover Hall.

2.1 General Background

Context

Delavan would like to design their fuel nozzles so that lean blow out occurs outside of normal operating procedures. An accurate determination of lean blow out for a particular fuel nozzle is very important in the design phase.

The current procedure for determining LBO for a fuel nozzle requires the test data to be collected manually. The current test stand does not have a personal computer attached to it. After a completion of a test the user must manually enter the data into specially written spreadsheet programs.

Problem

The current data being collected is the fuel flow and airflow only. The approach of collecting only fuel flow data and airflow has limited engineering value. The current approach can take several minutes and must be done after the test on a particular component is completed. A limitation of the current system is the unavailability of test stand data to engineers located far from the testing station. If an engineer located across the city, state or continent, needs access to the test data. They first need to talk to the engineer who has the data. This engineer then needs to find the specific data requested from the large amount of test information available to them and then send it to the engineer requesting the test stand data via courier, fax or e-mail. Delays of hours or even days are possible with this approach.

Solution

The introduction of the personal computer (PC) to this particular test stand will help alleviate some of the current drawbacks.

  • The PC can enter data into the formulas much faster than a human can.
  • The PC can achieve much higher accuracy, virtually eliminating the transposing of numbers.
  • The PC will also allow the use of higher precision numbers.
  • The PC can perform the necessary calculations immediately after the test in seconds.
  • The PC can perform PASS/FAIL analysis on the data immediately after the test run is complete.
  • The data can be stored on the hard drive of the PC so all the device characteristics for each test are in one place. This enables personnel to quickly locate the information needed.
  • The PC can also fax or e-mail the data to requesting party immediately after a test has been completed. This effectively solves the geographical problem of access and the time delay of locating and transmitting the requested documents.
  • The PC can collect data from other variables. These variables, which are active during the test help, make a more accurate prediction of LBO.

All of these points described above are beneficial to a research and development environment, where new design prototypes are profiled. This profiling determines if a new design meets the design criteria and whether further design changes are needed.

2.2 Technical Problem

We feel that the use of the LabVIEW programming environment, many of the current problems, can be significantly reduced or even eliminated. LabVIEW was selected because of its current use by the client company and also by many of the client’s customers in the aerospace industry. Another reason for its selection is the large number of add-on computer languages, which can interface with it (C, C++, Visual C++, Visual Basic, Mathematica, Hi-Q, HL-Link etc, Excel 97). LabVIEW was designed with the engineer in mind it allows the user to quickly create testing program using its many predefined functions.

LabVIEW modules can be written to perform the same calculations performed by specially written programs currently being used. These calculations can take place as the data is acquired instead of after the test stand routine is completed. This allows the user to vary inputs as the test is running if desired. LabVIEW can also automatically track the varying inputs and give real-time feedback to the user. After the test is completed, LabVIEW will write to a file, formatted in Excel 97 format. This archives the test data and makes it available for e-mail or fax.

Figure 2.1: LabVIEW Front Panel. Figure 2.2: LabVIEW code

Figures 2.1 and 2.2 show screen shots of the LabVIEW programming environment. Figure 2.1 shows the graphical user interface that will be displayed to the user. Figure 2.2 shows the actual graphical code used to design the interface.

2.3 Operating Environment

The finished product will operate under the following conditions.

  • The test stand being used will have a personal computer connected to temperature and flow sensors.
  • The computer will be exposed to temperatures typically found in manufacturing environments (60 to 85 F.).
  • The test stand will not be exposed to outside weather elements or rain. High humidity exposure (above 50% relative humidity) is possible during summer months.
  • The CPU operating system will be either Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 95.
  • The CPU type and speed will be Pentium class and 200 MHz or greater.
  • The CPU RAM requirements will be 32 MB (minimum).
  • The computer will be connected either to intranet or internet by networking or by modem for dial-up access.

2.4 Intended User(s) and Use(s)

This software will be intended for aerospace and mechanical engineers and technicians, working in research and development. It is intended to cut design time down significantly by visually displaying the operation characteristics of the jet nozzle being tested. This software will quickly show an engineer the characteristics of the nozzle being tested. Any undesirable characteristics will be visible to the user through 2 and 3 dimensional graphs. All of this will allow the engineer to quickly make a recommendation for or against a particular design. It will also archive the test data to an Excel 97 formatted file for easy transfer to other PC’s.

2.5 Assumptions and Limitations

2.5.1Assumptions

  1. A research and development design team will use software to aid design prototyping.
  2. Software will display data visually to accelerate design prototyping.
  3. Software will display flow, flame temperature, and pressure inputs with the resulting response of the device under test.
  4. Test data will be stored in Microsoft Excel 97 format on the local hard drive.
  5. The minimum number of points per unit time will be one point per second.
  6. The maximum number of values recorded will depend upon the length of the test. Maximum number of data points is 600 points, (10 minutes of data collection).
  7. The maximum accuracy will be based on the data rate flow computer.
  8. Software will e-mail test data to selected recipients at end of test.
  9. Maximum number of sensors will be twelve.

2.5.2 Limitations

  1. The visual display of data will illustrate for the user only the large-scale characteristics of a specific device. It will not display any inflection points. The use of special analytical software is required to perform this analysis.
  2. The software will not perform any statistical functions outside of the most primitive i.e. maximum and minimum data values. The use of special statistical software is required to perform this analysis.
  3. The software will have accuracy to 3 decimal points on all data from the sensors.
  4. A max of 600 data point will be allowed per test run. At a rate of 1 data point per second this give the user a 10-minute window to achieve LBO.
  5. The maximum number of sensors is 12 HART devices and 12 analog devices. We are currently using 1 HART sensor and four analog sensors to complete the test.

3.Design Requirements

3.1 Design objectives

The project can be broken down into 5 basic modules. The design objective for each of these design objectives are listed below

  1. Develop data acquisition module
  • This module is needed to eliminate operator fatigue and possible operator error when reading and entering sensor data.
  1. Create LabVIEW front panel module.
  • The objective of this module is to display test results immediately to the user at the test stand.
  • The data will be in the form of 2D graphs.
  • Data will be graphed magnitude vs. time based upon user-selected options.
  1. Create data analysis module
  • This objective is to minimize lost test records and the time latency between data acquisition and data recording.
  1. Create e-mail module
  • The data will be sent electronically to clients automatically upon test completion
  1. Create data visualization module
  • The 3D charts will allow the user to select the type of test data to be modeled.

3.2 Functional requirements

3.2.1 Develop data acquisition module

  1. This module will obtain data from pressure, flow, and temperature sensors.
  2. The flow and temperature sensors will be read via an analog-to-digital acquisition card in the PC.
  3. The pressure sensor will be read via a HART modem using the HART communication protocol.
  4. Create a panel to access the HART configuration screen. This screen will allow the user to write configuration data to the HART devices.
  5. The Hart configuration screen will enable the user to read from the HART devices to verify that the configuration is correct.
  6. All configuration inputs will have error checking to allow notification of errors when detected.

3.2.2 Create LabVIEW front panel module

  1. This module will display data to the user at the test stand based upon the user’s selection.
  2. This module will take data from the sensors at a rate of 1 sample per second.
  3. This module will display data based on the user’s selection of sensor data.
  4. The user will select what sensors to display on the 2 dimensional graphs. Possible selections are shown below:
  1. Fuel flow (pounds per hour) vs. LBO.
  2. Air flow (in H20) vs. LBO.
  3. Flame temperature (Fahrenheit) vs. LBO.

3.2.3 Create data analysis module

  1. This module will ask user if they want each data run saved to file.
  2. The file format for each save data operation will be both in Excel 97 format and text format.

3.2.4 Create e-mail module

  1. This module will prompt the user for e-mail recipients to send test data.
  2. This module will send test data electronically using existing email technology

3.2.5 Create data visualization module

  1. This module will take the two dimensional array of data already collected and convert it into a 3D graph (Surface) using the HI-Q software.
  2. The user will have the ability to specify which data is plotted on each axis.
  3. The user will be able to rotate the 3D graph.

3.3 Design constraints

  1. This project must be done by April 2000.
  2. The project must use the LabVIEW programming environment or a language that is compatible with LabVIEW.
  3. The computer must have Microsoft Excel 97 loaded.
  4. The computer must have access to internet through a modem.
  5. The computer must have a data acquisition card installed.
  6. The time stamp on data will have the accuracy of the on-board PC system clock.
  7. The computer must have NT, Windows 95 or 98 operating system installed.
  8. The computer will have functional software stubs to simulate any sensors not physically connected to system.

3.4 Measurable milestones

  1. Establish HART communication to compliant devices. (15%)
  2. Establish analog-to-digital communication with rest of sensors. (5%)
  3. Complete first draft of LabVIEW front panel module. (5%)
  4. Complete second draft of LabVIEW front panel module. (3%)
  5. Complete the minimum and maximum scanning of data. (3%)
  6. Complete the implementation of the 2D graph. (8%)
  7. Finish the data structure given to the data visualization module. (3%)
  8. Implement the file output in both Excel 97 and text format for the data analysis module. (3%)
  9. Finish all documentation down to individual function level. (10%)
  10. Implement the data visualization module with the ability to display user-selected parameters for each of the 3 axes. (20%)
  11. Finish the e-mail module. (20%)
  12. Team to meet with client one-third into 2nd semester for design review. (3%)
  13. Team to meet with client two third’s into 2nd semester for design review. (2%)

4. End-product description

A new software tool has been developed to give design engineers more useful information to aid in the design of jet nozzles. This software collects data from multiple sensors during the LBO test. These sensors monitor the fuel pressure, fuel flow, airflow, and flame temperature. The test data is plotted on 2D & 3D graphs allowing the engineers to visualize the data. When a test has completed the test data will be emailed to specified clients.

5. Approach and design

5.1Technical Approaches

The technical approach will be selected after conferring with the client company’s representative. The criteria used will be the software, which is compatible with their customers existing software and also the prevalent software at Delavan. The selection will be made at beginning of the second semester.