CHANGING THE GAME
A new data acquisition system for turbomachinery
testing could be a game-changer in the industry
// DON PEREIRA AND SARAH DIGUER
Canadian company MDS Aero Support
Corporation (MDS) is developing data
acquisition software to improve the
efficiency and reliability of validation
testing for aviation gas turbine engines.
The internally-funded nxDAS is an
Ethernet-based data acquisition system
that is plug and play capable, highly
automated, and scalable.
Costly integration of new instruments
and the ever-increasing amounts of data
being measured are major challenges in
the turbomachinery testing arena. As
original equipment manufacturers develop
more advanced engine technologies, more
data needs to be measured and analyzed on
a near-instantaneous basis. Reliable data
needs to be captured faster, with all
required safety limit monitoring in place to
protect multi-million-dollar assets.
The turbomachinery testing industry
envelops a number of different testing
environments including component and
engine development, as well as
maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO)
engine testing. These different testing
environments have vastly different needs
when it comes to data collection. In MRO
facilities, testing requirements and
configurations are generally known ahead
of time and often repeated. In comparison,
engine development is a highly
experimental environment that requires
flexibility and scalability since the system
will need to adapt to constant program
changes. Cause and effect analyses are
extremely important when a new product
is undergoing extensive validation testing.
Recognizing this need in the engine
development industry, MDS has created
a data acquisition system to improve test
operator experience, save on long term
costs for engine developers, and advance
their development testing capabilities
in a way that hasn’t yet been explored in
this space.
A TRIED AND TRUE APPROACH
The data acquisition systems currently
deployed in a number of test facilities are
built on large, inflexible networks that
were previously designed by Tier 1
suppliers like MDS. By adopting an
alternative model called iDDS, based on
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Object Management Group’s middleware
protocol – also an API standard – called
Data Distribution Service, MDS is offering
the testing industry a means to take
advantage of this trusted solution for realtime
and embedded systems. The datacentric,
publish-subscribe protocol for
network communications was developed to
meet the requirements for mission-critical
applications such as railroad and roadway
traffic management, financial market data
distribution, and tactical defence systems.
It is also used by the Internet of Things and
various aerospace systems. By building on
top of the open standard, iDDS is able to
provide an instrumentation-specific model
for data acquisition that supports a
distributed and scalable architecture with
standard interfaces for all instruments.
In these applications of DDS – including
very specific engine testing – it’s all about
the data. Obtaining the right data, with the
right time stamp, and in the right place is
vital in these industries. In the realm of
turbomachinery testing, there are several
problems end users are experiencing that
can be solved by adopting this approach.
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
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