ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF DISPERSED EMISSION PRODUCTS OF AN AIRCRAFT ENGINE FOR DIAGNOSING ITS PARTS EROSIVE WEAR

The study of advanced diagnostic methods and tools for aircraft engines shows that spectral elemental analysis of aerosol emission products has recently become quite widespread in the engine maintenance programs of foreign manufacturers for detecting the turbomachinery parts erosive wear. To determine the elemental composition of aerosols at the gas turbine engine (GTE) outlet, opto-emission and mass spectrometric approaches have been used in various implementations. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) are recognized as the most informative and accessible laboratory methods. The most common sampling method is filtration with Teflon analytical membranes. Artificial intelligence technologies are used worldwide to identify and localize the source of the elements flow (a potential area of the GTE parts erosive wear). It has been found that the main problems of applying a multi-element analysis are associated with the sampling procedure, with the potential simultaneous element flow from several engine parts having a similar chemical composition; as well as with the variability of the “background” atmospheric aerosol composition, which is an unavoidable component of atmospheric air, especially in ground-level conditions. The article also presents the first results of the elemental analysis of aerosol particle emission samples from a modern Russian aircraft engine using the X-ray fluorescence method.