Patent ID: 9587511
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: F01D,F05D,G01B,Y10T

Claim:
1. A turbomachine comprising: a rotor having a plurality of blade stages; a stator surrounding the rotor, the stator including a lower stator shell and an upper stator shell; an in situ clearance sensor system for determining a cold clearance between the rotor and the stator at each of a plurality of clearance measurement points, wherein each of the plurality of clearance measurement points is disposed at a position axially spaced from each other clearance measurement point, the in situ clearance sensor system including a plurality of voltage drop sensors, wherein a voltage drop sensor is disposed at each clearance measurement point in the plurality of clearance measurement points, and the voltage drop sensor at each clearance measurement point is embedded into one of the lower stator shell or the upper stator shell such that a radially outer edge of the voltage drop sensor is substantially flush with an inner surface of the upper or lower stator shell in which the voltage drop sensor is embedded, wherein the voltage drop sensor at each clearance measurement point is axially aligned with a rotor blade tip of an upstream stage of blades, and the voltage drop sensor is configured to measure a voltage drop across a clearance between a tip of the voltage drop sensor and the rotor blade tip; and a plurality of displacement adjustment devices axially spaced from each other, for displacing a position of one of the upper stator shell or the lower stator shell relative to a foundation and based on the clearance determined by the in situ clearance sensor system, thereby adjusting the cold clearance between the rotor and the stator.