Patent ID: 8063372

Claim:
An apparatus for temperature mapping a rotating turbine component in a high temperature combustion environment of a turbine, the apparatus comprising: a thermal imager having a field of view configured to sense infrared (IR) emissions from the rotating turbine component, wherein an emissivity of a surface of the component being mapped is subject to variation in the combustion environment of the turbine; a radiance emitter arranged to define at least one spot within the field of view of the thermal imager, the spot indicative of a respective emissivity value; and a processor connected to the thermal imager to generate a radiance map of the component based on the infrared (IR) emissions from the rotating turbine component, the processor including a thermal calibration module configured to calibrate the radiance map based on the emissivity value of the spot within the field of view of the thermal imager to generate a calibrated thermal map of the component that displays absolute temperature over the surface of the component, wherein the turbine component comprises a thermal barrier coating (TBC) subject to emissivity changes, and further wherein the emissivity value of the spot within the field of view is processed by the processor in conjunction with an emissivity model of the TBC to generate a calibration function to compensate for the emissivity changes of the TBC; and thereby reduce a temperature error effect due to said emissivity changes.