Patent ID: 8413493

Claim:
A method for identifying a defect on a turbine rotor blade of a gas turbine engine, the method comprising the steps of: operating the turbine rotor blade within the gas turbine engine in which the turbine rotor blade is exposed to a hot gas stream; identify a line of the turbine rotor blade; scan a section of the turbine rotor blade with an IR camera; identify a sub-region of the turbine rotor blade located a distance from a leading edge of the blade; determine if a defect candidate is located within the sub-region of the turbine rotor blade; if a defect candidate is located within the sub-region of the blade, determine if the defect candidate is an anomaly; determine a location of the defect candidate in relation to the identified line of the blade; and, if the defect candidate is an anomaly, determine a structure of the anomaly.