Patent ID: 8511177

Claim:
A system facilitating action to minimize operational risk associated with latent blade damage in a bladed turbine, comprising: a sensor, disposed on or within a rotating blade, for measuring strain on said rotating blade; a sensor, disposed on or within said rotating blade, for measuring position of said rotating blade; a wireless data link for transmitting data representing the measured strain to a remote location; a system for synchronizing the collection of torsional strain data by said sensor for measuring strain to blade position as determined by said sensor for measuring position of the rotating blade such that said torsional strain data is collected only at predetermined positions of said rotating blade; and a control element, having stored therein safe blade operation parameters, and configured to analyze operational condition of the rotating blade based on said synchronized torsional strain data and blade position over multiple rotational cycles of the rotating blade and compare said operational condition to said safe blade operation parameters, said control element further configured to trigger a predetermined action when said operational condition is determined to be other than within said safe blade operation parameters.