Patent 9624785 was granted and assigned to Solar Turbines on April, 2017 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A system for monitoring a health of one or more seals includes a flow control valve, and a controller. The flow control valve is located upstream of the seal and disposed in fluid communication therewith. The flow control valve is configured to maintain a pre-determined fluid pressure between the flow control valve and the seal. The controller is communicably coupled to the flow control valve. The controller is configured to receive a position of the flow control valve, and determine the health of the seal based on the received position of the flow control valve.