General Electric Company

Adam Joseph Wangler

David Raju Yamarthi

Santosh Kumar Pattnaik

Mohan Kannaiah Raju

Prachi Anand Tappu

Ravindra Shankar Ganiger

Rodrigo Rodriguez Erdmenger

David Justin Brady

Shishir Paresh Shah

Bugra Han Ertas

Maysaa Rizk

Daniel Alan Niergarth

Brian Gene Brzek

Giridhar Jothiprasad

Ismail Hakki Sezal

Michael Joseph Murray

Deepak Ghiya

Sanjeev Sai Kumar Manepalli

Veera Venkata Amarnath Manem

Mohandas Nayak

Sriram K

Anantharaman M

Lokaditya Ryali

Dual compression-expansion pumps and related methods are disclosed. An example fluid pump includes a shaft, a motor coupled to the shaft, the motor to drive a rotation of the shaft, a compressor coupled to a first end of the shaft, a turbine coupled to a second end of the shaft opposite the first end, and a housing including a first inlet, a second inlet, a third inlet, a first outlet, and a second outlet, the first outlet fluidly coupled to the second inlet, the second outlet fluidly coupled to the third inlet.

Dual compression-expansion pumps and related methods

A pump system to pressurize a fluid within a closed loop transport bus is disclosed herein. The example of the pump system disclosed herein includes a pump, including an impeller, to increase kinetic energy of a fluid flowing through the impeller; an electric motor, including a rotor shaft connected to the impeller, to provide torque to the rotor shaft; a first bearing to support the rotor shaft at a first operational speed range, the first bearing coupled to an inner race; a second bearing to support the rotor shaft at a second operational speed range, the rotor shaft coupled to an outer race; and one or more sprag elements configured to: engage the inner race with the outer race at the first operational speed range; and disengage the inner race from the outer race at the second operational speed range.

Integrated bearing systems for dynamically supporting shafts in pump systems

Impeller bearings for pumps are disclosed. An example fluid pump includes a motor, a shaft coupled to a rotor of the motor, an impeller coupled to the shaft forward of the motor, the impeller including blades to pump a fluid, a first radial bearing positioned around the shaft aft of the motor, a second radial bearing positioned around the impeller, and guide vanes extending radially from the second radial bearing upstream of the blades of the impeller.

Impeller bearings for pumps

Layered barrier cans and methods of producing the same are disclosed herein. An example shroud disclosed herein includes an inner shell including a first non-metallic material, an outer shell including the first non-metallic material or a second non-metallic material, and a metal core shell positioned between the inner shell and the outer shell.

Layered barrier cans for pumps and methods of producing the same

A pump system for pressurizing a fluid within a closed loop supercritical transport bus is disclosed herein. The examples of the pump system disclosed herein include an impeller coupled to an impeller shaft; an axial flux electric motor including rotors and a stator; a rotor shaft connected to the rotors, wherein the rotor shaft is coupled to the impeller shaft; a seal to prevent the fluid from contacting the axial flux electric motor; a first housing to frame the impeller shaft; and a second housing to frame the axial flux electric motor, wherein the second housing is separate from the first housing.

Axial flux motor driven pump systems for pressurizing fluid in closed loop systems

Oil lubricated supercritical fluid pumps with oil separators are disclosed herein. An example pump system to pressurize a fluid within a closed loop thermal transport bus disclosed herein includes a pump housing, a duct fluidly coupled to the pump housing, a first portion of the duct to include a mixture of an oil and the supercritical fluid, a second portion of the duct to include the supercritical fluid, and a separator positioned in a third portion of the duct between the first portion of the duct and the second portion of the duct, the separator to separate the oil in the mixture from the supercritical fluid.

Oil lubricated fluid pumps with oil separators

Example thrust bearing apparatus includes: a thrust disk extending radially from the shaft, the thrust disk having a first side and a second side opposite the first side; a bearing housing surrounding the thrust disk and the shaft, the bearing housing having a first wall facing the first side of the thrust disk and a second wall facing the second side of the thrust disk; a first thrust pad coupled to the first wall of the bearing housing, the first thrust pad including a first plurality of serrations circumferentially arranged in a first pattern along the first thrust pad; and a second thrust pad coupled to the first side of the thrust disk, the second thrust pad including a second plurality of serrations circumferentially arranged in a second pattern along the second thrust pad.

Dual thrust bearing systems and methods for operating the same

Methods and apparatus to provide vortex cooled secondary flow for a supercritical carbon dioxide pump are disclosed herein. An example thermal management system includes a hot secondary flow extract section fluidly coupled to an outlet of a pump system, a cooled secondary flow section fluidly coupled to the hot secondary flow extract section, the hot secondary flow extract section including a vortex tube to generate cooled secondary air flow from hot secondary flow extract air of the hot secondary flow extract section, and a bearing inlet fluidly coupled to the cooled secondary flow section, the bearing inlet positioned to route the cooled secondary flow to bearings of the pump system.

Vortex cooled secondary flow for a supercritical carbon dioxide pump

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to reduce failure to bearings in a pump system. Disclosed herein is a pump system comprising a shaft connected to an impeller of the pump system, and a bearing to provide a dampening to the shaft, the bearing including a journal lining, the journal lining supported in the pump system, a spring-loaded foil to separate the shaft from the journal lining, an inner lining between the shaft and the spring-loaded foil, and a deformation limiter located between the spring-loaded foil and the journal lining.

Apparatus to reduce bearing failure

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to a flux-modulated permanent magnet clutch. Disclosed is a magnetic clutch apparatus comprising a tension spring, an outer ring coupled to the tension spring, the outer ring including a first plurality of magnets, an inner ring coupled to an output shaft, the inner ring including a second plurality of magnets, the outer ring to magnetically engage with the inner ring, and an intermediate ring coupled to an input shaft, the intermediate ring disposed between the inner ring and the outer ring, the intermediate ring including a ferrous metal.

Methods and apparatus for a flux-modulated permanent magnet clutch

Apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to power thermal management systems with heat of a working fluid therein. Example thermal management system include: a thermal transport bus loop fluidly coupled to at least one heat source exchanger and at least one heat sink exchanger; a turbomachine including a turbine and a compressor, the turbine and compressor rotatably interlocked via a shaft, the compressor coupled to the thermal transport bus loop, the turbine including an inlet and an outlet, the inlet connected to a first point of the thermal transport bus loop via a first flowline, the outlet connected to a second point of the thermal transport bus loop via a second flowline; and a control valve coupled to the first flowline, the control valve to adjust a mass flowrate of the heat exchange fluid in the first flowline based on a speed of the shaft.

Heat driven thermal management systems and methods for operating the same

Apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to dynamically support axial thrust in pumps. An example apparatus disclosed herein includes a first thrust pad, a second thrust pad, and a thrust disc between the first thrust pad and the second thrust pad, the thrust disc including a first side adjacent to the first thrust pad. a second side adjacent to the second thrust pad, an outer surface, a first channel extending between the outer surface to the first side, and a second channel extending between the outer surface of the thrust disc to the second side.

Thrust bearings to support axial thrust in pumps

Impeller bearings for pumps are disclosed. An example fluid pump includes a motor, a shaft coupled to a rotor of the motor, an impeller coupled to the shaft, a first radial bearing positioned around the shaft of the motor aft of the motor, and a second radial bearing positioned around the impeller.

Jet engine thermal transport bus pumps are disclosed. Disclosed herein is an aircraft comprising a gas turbine engine configured to burn fuel at a fuel flow rate to generate an engine power (P), the fuel characterized by a first specific heat capacity (c) and a net heat of combustion (NHC); and a thermal management system configured to transfer heat from a working fluid to the fuel, the working fluid characterized by a second specific heat capacity (c) and a first density (ρ), the thermal management system including a pump configured to generate a pump power (P) to pressurize the working fluid, and wherein 0.008≤POW/FFR≤12, FFR is between 0.05 pounds-mass per second and 16 pounds-mass per second, and ρand cis the density and specific heat capacity of water, respectively.

Jet engine thermal transport bus pumps

Apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to dynamically support axial thrust in pumps. Examples disclosed herein include a thrust bearing system including a thrust disc coupled to an impeller shaft; a first thrust pad coupled to a body of the pump, the first thrust pad positioned on a forward side of the thrust disc; a second thrust pad coupled to the body of the pump, the second thrust pad positioned on an aft side of the thrust disc; and a spring-loaded assembly integrated into the first and second thrust pads, the spring-loaded assembly connected to a pump outlet via a first flowline, the first flowline to transmit a working fluid from the pump outlet to the forward side of the thrust disc or the aft side of the thrust disc based on a position of the spring-loaded assembly.

Growing community of inventors

Evendale, OH, United States of America

Adam Joseph Wangler