Rolls-royce North American Technologies Inc.

Rolls-royce Corporation

Rolls-royce Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Andrew Mark Bollman

Michael James Armstrong

Douglas J Snyder

Mark Jon Blackwelder

Stephen Andrew Long

Chandana Jayampathi Gajanayake

David Loder

Eric Duane Schneider

Michael Adam Zagrodnik

Sean Guitar

A cooling system is provided in a hybrid electric propulsion gas turbine engine for cooling electrical components therein. The cooling system includes an electrical component disposed in proximity to a power generation component in the hybrid electric propulsion gas turbine engine. The cooling system further includes a vapor chamber having an evaporator portion and a condenser portion, wherein the evaporator portion is disposed adjacent to and in thermal communication with the electrical component to transfer heat away from the electrical component. The vapor chamber includes biphasic working fluid therein that transitions between liquid and gaseous states as the working fluid flows proximal to the condenser portion and the evaporator portion respectively.

Cooling system in a hybrid electric propulsion gas turbine engine for cooling electrical components therein

Energy storage systems for aircraft and methods of operating the same are provided. The energy storage system may include a main battery, a propulsion power bus, a non-critical bus, a critical bus, and an engine starter bus. The propulsion power bus may be configured to convey electricity, which is supplied by the main battery, to an electric propulsion machine configured to provide propulsion for the aircraft. The non-critical bus may be configured to convey electricity to a hotel load on the aircraft. The critical bus may be configured to convey electricity, which is supplied by the main battery, to a critical load on the aircraft. The engine starter bus may be configured to convey electricity, which is supplied by the main battery, to an electric starter for a gas turbine engine, where the gas turbine engine is configured to power the electric propulsion machine.

Energy storage system for a hybrid power system

Electrical voltage detection circuit and methods for determining the presence or absence of voltage in electrical equipment. An isolated power supply provides power to one or more voltage detection devices configured to detect voltage on one or more busses of electrical equipment. A switch is configured to provide supply voltage from the isolated power supply to the one or more busses of electrical equipment when the switch is closed. The voltage detection devices may determine if the one or more busses of electrical equipment are de-energized by detecting the voltage on the busses when the switch is open. The integrity of the electrical equipment may be verified by detecting, with the voltage detection devices, the voltage on the busses when the switch is closed, where the expected voltage readings are based on voltages being provided to one or more busses by the isolated power supply.

Apparatus and method for detecting the absence of voltage

A distributed propulsion system includes a first propulsor and a second propulsor, a first generator configured to generate a first AC current, and a second generator configured to generate a second AC current. The system includes a power regulation circuit. The power regulation circuit includes a first current path that includes a first power electronics circuit, a second current path that includes a second power electronics circuit, a third current path that bypasses the first and second power electronics circuits, and a fourth current path that bypasses the first and second power electronics circuits. The power regulation circuit also includes a plurality of switches configured to selectively couple each respective input to a respective selected output to cause a respective current to flow from the respective input to the respective selected output via one of the first current path, second current path, third current path, or fourth current path.

Selectively regulating current in distributed propulsion systems

A superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) device having a plurality of interwoven windings provides for alternative discharge paths for energy stored as magnetic fields in the windings in response to an open-circuit winding fault in one of the windings.

Fault tolerant superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) device

A system includes a DC to DC converter coupled with a load, a power source bus coupled with an input of the DC to DC converter, a capacitor coupled in parallel across an output of the DC to DC converter and a controller. The controller may dynamically adjust a bus voltage set point of a bus voltage on the output of the DC to DC converter up or down to prepare for supply of the bus voltage and energy stored in the capacitor to an anticipated load event. The load event may have a load step change that occurs in less than five milliseconds and is greater than about eighty or eighty-five percent of a rated output of the DC to DC converter.

DC to DC converter output bus voltage control system

A battery arrangement for a gas turbine engine, the battery arrangement comprising: a wall of the gas turbine engine; a thermal battery coupled to the wall and arranged to receive thermal energy from gas of the gas turbine engine; and charging circuitry configured to supply electrical energy to the thermal battery to recharge the thermal battery.

Battery arrangments for gas turbine engines

An electric propulsion system is described that includes at least one branch for distributing electrical power, provided by a power source, to one or more loads. The at least one branch is partitioned into one or more zones and comprises a plurality of branch isolation devices that are configured to isolate the at least one branch from the power source in response to a fault current at the at least one branch. In addition, the at least one branch comprises a respective pair of zone isolation devices for each respective zone from the one or more zones. The respective pair of zone isolation devices for each respective zone is configured to isolate the respective zone from the at least one branch, during a test of the at least one branch for identifying which of the one or more zones is a source of the fault current.

Fault identification and isolation in an electric propulsion system

An electric propulsion system is described that includes an AC drive circuit, a synchronization circuit, and a control unit. The AC drive circuit includes a plurality of propulsor motors, an AC power bus, and an AC generator that delivers AC electrical power to the AC power bus for simultaneously driving the plurality of propulsor motors. The synchronization circuit is configured to synchronize, with the AC generator, single propulsor motor from the plurality of propulsor motors, at a time. The control unit is configured to maintain synchronicity between the single propulsor motor and the AC generator by engaging the synchronization circuit with the single propulsor motor in response to determining that the single propulsor motor is not synchronized with the AC generator.

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Plainfield, IN, United States of America

Andrew Mark Bollman