Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation

United Technologies Corporation

Brian P Huth

Blair A Smith

Carl Brian Klinetob

Paul A Carvalho

Gregory E Reinhardt

Phillip Alexander

Michael Parkin

Rajiv A Naik

James J Sandy, Jr

A gas turbine engine fan section is disclosed that includes a hub. Circumferentially spaced fan blades are supported on the hub. A spacer is arranged between adjacent fan blades and is operatively supported by the hub. The spacer is configured to be collapsible in response to a fan blade load exerted on the spacer in excess of a threshold load. The spacer is generally rigid at fan blade loads below the threshold load.

Energy absorbing fan blade spacer

An airfoil assembly includes an airfoil body extending between a leading edge, a trailing edge, a suction side, and a pressure side. A first sheath having an outer side and an inner side forms a cavity for receiving at least a portion of the airfoil body and is bonded on the inner side to the leading edge of the airfoil body. The first sheath is formed of a titanium-based metallic material. A second sheath is bonded to the outer side of the first sheath.

Titanium sheath and airfoil assembly

A composite fan blade having an airfoil with a leading edge and a trailing edge and a dovetail root includes a first pressure face and second pressure face, a lower horizontal face connecting the pressure faces at the bottom of the dovetail and a first and a second dovetail runout fillet connecting the pressure faces to the airfoil. The pressure faces are each angled outward at about 65 degrees to about 75 degrees from horizontal.

Composite fan blade dovetail root

The disclosed composite airfoil includes a three-dimensional composite core extending longitudinally and having a chord-wise direction. The core has a core in-plane thickness extending between opposing sides in a through-plane direction generally perpendicular to the chord-wise and longitudinal directions. A composite skin covers the opposing sides and has an exterior surface providing an airfoil contour. The skin includes a total skin in-plane thickness corresponding to a sum of thicknesses through the skin in the through-plane direction from each of the opposing sides to their adjoining exterior surface. A sum of the core in-plane and total skin in-plane thicknesses at a central portion of the composite airfoil is a total in-plane thickness. The total skin in-plane thickness at the central portion is less than 50% of the total in-plane thickness.

Gas turbine engine composite blade

An annular turbine blade tip shroud is provided having a construction for minimizing leakage of the cooling fluid and preventing ingestion of hot gases into said cooling flow. A tip shroud support ring is located on the inner surface of said casing with tip shroud members affixed thereto and encasing the blade tips. An annular metal can is located over the forward ends of said tip shroud members and has a sealing engagement with the tip shroud support ring. This annular metal can also seals with feather seals located between adjacent ends of cooperating tip shroud members. A positive metal bellows seal is also provided between downstream vanes and the outer casing. A sheet metal seal is located between each tip shroud member and tip shroud support ring to aid in maintaining proper cooling flow through the shroud.

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Westfield, MA, United States of America

Brian P Huth