Rolls-royce Corporation

Brian S Stratford

Edward S Hadaway

Alan R Stuart

Howard G Hartland

John Chew

The present invention relates to air bleed arrangements on a compressor of a gas turbine engine. A rotor of the compressor has a plurality of stages of rotor blades, and the rotor is formed from a plurality of axially adjacent rotor discs. Two axially adjacent rotor discs define a chamber therebetween for a radially inward flow of bleed air. The rotor is provided with a plurality of apertures in rotor disc which bleed air from the compressor and supply the bleed air to the chamber. The adjacent rotor discs have opposing radially extending surfaces, and one of the opposing surfaces has a plurality of circumferentially spaced radially extending vanes and radially extending grooves which direct the bleed air radially inwardly to minimize pressure losses in the bleed air flowing through the chamber. This arrangement is not complex, is relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture, has reduced weight and allows compressor to be manufactured by welding the rotor discs together.

Compressor and air bleed arrangement

Turbine blade shrouds are sealed by injecting air on to the shroud immediately upstream of a shroud seal. This air serves two purposes: it creates a turbulent flow immediately upstream of the shroud seal, thus spoiling and reducing the leakage flow over the seal, and the hot gases which would otherwise leak over the seal are replaced by the cooler air, thus reducing energy wastage and improving S.F.C. (specific fuel consumption).

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Derby, United Kingdom

Brian S Stratford