General Electric Company

Ge Avio S.r.l.

Ge Aviation Czech S.r.o.

Eric Richard Westervelt

Stefan Joseph Cafaro

Mark Lawrence Darnell

Reza Ghaemi

Brandon Wayne Miller

Michael Anthony Benjamin

Joel Meier Haynes

Hejie Li

James Ryan Reepmeyer

Robert Jon McQuiston

David Michael Lax

Bugra Han Ertas

Harry Kirk Mathews, Jr

William Dwight Gerstler

Arthur William Sibbach

Andrea Piazza

Honggang Wang

Trevor Howard Wood

Kishore Ramakrishnan

Scott Alan Schimmels

Hendrik Pieter Jacobus De Bock

Deepak Trivedi

Rahul Anil Bidkar

Constantinos Minas

Mustafa Tekin Dokucu

Juraj Hrubec

Timothy Richard DePuy

Kalpesh Singal

Matthew Robert Cerny

Neil Richard Garrigan

Leonardo Coviello

Liling Ren

Benjamin Paul Breig

Nicholas Race Visser

Javier Armando Parrilla

Joseph Herbert Fields

Gary Quackenbush

Terry Hei Tsun Ma

Andrew Kevin Winn

Mackenzie Cumings

Mark Darnell

A propulsion system includes at least two propulsors. The at least two propulsors each comprising a fan having a plurality of fan blades. A controller includes memory and one or more processors. The memory stores instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the system to perform the following: determine a pairwise phase difference between one propulsor of the at least two propulsors and another propulsor of the at least two propulsors; generate a reference phase angle; determine a target phase shift for each propulsor of the at least two propulsors; and adjust a speed of each propulsor of the at least two propulsors based on the target phase shift until the pairwise phase difference is equal to the reference phase angle.

System and method for efficiently determining a phase shift in a propulsion system

A gas turbine engine fuel supply system can include a fuel delivery system, a thermal management system, a fuel manifold, and one or more sensors that identify one or more fuel parameters. A fuel control system can be controlled to adjust one or more parameters of the fuel based on data received from the sensors.

Methods of control for management of hot fuel

An aircraft engine includes a low pressure spool, a high pressure spool, and an alternative power source. The alternative power source is configured to add power to the high pressure spool. A controller is configured to determine a noise sensitive condition; and control, in response to determining the noise sensitive condition, the alternative power source to add power to the high pressure spool.

Gas turbine engine noise reduction

A seal monitoring apparatus is provided. The seal monitoring apparatus includes one or more pressure sensors and a controller in communication with the one or more pressure sensors. The one or more pressure sensors is mounted at a seal of a turbine to measure pressure on a first side of the seal and/or a second side of the seal. The controller is configured to receive pressure data from the one or more pressure sensors and determine a condition of the seal based at least in part on the pressure data. The controller is configured to output a signal upon determining a change in the condition of the seal.

Seal monitoring apparatus

A gas turbine engine fuel supply system can include a fuel delivery system, a thermal management system, a fuel manifold, and one or more sensors that identify one or more fuel parameters. A fuel control system adjusts parameters of the fuel based on data received from the sensors.

A method of transient control of a thermal transport bus of a turbomachine includes measuring a measured temperature and a measured pressure of a working fluid; determining a selected run state of a turbomachine, wherein the selected run state is one of a plurality of run states; selecting a desired operating condition comprising a desired temperature range and a desired pressure range as a function of a desired state of the working fluid; comparing the measured temperature with the desired temperature range, and comparing the measured pressure with the desired pressure range; and modulating control of the thermal transport bus as a function of the comparing of the measured temperature with the desired temperature range and the comparing of the measured pressure with the desired pressure range.

Transient control of a thermal transport bus

Systems and methods are disclosed for estimating or determining a rate or an amount of fuel coke formation in a fuel system, such as of a gas turbine engine. The system is operable to control a rate of fuel coke formation. The system may include a sensor that measures an operating parameter associated with fuel coke formation in the fuel system. A controller is in communication with the sensor to receive the signal therefrom for determining an amount or a rate of fuel coking in the fuel system. Based on this determination the controller may adjust the rate of fuel coke formation by adjusting the operation of the turbine engine, a thermal management system of the turbine engine, or the fuel system.

Systems and methods for controlling fuel coke formation

A gearbox assembly includes a gear assembly that includes a planet gear, a pin disposed within the planet gear, a first sensor, and a second sensor. The first sensor is disposed within the pin and is configured to produce a signal indicative of a strain of the pin. The second sensor is disposed within the pin and is configured to produce a signal indicative of a vibration of the pin. Another gearbox assembly includes a gear assembly including a planet gear, a pin disposed within the planet gear, and a strain sensor. The strain sensor is disposed within the pin and is configured to produce a signal indicative of a strain of the pin. The strain sensor is located within the pin at a circumferential location of the pin that is opposite to a location of a force acting on the pin when the planet gear rotates about the pin.

Gearbox assembly

Clearance control schemes for controlling a clearance defined between a first component and a second component of a gas turbine engine are provided. In one aspect, an engine controller of the gas turbine engine implements a clearance control scheme, which includes receiving data indicating a clearance between the first component and the second component, the clearance being at least one of a measured clearance captured by a sensor and a predicted clearance specific to the gas turbine engine at that point in time; comparing the clearance to an allowable clearance; determining a clearance setpoint for a clearance adjustment system based on a clearance difference determined by comparing the clearance to the allowable clearance; and causing the clearance adjustment system to adjust the clearance to the allowable clearance based on the clearance setpoint.

Clearance control for engine performance retention

According to some embodiments, system and methods are provided, comprising receiving one or more mission objectives for an aircraft mission, and condition data at a mission execution module; generating, via the mission execution module, a mission plan executable to address at least one of the one or more mission objectives via manipulation of a power-thermal management system (PTMS); receiving the generated mission plan at the PTMS directly from the mission execution module; and automatically executing the generated mission plan to operate an aircraft. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Intelligent mission thermal management system

A fleet mission control system for a network of aerial vehicles including power thermal management systems is provided. According to examples of the disclosed technology a control system receives one or more mission objectives for a network of aircraft including two or more aerial vehicles. Each aerial vehicle includes a power-thermal management system. The control system receives system state information for the network of aircraft. The system state information includes PTMS state data. The control system determines a set of aircraft commands for the network of aircraft based on the one or more mission objectives and the PTMS state data, and generates an output signal based on the set of aircraft commands.

Fleet mission advisor

Some embodiments provide a distributed optimization framework and technology for the control of aggregated propulsion system components that iteratively operates until a commanded propulsion-related profile is produced by aggregated components of the propulsion system. Some embodiments use a distributed iterative solution in which each component solves a local optimization problem with local constraints and states, while using global variables that are based upon information from each other component. The global variables may be determined via a distributed transaction system using component-specific information obtained from each component at each iteration. The global variables may be broadcast to the components for each new iteration.

Distributed optimal control of an aircraft propulsion system

A system, computer-readable medium, and a method including obtaining flight data for a specific aircraft for a prescribed flight; obtaining current sample measurements of at least one state or output of the specific aircraft; performing based on the obtained flight data, the current measurements or outputs, and a mathematical model accurately representing an actual operational performance of the specific aircraft and providing a predictive indication of a future performance of the specific aircraft, a control optimization to determine a cost-optimal control input for the prescribed flight; adjusting, in response to a consideration of actual operational characteristics of the specific aircraft, the optimized control input; and transmitting the adjusted optimized control input to the specific aircraft to operate the specific aircraft to minimize the direct operating cost for the prescribed flight.

Flight management via model-based iterative optimization

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Niskayuna, NY, United States of America

Eric Richard Westervelt