Florida Turbine Technologies, Inc.

United Technologies Corporation

Frank W Huber

Alex Pinera

Thomas A Auxier

Friedrich O Soechting

Barry J Brown

Douglas James Dietrich

Daniel R Dillon

Paul D Johnson

Adam J Fredmonski

Robert R Sellers

A high response air angle probe to measure a flow direction in an air flow near or above Mach one. The probe is rotatably secured within an assembly with marking to indicate when a desired position of the probe within the air flow has been found. The probe includes a row of three high response pressure transducers on a leading edge region to detect when the probe is at a certain position within the air flow.

High response air angle probe

An axial tip turbine driven pump in which a first fluid pumped by an inducer is driven by a second fluid that reacts with a turbine blade extending from a shroud on the inducer. The inducer includes a set of screw thread blades and a second set of partial blades that are covered by a shroud in the aft section of the inducer. A row of turbine blades extends from the shroud and into a manifold that forms the outer casing for the pump. The fluid flow through the manifold reacts with the turbine blades and drives the inducer to pump the fluid from the inlet and through guide vanes downstream from the inducer. Fluid from a pre-burner or a gas generator used to drive a main turbine is bled off and used to drive the low pressure turbine blades and the inducer.

Axial tip turbine driven pump

A two blade row inducer for a low pressure pump in a turbopump of a rocket engine. The inducer includes a first set of blades and a second set of blades or partial blades in which the partial set of blades is covered with a shroud and the shroud includes a row of turbine blades extending outward to form a turbine to drive the inducer. The first set of blades is spiral or screw thread blades that end just upstream from the leading edges of the second set of blades covered with the shroud. In another embodiment, the screw thread blades can extend toward the aft end of the inducer and in-between adjacent partial blades in which the shroud also covers the aft ends of the screw thread blades. A second fluid reacts with the turbine blades to rotate the inducer and pump the first fluid.

Inducer with tip shroud and turbine blades

An axial tip turbine driven pump in which a first fluid pumped by an inducer is driven by a second fluid that reacts with a turbine blade extending from a shroud on the inducer. The inducer includes a set of screw thread blades and a second set of partial blades that are covered by a shroud in the aft section of the inducer. A row of turbine blades extends from the shroud and into a manifold that forms the outer casing for the pump. The fluid flow through the manifold reacts with the turbine blades and drives the inducer to pump the fluid from the inlet and through guide vanes downstream from the inducer. The fluid passing through the turbine blades is collected in an outlet collector manifold and discharged into the fluid flowing through the guide vanes. The inducer with the turbine blades is rotatably supported within the housing formed by the guide vane support member and the manifold casing. The swirl flow direction of the turbine blades is opposite to that of the swirl flow in the inducer. The structure that rejoins the two fluids redirects the turbine blade flow into the same swirl direction as the inducer flow.

A process for adjusting a throat area (the flow capacity) between airfoils in an airfoil configuration such as a stator ring used in a small gas turbine engine. The airfoils are designed with an over-extending trailing edge forming a throat area sized such that a worst case tolerances design flow area would be achieved. A fluid with a flow rate representing the actual fluid for normal operation in the airfoil configuration is passed through the airfoil throats and the flow rate is measured. A specified portion of the leading edge of each airfoil is removed until the design flow rate through the airfoil configuration is achieved. A plurality of iterations of measuring flow rates and removing trailing edge material is performed until the design flow rate is achieved.

Process for adjusting a flow capacity of an airfoil

An internally air cooled turbine blade for a gas turbine engine of the type including a trailing edge section, leading edge section and mid chord section wherein each section includes a straight through radial passage communicating cooling air from the root to the tip of the blade, and the radial passages (feed channels) on the pressure side and suction side supply the cooling air to the film cooling holes in the airfoil surface and the radial passage (feed chamber) in the mid chord section replenishes the feed channels with cooling air through replenishment cooling holes interconnecting the feed channels and feed chamber. The rotation of the blade imparts a centrifugal pumping action to the air within the feed chamber for maximizing the cooling effectiveness of the cooling air. The air discharging at the tip cools the tip of the blade and provides tip aerodynamic sealing and the leading edge and trailing edge are similarly fed cooling air.

Cooled blades for a gas turbine engine

An aerodynamic buffer zone in the gap between the tip of an air cooled axial flow turbine blade of a gas turbine engine and its surrounding shroud or seal (outer air seal) is created by discretely discharging a high velocity stream of cooling air from the tip of the blade in a judicious direction. The stream is angularly oriented relative to the plane of rotation of the turbine so that it is discharged in the gap in the direction of the pressure side of the turbine and preferably at between a 15.degree.-45.degree. angle relative to the flat surface of the tip of the blade.

Clearance control for the turbine of a gas turbine engine

The contour and dimensions of the radial-inflow turbine is obtained by an iteration process that includes calculating by use of a three dimensional fluid dynamic flow analysis the parameters that will produce the desired fluid flow velocities, pressures and other aerodynamic properties until the optimum configuration is obtained. The wrap distribution is obtained in accordance with the formulae:

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Palm Beach Gardens, FL, United States of America

Frank W Huber