General Electric Company

Jared Peter Buhler

Victor Hugo Silva Correia

Robert Francis Manning

Corey Bourassa

Robert Proctor

Jonathan Russell Ratzlaff

Gregory Michael Laskowski

Brian Kenneth Corsetti

Byron Andrew Pritchard, Jr

Curtis Walton Stover

Robert Carl Murray

Timothy Deryck Stone

Ronald Scott Bunker

Christopher Charles Glynn

Jason David Shapiro

Monty Lee Shelton

William Collins Vining

Marshall Scott Allen

Craig Alan Gonyou

John Howard Starkweather

Daniel Edward Demers

David Vickery Parker

John Joseph Rahaim

William Thomas Bennett

Hojjat Nasr

A turbine engine having a compressor section, a combustor section, a turbine section, and a rotatable drive shaft. A bypass conduit couples the compressor section to the turbine section. At least one centrifugal separator is fluidly coupled to the bypass stream, where the at least one centrifugal separator includes a body, a center body, a separator inlet, and a separator outlet fluidly coupled with the turbine section to output a reduced-particle stream that is provided to the turbine section for cooling. The centrifugal separator includes an angular velocity increaser, a flow splitter, a first outlet passage defined by an inner annular wall that receives the reduced-particle stream, and an angular velocity decreaser located downstream of the flow splitter. A second outlet passage receives the concentrated-particle stream.

Inducer assembly for a turbine engine

A turbine engine having a compressor section, a combustor section, a turbine section, and a rotatable drive shaft that couples a portion of the turbine section and a portion of the compressor section. A bypass conduit couples the compressor section to the turbine section while bypassing at least the combustion section. At least one particle separator is located in the turbine engine having a separator inlet that receives a bypass stream, a separator outlet that receives a reduced-particle stream flows, and a particle outlet that receives a concentrated-particle stream comprising separated particles. A conduit, fluidly coupled to the particle outlet, extends through an interior of at least one stationary vane.

A turbine engine having an inducer assembly. The inducer assembly includes a centrifugal separator fluidly coupled to an inducer with an inducer inlet and an inducer outlet. The centrifugal separator includes a body, an angular velocity increaser to form a concentrated-particle stream and a reduced-particle stream, a flow splitter, and an exit conduit fluidly coupled to the body to receive the reduced-particle stream and define a separator outlet.

An assembly for removing particles from a fluid stream includes a first particle remover having a main flow outlet emitting a first reduced-particle stream and a scavenge flow outlet emitting a particle-laden stream, as well as a second particle remover fluidly coupled to the scavenge flow outlet and emitting a second reduced-particle stream.

Assembly for particle removal

A turbine engine having a bypass fluid conduit coupled to the turbine section includes at least one particle separator located within the bypass fluid conduit to separate particles from a bypass fluid stream prior to the bypass stream reaching the turbine section for cooling. A centrifugal separator for removing particles from a fluid stream includes an angular velocity increaser, a particle outlet, an angular velocity decreaser downstream of the angular velocity increaser, and a bend provided between the angular velocity increaser and the angular velocity decreaser.

Turbine engine and particle separators therefore

A centrifugal separator for removing particles from a fluid stream includes an angular velocity increaser configured to increase the angular velocity of a fluid stream, a flow splitter configured to split the fluid stream to form a concentrated-particle stream and a reduced-particle stream, and an exit conduit configured to receive the reduced-particle stream. An inducer assembly for a turbine engine includes an inducer with a flow passage having an inducer inlet and an inducer outlet in fluid communication with a turbine section of the engine, and a particle separator, which includes a particle concentrator that receives a compressed stream from a compressor section of the engine and a flow splitter. A turbine engine includes a cooling air flow circuit which supplies a fluid stream to a turbine section of the engine for cooling, a particle separator located within the cooling air flow circuit, and an inducer forming a portion of the cooling air flow circuit in fluid communication with the particle separator. A method of cooling a rotating blade of a turbine engine having an inducer includes directing a cooling fluid stream from a portion of turbine engine toward the rotating blade, separating particles from the cooling fluid stream by passing the cooling fluid stream through a inertial separator, accelerating a reduced-particle stream emitted from the inertial separator to the speed of the rotating blade, and orienting the reduced-particle stream by emitting the reduced-particle stream from the inertial separator into a cooling passage in the inducer.

Turbine engine, components, and methods of cooling same

A blade for a gas turbine engine comprises an airfoil having a pressure side and a suction side, with a root and a tip wall. The pressure side and suction side extend beyond the tip wall to define a tip channel, defining a plurality of internal and external corners. The corners comprise fillets to define a thickness being greater than the thickness for the pressure, suction, or tip walls. A film hole can extend through the fillet, such that the length of the film hole at the fillet can be increased to define an increased length-to-diameter ratio for the film hole to improve film cooling through the film hole.

Fillet optimization for turbine airfoil

An assembly for removing entrained particles from a fluid stream passing through a gas turbine engine includes a first particle remover, a second particle remover fluidly coupled which receives a particle-laden stream from the first particle remover, and a venturi having a fluidly coupled to the second particle remover to increase the pressure differential across the assembly.

Assembly for a gas turbine engine

The present disclosure is directed to a fuel nozzle for a gas turbine engine, the fuel nozzle defining a radial direction, a longitudinal direction, a circumferential direction, an upstream end, and a downstream end. The fuel nozzle includes an aft body coupled to at least one fuel injector. The aft body defines a forward wall and an aft wall each extended in the radial direction, and a plurality of sidewalls extended in the longitudinal direction. The plurality of sidewalls couples the forward wall and the aft wall. The forward wall defines at least one channel inlet orifice. At least one sidewall defines at least one channel outlet orifice. At least one micro channel cooling circuit is defined between the one or more channel inlet orifices and the one or more channel outlet orifices.

Fuel nozzle assembly with micro channel cooling

A gas turbine engine comprising a cyclonic separator provides fluid communication between the compressor section and the turbine section. The cyclonic separator comprises an annular volume receiving a flow of cooling fluid from an inlet and dividing the airflow into a cleaner air outlet and a scavenge outlet. The flow of cooling fluid is provided to the cyclonic separator in a direction tangential to the annular volume such that a cyclonic flow of cooling fluid moves within the annular volume centrifugally separating particles entrained within the airflow to the radial outer area of the annular volume for removal through the scavenge outlet and providing a cleaner airflow to the cleaner air outlet.

Cyclonic separator for a turbine engine

An airfoil for a gas turbine engine includes a pressure side and a suction side, with a root and a tip wall. The pressure side and suction side extend beyond the tip wall to define a tip channel, defining a plurality of internal and external corners. A tip shelf can be defined in the pressure or suction sidewalls. A film hole can extend to the tip shelf, such that the film hole can be shaped to direct a flow of cooling fluid to the film hole to improve film cooling at the tip shelf.

Turbine engine with an airfoil having a tip shelf outlet

An inertial separator for removing particles from a fluid stream includes a body defining a through passage, with at least one separator inlet and at least one separator outlet, a turn provided in the body between the at least one separator inlet and the at least one separator outlet, and a flow splitter having at least one particle outlet fluidly coupled to the outside of the through passage.

Inertial separator

An airfoil for a gas turbine engine can have an exterior wall and an interior wall, with each wall having a thickness. The walls can intersect to define a corner at the intersection. A cooling passage can be defined by the walls at or near the corner to provide fluid communication between the interior and exterior of the airfoil. A film hole can be disposed in the walls and can have a length and diameter to define a ratio of length to diameter, L/D. An arcuate fillet can be located in the corner to define an effective radius for the fillet. The effective radius can be at least 1.5 times larger than the thicknesses of the walls to provide for an increased length to diameter ratio for the film hole.

Gas turbine engine with fillet film holes

A filter system and method use a filter housing that defines an interior chamber and that includes an inlet opening extending into the interior chamber. The outer air flow housing has an outlet conduit through which a flow of air having particles is directed toward the inlet opening of the filter housing along a flow direction toward the interior chamber of the filter housing. The outer air flow housing engages the filter housing such that the filter housing is separated from the outer air flow housing along the flow direction to permit at least some of the air to pass around an exterior of the filter housing and exit the outer air flow housing while the particles in the at least some of the air pass into the interior chamber of the filter housing through the inlet opening.

Growing community of inventors

Tewksbury, MA, United States of America

Jared Peter Buhler