Rolls-royce Corporation

John R Whurr

Richard Geoffrey Stretton

Nicholas Howarth

David Michael Beaven

Chloe J Palmer

Martyn Richards

Peter Kevin Beardsley

Robert J Corin

Conor Hickey

Philip A Curnock

Faidon Mitzalis

Peter Beardsley

Philip Curnock

A complex cycle gas turbine engine for an aircraft with hydrogen fuel supply. The gas turbine engine comprises, in fluid flow series, a core gas turbine and a recuperator for heating hydrogen fuel prior to combustion by turbine exhaust products.

Fuel delivery system for delivering hydrogen fuel to a fuel injection system in a complex cycle gas turbine engine

Engine has core compressor, combustor and turbine, fan located upstream of core and supersonic intake for slowing down incoming air at inlet formed by intake, bypass duct surrounding engine core, fan generates airflow to engine core and bypass airflow through bypass duct. Engine has mixer for exhaust gas flow exiting engine core, bypass airflow exiting bypass duct, thrust nozzle for discharging mixed flows, and controller for thrust produced by engine. To change level of engine thrust between transonic push operation and supersonic cruise operation, controller adjusts one or more components which vary relative areas available for hot exhaust gas flow and cold bypass airflow at mixer while holding fan inlet non-dimensional mass flow w √{square root over ( )} T/P substantially constant, where w is mass flow of incoming air at fan inlet, T is stagnation temperature of incoming air at fan inlet and P is stagnation pressure of incoming air at fan inlet.

Supersonic aircraft turbofan engine

A turbofan engine having: an engine core having a centre axis and including in flow series a compressor, a combustor and a turbine; and a bypass duct surrounding the engine core, the bypass duct has a bypass duct exit area at its downstream end. The engine further includes an exhaust nozzle assembly including: coaxially arranged inner mixer and outer exhaust nozzles, the exhaust nozzle being axially downstream of said mixer nozzle; a core flow duct defined by the mixer nozzle, the core flow duct having a core exit area; and an exhaust duct defined at least in part by the exhaust nozzle downstream of the mixer nozzle, the exhaust duct having an exhaust throat area.

Supersonic aircraft turbofan

A turbofan engine has: an engine core producing a core exhaust flow; an upstream fan; a bypass duct carrying a bypass air flow produced by the fan; an exhaust assembly. The turbofan engine afterburner system has: a core plug; second core flow duct, and entrance(s) from the first core flow duct for diversion into the second of a portion of the core exhaust flow, and exit for re-joining the diverted portion of the core exhaust flow to the undiverted portion of the core exhaust flow; door(s) open during normal operation of the engine but closable, during a reheat operation, to block the entrances to the second core flow duct; and fuel injector(s) and igniter(s) operable, during the reheat operation, to inject and ignite fuel within the second core flow duct, providing a reheat flow into the core exhaust flow from the exit of the second core flow duct.

Afterburner system for turbofan engine

A gas turbine engine fan blade apparatus is disclosed comprising a reverse pitch rotatable mounting and an aerofoil part. The aerofoil part comprises radially inner and radially outer portions that are separated by an interface extending from a leading edge of the aerofoil part to a trailing edge of the aerofoil part. The reverse pitch rotatable mounting locates the radially inner and radially outer portions with respect to one another. The reverse pitch rotatable mounting and separation at the interface permit relative pitch change rotation between the radially inner and radially outer portions such that one of the radially inner and radially outer portions is rotatable to a reverse pitch configuration by comparison with the other portion.

Fan blade apparatus

Variation in the available mixing plane areas in an exhaust arrangement of a gas turbine engine enables alteration and configuration for better thermal cycle performance of that engine. A shaped centre fairing is associated with an exit nozzle and a bypass duct such that channels between the fairing, nozzle exit and duct can be adjusted to change the available areas. Such variation is achieved by relative axial displacement, typically of the exit nozzle using an appropriate mechanism.

Gas turbine engine variable exhaust nozzle

An exhaust nozzle assembly for a gas turbine engine, the assembly comprises a main axis, an inner nozzle, an outer nozzle, a translatable centre-body and an actuator for translating the centre-body between a forward position and a rearward position. The centre-body is disposed radially inwardly of the inner nozzle thereby partly defining an inner duct for a core engine gas flow, an outer duct for a bypass gas flow is defined by the inner nozzle and the outer nozzle. The outer nozzle extends downstream of the inner nozzle and with the centre-body defines a final mixing duct having a final exhaust exit area. When the centre-body is in the forward position the final exhaust exit area is at a maximum area, and when the centre-body is in a rearward position the final exhaust exit area is at a minimum area.

Variable area nozzle

A ducted fan aircraft compound cycle engine comprises a core engine which includes a compressor, three rotary internal combustion engines fed by the compressor and a power turbine to receive the combustion products of the rotary and combustion engines. The rotary internal combustion engines drive the compressor and the power turbine drives the fan. The engine combines the thermal efficiency of the rotary internal combustion engine with the compact size and light weight of the gas turbine engines.

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Derby, United Kingdom

John R Whurr