General Electric Company

Other

Honeywell International Inc.

Michael Braley

Ming Xie

Gary D Roberts

Warren Rosal Ronk

Curt Brian Curtis

Stephen Craig Mitchell

Donald George LaChapelle

Bill Russell Watson

James D Dorer

Dale Hopkins

An improved composite structure and method for making same has been provided. The provided improved composite structure has locally strengthened areas within a reinforcement region. The locally strengthened areas within the reinforcement region have load distribution devices to redistribute load in order to (i) locally strengthen an area around damage induced by an initial momentary and direct transmitted load, and (ii) limit growth and propagation of damage induced by an initial momentary and direct transmitted load during a subsequent unbalance load. The improved composite structure reduces the impact of the fan blade out phenomenon in a weight efficient manner.

Composite structure with load distribution devices, and method for making same

Articles having substantially cylindrical bodies including a plurality of circumferential layers, each layer having at least one ply of material, the material comprising a weave fabric, a non-crimp fabric, or a combination thereof.

Substantially cylindrical composite articles and fan casings

A method of fabricating a fan containment case for a gas turbine engine is provided. The method includes forming a core layer material, wrapping the core layer material about a cylindrically-shaped take-up spool, and transferring the core layer material to a cylindrically-shaped mandrel by wrapping a plurality of layers of the core layer material about the mandrel such that the mandrel is circumscribed by the layers and such that a size and a cylindrical shape of the fan containment case are defined by the layers of core layer material.

Composite fan containment case and methods of fabricating the same

A gas turbine fan blade containment assembly includes a fan case having an inner surface surrounding a jet engine fan and an outer surface. Mounted on the inner surface and across a blade containing region of the fan case is a load spreader layer for initially receiving a point load from a fan blade release (a 'blade-out event'). A band layer is mounted to an outer surface of the fan case for carrying at least a portion of a hoop tensile load on the fan case resulting from the blade-out event, and separator film layer is mounted between the outer surface of the fan case and the band layer to retard the formation of stress concentrations in the band layer. In one embodiment, the load spreader layer includes a plurality of circumferentially-arrayed load spreader layer segments.

Composite case armor for jet engine fan case containment

Methods for making articles having a substantially cylindrical body including providing a substantially cylindrical tool, providing at least one ply of a material, the material being a weave fabric, a non-crimp fabric, or a combination thereof, wrapping the at least one ply of material about the tool to produce an article preform having a plurality of circumferential layers, applying a resin to the article preform, and curing the article preform to produce an article having a substantially cylindrical body.

Methods for making substantially cylindrical articles and fan casings

A composite fan casing for a gas turbine engine includes, in an exemplary embodiment, a core having a plurality of core layers of reinforcing fiber bonded together with a thermosetting polymeric resin. Each core layer includes a plurality of braided reinforcing fiber tows. The braids of reinforcing fiber tows are aligned in a circumferential direction with each fiber tow including a plurality of reinforcing fibers. The core also includes at least one additional fiber tow braided into at least one predetermined axial location to form at least one concentrated stiffening ring.

Growing community of inventors

Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Michael Braley