Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation

Sundstrand Corporation

Paul E Hilgeman

Malcolm J McArthur

Gary Lester Goldberg

Kenneth W Winston

Tarrence LaMar Mack

Bing Tong

James V Rector

David E Jeorling

Mahendra P Desai

Charles H Dutart

Timothy J Sullivan

Ronald I Vicente

Jaimer Valdez

The system and method of the present invention provides stepping speed control of a gas turbine engine to reliably light-off a gas turbine engine. During starting, the speed of the gas turbine engine is incremented by stepped amounts through the light-off window from a minimum speed value to a maximum speed value, with the speed of the gas turbine dwelling at each stepped value for a period of time before incrementing the speed of the engine to the next stepped level. If the gas turbine engine is stepped through the entire light-off window without success, the controller decreases the speed of the gas turbine engine to the minimum value and begins the process again. The process continues until successful light-off is initiated or until the light-off window is traversed a certain number of times, after which the start process is aborted.

Gas turbine starting with stepping speed control

A system and method of controlling the acceleration of a load driven by a gas turbine engine detects the existence of an overload condition and reduces an acceleration setpoint when such condition arises.

System for controlling acceleration of a load coupled to a gas turbine

In a power transmission or generation apparatus having a source of heated pressurized air, the problem of achieving rapid controlled engagement of a hydraulically actuated clutch at low ambient temperatures is solved by utilizing a portion of that heated pressurized air for heating only that small control volume of hydraulic fluid within a clutch control circuit needed to achieve rapid actuation and stable control of the hydraulic clutch. Our invention is thus particularly applicable in a power transmission or generation apparatus having a gas turbine engine, or a turbocharged piston engine as the prime mover. With gas turbine engine powered units, our invention contemplates the use of compressor discharge air, rather than exhaust products for heating the hydraulic fluid. Similarly, for piston engines our invention contemplates the use of turbocharger discharge air rather than exhaust products. In one embodiment a clutch and a control circuit are provided in which the fluid volume of the control circuit is minimized, and fluid removal features are provided to effectively drain all residual fluid from a portion of the control circuit following disengagement of the clutch. On subsequent start-up from cold ambient temperatures, the drained portion of the control circuit is filled with pre-heated fluid prior to engagement of the clutch thus eliminating problems of slow response and controllability encountered due to cold viscous fluid in prior clutch control circuits.

Hydraulic control and lubrication system with compressed air pre-heat

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Santee, CA, United States of America

Paul E Hilgeman