United Technologies Corporation

Peter T Vercellone

Wesley D Brown

Edward C Hill

Richard S Myers

Christopher D Mize

William W Pirsig

A buffer zone disposed between the TOBI (tangential on-board injector) discharge cavity and the forward rotor cavity of a gas turbine engine serves to maintain the TOBI air relatively pollutant free by judiciously controlling the flow to maintain the pressure of the buffer cavity below the adjacent cavities. The buffer cavity air and the forward rotor cavity air are bled to the dead rim area of the turbine rotor disk through tangentially oriented discharge ports formed in the circumferentially spaced plenums formed in the stator support. Plates on the bottom of some of the plenums block off the flow from the forward rotor cavity and buffer air from the buffer cavity flows through these closed of plenums to maintain the proper pressure relationship amongst the cavities.

Anti-contamination thrust balancing system for gas turbine engines

A free floating fairing comprising an outer ring fairing, an inner ring fairing and a three piece replaceable strut fairing define an aerodynamic contour and heat shield for the turbine exhaust case of a gas turbine engine. The material fo the fairing can be selected to optimize heat transfer characteristics to enhance the structural integrity of the supporting structure while assuring the lubrication in the lubricating passages in the struts does not coke and the preload on the support rods is not lost during engine operation. The inner ring fairing serves to hold in place the nose piece of the three piece strut fairing for ease of replacement.

Replaceable fairing for a turbine exhaust case

Damping of a turbine rotor is attained by a weighted member trapped between pockets formed in the neck of adjacent blades at one end and a space between the disk and TOBI rotor seal and forward extending blade lug at the other end. The feather seal which is a curved plate fits over the top of the weighted member and is trapped between nubs formed on the front and rear underside of the blade platform. The front face of the rim of the disk at the disk cavity is open ended and blocked off at the rear face. This assembly allows for individual blade removal and viewing from the rear face by removing a single rim cavity cover without disturbing the remaining components of the assembly. The inverted ring supports take up the axial loads alleviating the loads heretofore taken up by the TOBI rotor seal, allowing for a lighter weight installation.

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Lake Worth, FL, United States of America

Peter T Vercellone