General Electric Company

Philip Roger Gliebe

Trevor Howard Wood

Anurag Gupta

Ludwig Christian Haber

Patrick Y Ho

Thomas Ory Moniz

James Edward Johnson

Arthur P Adamson

Peter Nicholas Szucs

John Christopher Brauer

Jorge Francisco Seda

Lawrence Wayne Dunbar

Rudramuni Kariveerappa Majjigi

Gregory T Steinmetz

An airfoil of varying span-wise thickness comprising a suction side and a pressure side coupled together at a leading edge and a trailing edge, with the trailing edge comprising a plurality of spaced-apart wave-shaped projections. Exemplary embodiments provide airfoil geometry and/or trailing edge features to influence downstream wake flow. Methods of fabricating an airfoil for improved wake flow are also provided.

Airfoil having reduced wake

A method of fabricating an airfoil is provided. The method includes fabricating at least one airfoil including a suction side and a pressure side coupled together at a leading edge and a trailing edge, wherein the airfoil includes a plurality of first and second chord sections each extending between the trailing and leading edges, wherein at least one of the first chord sections extends outward from the pressure side of the airfoil at the trailing edge, and at least one of the second chord sections extends outward from the suction side of the airfoil at the trailing edge.

Rotary airfoils and method for fabricating same

A turbofan engine includes a row of fan blades disposed upstream from a row of stator vanes, and is powered by a core engine. The fan blades are serrated for mixing wakes therefrom to attenuate fan noise.

Serrated fan blade

An aircraft gas turbine engine assembly includes an inter-turbine frame axially located between high and low pressure turbines. Low pressure turbine has counter rotating low pressure inner and outer rotors with low pressure inner and outer shafts which are at least in part rotatably disposed co-axially within a high pressure rotor. Inter-turbine frame includes radially spaced apart radially outer first and inner second structural rings disposed co-axially about a centerline and connected by a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart struts. Forward and aft sump members having forward and aft central bores are fixedly joined to axially spaced apart forward and aft portions of the inter-turbine frame. Low pressure inner and outer rotors are rotatably supported by a second turbine frame bearing mounted in aft central bore of aft sump member. A mount for connecting the engine to an aircraft is located on first structural ring.

Aircraft engine with inter-turbine engine frame supported counter rotating low pressure turbine rotors

A stator airfoil is subject to wake fluid from rotor blades in a gas turbine engine. The airfoil includes a plurality of cross channels extending therethrough between opposite sides thereof for bleeding the wake fluid therebetween to reduce differential pressure thereacross and reduce noise.

Low noise permeable airfoil

A gas turbine engine fan assembly includes an equal number of rotor blades and stator vanes spaced axially therefrom. An annular duct surrounds the blades and vanes and has an inlet for receiving air and an outlet for discharging at least a portion of the air upon compression by the blades. The fan duct further includes a passive acoustic liner tuned for attenuating at least one harmonic noise tone generated by the blades, with a fundamental blade passing frequency noise tone being actively attenuated by a plurality of anti-noise sound transmitters disposed in the fan duct.

Active low noise fan assembly

A gas turbine engine rotor assembly such as a fan or compressor includes rotor blades spaced axially from stator vanes inside an annular duct. The number of vanes is selected for a predetermined number of blades for obtaining substantially equal values of a cut-off ratio for at least two blade passing frequency harmonics for reducing spinning mode noise from the duct.

Low noise fan assembly

An aircraft propulsion system includes at least one pusher propeller mounted to a nacelle mounted to the aircraft by a pylon which produces a wake which impinges upon the propeller. The wake from the pylon is modified to reduce noise and vibration produced by the propeller interaction with the wake. The propulsion system may include a pair of counterrotating pusher propellers.

Aircraft pylon

In one form of the invention, a counterrotating pair of aircraft propellers produces noise in the form of a frequency-modulated carrier wave. The frequency modulation allows a designer to manipulate the energy spectrum of the noise in order to, for example, place much of the acoustic energy into inaudible frequency ranges.

Growing community of inventors

Waynesville, OH, United States of America

Philip Roger Gliebe