Rolls-royce Corporation

Robert J Corin

Stephen John Bradbrook

Natalie C Wong

Martin N Goodhand

Thomas S Binnington

Paul Michael Hield

Andrew Parsley

Benjamin J Sellers

John R Whurr

Richard J Hunsley

Martin Goodhand

An aircraft turbofan gas turbine engine includes a fan assembly, a compressor module, and a turbine module. An electric machine is positioned downstream of the fan assembly and is connected to the turbine module. The fan assembly includes a highest pressure fan stage having a plurality of fan blades defining a fan diameter. The turbine module includes a lowest pressure turbine stage having a row of rotor blades. The gas turbine engine has a fan tip axis that joins a radially outer tip of the leading edge of one of the plurality of fan blades of the highest pressure fan stage, and the radially outer tip of the trailing edge of one of the rotor blades of the lowest pressure turbine stage. The fan tip axis lies in a longitudinal plane which contains a centreline of the gas turbine engine. The fan axis angle is between 11 and 20 degrees.

Gas turbine engine with a defined fan axis angle between a fan tip axis and a centerline

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 gas turbine engine includes, in axial flow sequence, a heat exchanger module, a fan assembly, a compressor module, a turbine module, and an exhaust module. The fan assembly includes fan blades defining a fan diameter. The heat exchanger module is in communication with the fan assembly by an inlet duct, and the heat exchanger module further includes radially-extending hollow vanes arranged in a circumferential array, with a channel extending axially between hollow vanes. Each hollow vane accommodates at least one heat transfer element to transfer heat from a first fluid contained within the or each heat transfer element to a corresponding vane airflow passing through the hollow vane and over a surface of the or each heat transfer element. Each hollow vane further includes a flow modulator configured to regulate airflow in proportion to total airflow entering the heat exchanger module in response to a user requirement.

Heat exchanger

A turbofan gas turbine engine includes, in axial flow sequence, a heat exchanger module, a fan assembly, a compressor module, a turbine module, and an exhaust module. The fan assembly includes a plurality of fan blades defining a fan diameter. The heat exchanger module is in fluid communication with the fan assembly by an inlet duct, and the heat exchanger module including a plurality of heat transfer elements for transfer of heat from a first fluid contained within the heat transfer elements to an airflow passing over a surface of the heat transfer elements prior to entry of the airflow into an inlet to the fan assembly. Each heat transfer element may be individually and independently fluidly isolated from the remaining heat transfer elements.

A turbofan gas turbine engine includes, in axial flow sequence, a heat exchanger module, a fan assembly, a compressor module, a turbine module, and an exhaust module. The fan assembly includes a plurality of fan blades defining a fan diameter (D). The heat exchanger module is in fluid communication with the fan assembly by an inlet duct, and the heat exchanger module includes a plurality of radially-extending hollow vanes arranged in a circumferential array with a channel extending axially between each pair of adjacent hollow vanes. An airflow entering the heat exchanger module is divided between a set of vane airflows through each of the hollow vanes and a set of channel airflows through each of the channels.

A turbofan gas turbine engine includes heat exchanger module, fan assembly, compressor, turbine and exhaust modules. The fan includes a plurality of fan blades. The heat exchanger in fluid communicates with the fan assembly by an inlet duct, and the heat exchanger includes a plurality of radially-extending hollow vanes arranged in a circumferential array, with a channel extending axially between each pair of adjacent hollow vanes. An airflow entering the heat exchanger is divided between a set of vane airflows and a set of channel airflows. Each vane airflow has a vane mass flow rate Flow, and each channel air flow has a channel mass flow rate Flow. Each hollow vane includes, an inlet, heat transfer, and exhaust portions, with the inlet portion comprising a diffuser element and the heat transfer portion including at least one heat transfer element. The diffuser element causes Flowto be lower than Flow.

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Bristol, United Kingdom

Robert J Corin