General Electric Company

Robert R Rachedi

Arthur William Sibbach

Brandon Wayne Miller

Jeffrey Douglas Rambo

Scott Alan Schimmels

Aaron Michael Dziech

Daniel Alan Niergarth

Kirk Douglas Gallier

Erich Alois Krammer

James Ryan Reepmeyer

Koji Asari

A turbine engine for an aircraft. The turbine engine includes a combustor fluidly coupled to a fuel delivery assembly to receive fuel from the fuel delivery assembly. The fuel is injected into the combustor and combusted in the combustor to generate combustion gases. A condenser is located downstream of a turbine to receive the combustion gases and to condense water. The fuel heat exchanger is thermally coupled to the condenser to receive heat from the water condensed by the condenser. The fuel heat exchanger is located in the fuel delivery assembly to receive the fuel and to transfer the heat received from the water to the fuel. The boiler is located downstream of the fuel heat exchanger. The boiler receives the water and is fluidly connected to the combustor to receive the combustion gases and to boil the water to generate steam.

Turbine engine including a steam system

A turbine engine for an aircraft includes a turbo-engine with a core air flow path, a fan having a fan shaft coupled to the turbo-engine to rotate the fan shaft, and a steam system. A combustor is positioned in the core air flow path to combust fuel and to generate combustion gases. The steam system is fluidly coupled to the core air flow path to provide steam to the core air flow path. The steam system includes a boiler to generate the steam, a water pump, and a controller. The water pump is in fluid communication with the boiler to direct a flow of water into the boiler. The controller is operatively coupled to the water pump to control the output of the water pump, the flow of the water into the boiler, and the amount of the steam injected into the core air flow path.

A turbine engine for an aircraft. The turbine engine includes a fan, a combustor in a core air flowpath that generates combustion gases, a core shaft, a turbine that receives the combustion gases to rotate the turbine, and a steam system. The steam system extracts water from the combustion gases, vaporizes the water to generate steam, and injects the steam into the core air flowpath. The steam system includes one or more water storage devices that store the water therein. The one or more water storage devices include a first state in which the one or more water storage devices increase or maintain a level of the water as the water flows through the one or more water storage devices, and a second state in which the one or more water storage devices decrease the level of the water in the one or more water storage devices.

A turbine engine for an aircraft includes a turbo-engine with a core air flow path, a fan having a fan shaft coupled to the turbo-engine to rotate the fan shaft, and a steam system. A combustor is located in the core air flow path to combust fuel and to generate combustion gases. The steam system extracts water from the combustion gases and vaporizes the water to generate steam. The steam system is fluidly coupled to the core air flow path to inject the steam into the core air flow path. The steam system includes a controller configured to determine a water content of the core air upstream of the steam injection location and to change a position of a steam flow control valve to control the flow of the steam into the core air flow path.

A pericritical fluid system for a thermal management system associated with a turbine engine may include one or more sensors configured to generate sensor outputs corresponding to one or more phase properties of a pericritical fluid flowing through a cooling circuit of the thermal management system, and a controller configured to generate control commands configured to control one or more controllable components of the thermal management system based at least in part on the sensor outputs. The one or more sensors may include one or more phase detection sensors, such as an acoustic sensor.

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West Chester Township, OH, United States of America

Robert R Rachedi