Woodward Governor Company

Russell B Ralston

Daniel J McLevige

Apparatus for controlling the flow rate of fuel fed to a gas turbine engine, particularly but not exclusively to prevent overspeeding of the engine above a maximum safe level in the event of failure of a primary control system and associated components. A first control valve V3 is associated with means for sensing pressure drop .DELTA.P across a series metering valve V1 and arranged to control the opening or closing of a bypass valve V2 to keep .DELTA.P essentially constant and equal to a set point. A second control valve V4 is associated with a speed-sensing governor and arranged to control the opening or closing of that same bypass valve V2, so that engine fuel rate is controlled to maintain speed at an overspeed set point if abnormal conditions or failures tend to cause overspeeding. When the overspeed governor valve begins to be active as speed exceeds a first threshold and moves toward the overspeed set point, the governor valve V4 disables the first control valve to prevent the latter's action from closing the bypass valve and thus tending to increase engine fuel rate.

Growing community of inventors

Loves Park, IL, United States of America

Russell B Ralston