General Electric Company

Scott P Reese

Roger C Walker

David Allen Kastrup

David L Joyce

The invention concerns an active clearance control for controlling clearance between a turbine and a casing in a gas turbine aircraft engine. The invention calculates the instantaneous clearance between a turbine casing and a turbine rotor, based on temperature. Two temperatures are involved. First, a steady state temperature (SSTemp) is computed for the rotor and the casing. SSTemp is a predicted, future temperature, which will be attained when the engine reaches steady state operation. Each SSTemp is computed based on presently occurring engine operating conditions, such as selected temperatures, pressures, and rotational speeds. Changes which occur in the SSTemp's indicate the second temperatures, which are the instantaneous temperatures of the casing and rotor. These changes in SSTemp are caused by changes in the present operating conditions, which occur during engine acceleration and deceleration. The instantaneous temperatures indicate the diameters of the casing and the rotor, and thus the instantaneous clearance between them. In another form of the invention, the computed instantaneous clearance is used to control air which is bled from the fan and ducted onto the casing, in order to attain a desired clearance.

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West Chester, OH, United States of America

Scott P Reese