Rolls-royce Corporation

Composite Technology & Applications Limited

Simon Read

Peter Rowland Beckford

Ian Colin Deuchar Care

Steven Aleksy Radomski

Alison Jane McMillan

Ewan Fergus Thompson

Bijoysri Khan

Eric P Ravey

Sivasubramaniam K Sathianathan

Nicholas Michael Merriman

Matthew D Curren

Christopher M Whitehead

Christopher S Brown

Christopher Shelton Brown

Steven Radomski

Matthew Curren

Sivasubramaniam Kathirgamathamby Sathianathan

A blade or a vane for a gas turbine engine. The blade or vane having an aerofoil and a leading edge member attached to the aerofoil. The leading edge has an electrically conductive support member and a nano-coating formed on the support member.

Gas turbine engine

A composite aerofoil, the aerofoil having a leading edge, a trailing edge a pressure side and a suction side and comprising an outer erosion protection layer along one or both of the pressure side or suction side, a structural core having a plurality of resin impregnated plies of unidirectional fibers, and between the outer erosion protection layer and the structural core a woven composite impregnated with a resin having a modulus of elasticitygreaterlowerthan that of the resin impregnating the plies in the structural core.

Composite aerofoil

A gas turbine engine casing comprising: an inner circumferential wall; an outer circumferential wall spaced radially outwardly from the inner wall; wherein the inner and outer circumferential walls are formed by an axially repeating profile comprising an inner wall portion and an outer wall portion connected to one another by an intermediate portion, the axially repeating profile being arranged such that the inner wall portion abuts against and is connected to an adjacent inner wall portion to form the inner circumferential wall and the outer wall portion abuts against and is connected to an adjacent outer wall portion to form the outer circumferential wall.

Casing for a gas turbine engine and a method of manufacturing such a casing

There is proposed a fan casing arrangement for a gas turbine engine () of a type having a propulsive fan (), the fan casing arrangement being configured to circumscribe the fan () and having a fan case () and a fan track liner. The fan track liner is provided around the inside of the fan case () so as to adopt a radial position between the fan () and the fan case (), and the arrangement is configured such that the fan track liner includes a liner ring () which is radially outwardly biased against the inside of the fan case (). A related method of installing a fan track liner in a gas turbine engine is also disclosed.

Fan casing arrangement for a gas turbine engine

A fan casing arrangement for a gas turbine engine having a propulsive fan, the arrangement having a fan case and a fan track liner and being configured to circumscribe the fan, wherein the fan track liner is provided around the inside of fan case so as to adopt a radial position between the fan and the fan case. The fan track liner includes an elongate member which is helically-wound against the inside of the fan case in a plurality of turns. A method of installing a fan track liner in a fan casing arrangement for a gas turbine engine having a propulsive fan, the method involving: providing a fan case to circumscribe the fan, providing a flexible and elongate liner member, and helically winding the liner member against the inside of the fan case in a plurality of turns to define at least part of the fan track liner.

Fan casing arrangement for a gas turbine engine and related method

A rotary blade tip insert for incorporation into a rotary blade, for example, a rotary fan blade in a gas turbine engine. The tip insert comprises a sleeve for insertion into a recess provided in said rotary blade. The sleeve has a radially outer end defining an opening, a radially inner end and opposing wall portions extending between said ends. The tip insert further comprises a tip element having a crown portion and a root portion for insertion into the opening of said sleeve.

Rotary blade with tip insert

A composite aerofoil, the aerofoil having a leading edge, a trailing edge a pressure side and a suction side and comprising an outer erosion protection layer along one or both of the pressure side or suction side, a structural core having a plurality of resin impregnated plies of unidirectional fibers, and between the outer erosion protection layer and the structural core a woven composite impregnated with a resin having a modulus of elasticity greater than that of the resin impregnating the plies in the structural core.

A fan blade for a gas turbine engine has an aerofoil part and a root part. The root part includes a root former; the root former includes a zone of weakness, which reduces the ability of the root part to withstand an impact force. Thus, in an impact situation in which the fan blade has separated from the fan rotor and the fan blade has itself separated into fragments, the root part will fracture or buckle more easily than would be the case with conventional arrangements. This will lower the impact force of the root part upon the fan casing, thus permitting the fan casing to be designed to withstand lower impact forces. The fan casing can therefore be made lighter, and cheaper, than in conventional arrangements.

Blade

A turbomachine blade having features arranged to initiate bending of the leading edge towards the pressure surface upon impact of a foreign object on the leading edge. The features may be features weaker than the material of the leading edge located on the pressure surface side of a mid-thickness line. By causing the leading edge to bend towards the pressure surface on impact the volume of the foreign object, typically a bird, that passes over the suction surface is reduced.

International regulations for aerofoils within gas turbine engines require the safe containment of a released aerofoil. The blade fragments must be contained within an engine casing. Smaller fragments will generally be easier to contain within the casing and therefore reduce the weight of that casing. However introducing lines of weakness may result in cavities and holes which are subject to moisture ingress and problems associated therewith. By providing a root section which incorporates a core having shear surfaces, blades can be designed which in normal use are subject to compressive loads and remain operational, but when subject to impact loads or bending forces create tension forces which cause fragmentation along the shear surfaces after initial energy losses by slippage. By providing the shear surfaces in cores their location is encapsulated avoiding problems with moisture ingress.

Blade and a method for making a blade

A blade for a turbine engine made by the diffusion-bonding/superplastic-forming (DB/SPF) process has a hollow skin made of front and back panelsand internal reinforcement in the form of websextending between the two faces or panels at an angle to the plane of the blade. The cavities are filled with viscoelastic damping filler. In order to allow the blade to deform more easily so that the filler can take up the strain, the webs are pre-buckled so as to compress at least some of the webs. When the blade is deformed, the webs straighten or buckle further, applying a deformation to the filler as they do so and thus dissipating energy. The blade is thus well reinforced against impact but still capable of damping vibrations.

Hollow turbine blade

Aerofoils () of a gas turbine engine are provided with a coating () or filler () of viscoelastic material. As ice accretes on the aerofoils () during operation, the resulting aerodynamic stability imbalance induces vibration in the aerofoils (). The viscoelastic material () damps this vibration, and in so doing generates heat, which melts the ice away from the aerofoils (). Heat-conducting members conduct the heat to regions of the component in which ice accretion is to be prevented. Alternative embodiments are described in which the pseudoelastic behavior of a shape memory alloy (), or eddy currents arising from the rotor blades' rotation in an axisymmetric magnetic field, are used as sources of heat.

Apparatus for preventing ice accretion

A fan blade for a gas turbine engine has an aerofoil part and a root part. The root part includes a root former; the root formerincludes a zone of weakness, which reduces the ability of the root part to withstand an impact force. Thus, in an impact situation in which the fan blade has separated from the fan rotor and the fan blade has itself separated into fragments, the root part will fracture or buckle more easily than would be the case with conventional arrangements. This will lower the impact force of the root part upon the fan casing, thus permitting the fan casing to be designed to withstand lower impact forces. The fan casing can therefore be made lighter, and cheaper, than in conventional arrangements.

Blade assemblies are provided in a number of forms. These blade assemblies may have blades secured to disks (blisk), rings (bling) and drums (blum). The blades and/or the rotor elements formed by these rings, drums or disks can fragment and it is necessary to contain such fragments within a casing. Impact energy has a significant effect upon the necessary thickness of the casing to ensure containment. By providing blades as well as rotor elements which incorporate discontinuities which provide flexing under impact, energy is absorbed prior to further fragmentation upon impact engagement with a casing surface; flexing is about the discontinuity. In such circumstances casings may be thinner and therefore significant weight savings achieved with regard to aircraft incorporating gas turbine engines having blade assemblies with discontinuities.

Blade assembly

An annulus filler () is provided for mounting to a rotor disc () of a gas turbine engine and for bridging the gap between two adjacent blades attached to the rotor disc (). The annulus filler () has an outer part () which defines an airflow surface for air being drawn through the engine, and a separate, support part () which is connectable to the outer part () and to the rotor disc () to support the outer part () on the rotor disc (). The outer () and support parts () are configured to allow a procedure for mounting the annulus filler () to the rotor disc (). In a first step the support part () is connected to the rotor disc () without the outer part (), and in a subsequent second step the outer part () is connected to the support part ().

Growing community of inventors

Derby, United Kingdom

Simon Read