General Electric Company

Ge Avio S.r.l.

General Electric Company Polska Sp. Z O.o.

Generale Electric Company Polska Sp. Z O.o

Stefan Joseph Cafaro

Robert Jon McQuiston

Eric Richard Westervelt

David Marion Ostdiek

James Ryan Reepmeyer

Brandon Wayne Miller

Michael Anthony Benjamin

Joel Meier Haynes

Hejie Li

Kevin Richard Graziano

David Alexander Hiett

Brendon Matthew Leeker

Inenhe Mohammed Khalid

Arthur William Sibbach

Harry Kirk Mathews, Jr

Daniel Edward Mollmann

Syed J Khalid

Kalpesh Singal

Arjan Johannes Hegeman

Gagan Adibhatla

Amit Zutshi

Rafal Sarba

Honggang Wang

Sridhar Adibhatla

Constantinos Minas

Kum-Kang Huh

William Joseph Solomon

Johan Michael Reimann

Trevor Wayne Goerig

Drew Michael Capps

Jeffrey S Spruill

Evin Nathaniel Barber

Cameron Roy Nott

Terry Hei Tsun Ma

Rahim Panjwani

Frederick John Menditto, Iii

Aaron James Schmitz

Suchot Kongsomboonvech

Richard Anthony Zelinski

Matthew Truong

Matthew Vincent Gettemy

Matthew J Drodofsky

Joel James Lau

Iii Frederick John Menditto

In one embodiment, a method includes determining a pitch value based on at least an energy goal. The energy goal may be at least one of bowed rotor motoring or an engine start. The method includes adjusting a pitch of a plurality of variable-pitch propeller blades based on the pitch value. The plurality of variable-pitch propeller blades are part of a variable-pitch propeller. The method includes, in response to a rotation of the plurality of variable-pitch propeller blades about a central axis based on the pitch of the plurality of variable-pitch propeller blades, activating an electric brake to reduce a speed of the rotation. The method further includes transferring electrical energy, generated by the electric brake reducing the speed of the rotation, to a component.

Power generation and transfer using variable-pitch propeller

A gas turbine engine includes a fan section having a fan rotatable with a fan shaft, a turbomachinery section having a turbine and a turbomachine shaft rotatable with the turbine, a power gearbox mechanically coupled to the fan shaft and the turbomachine shaft such that the fan shaft is rotatable by the turbomachine shaft across the power gearbox, a grounded structure coupled to and supporting the power gearbox, and a torque monitoring system. The torque monitoring system includes a gearbox sensor. The gearbox sensor is coupled to the grounded structure and the torque monitoring system configured to determine a torque across the power gearbox using the gearbox sensor.

System and method for detecting and reducing torque in a turbine engine

An open rotor engine includes a core engine, a plurality of guide vanes positioned within or extending from the core engine; and a pitch change assembly operably coupled to the plurality of guide vanes. The pitch change assembly includes one or more actuators configured to change a pitch angle of respective ones of the plurality of guide vanes, and a plurality of linkage arms that are respectively movable by actuation of at least one of the one or more actuators. The plurality of linkage arms are directly or indirectly coupled to a corresponding one of the plurality of guide vanes. The plurality of linkage arms may have a length that differs from one another, and such length may orient a displacement or a range of motion of the respective linkage arm to an envelope of rotation about a guide vane axis that differs as between the plurality of guide vanes.

Controlling excitation loads associated with open rotor aeronautical engines

A control system and schemes for controlling a three-stream gas turbine engine are disclosed. In one aspect, a three-stream engine is architecturally arranged so as to define a primary bypass flowpath, a secondary bypass flowpath, and a core flowpath that may each output propulsive thrust. The three-stream engine includes one or more effectors that can be controlled to adjust a thrust contribution provided by the secondary bypass flowpath to the net propulsive thrust as well as a thermal contribution provided by the secondary bypass flowpath to an associated thermal management system. Competing demands, limits, and priorities can be considered in controlling the effector. In some embodiments, a secondary effector can be ganged or controlled in conjunction with the effector to assist with adjustment of the contributions provided by the secondary bypass flowpath.

Three-stream gas turbine engine control

A propulsion system includes at least two propulsors. The at least two propulsors each comprising a fan having a plurality of fan blades. A controller includes memory and one or more processors. The memory stores instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the system to perform the following: determine a pairwise phase difference between one propulsor of the at least two propulsors and another propulsor of the at least two propulsors; generate a reference phase angle; determine a target phase shift for each propulsor of the at least two propulsors; and adjust a speed of each propulsor of the at least two propulsors based on the target phase shift until the pairwise phase difference is equal to the reference phase angle.

System and method for efficiently determining a phase shift in a propulsion system

An engine with sound-based active controls is provided. The engine includes a sound sensor coupled to the engine system configured to capture sound from the engine system, one or more thrust effector devices, and an engine controller. The engine controller is configured to: determine a sound profile based on signals from the sound sensor, determine a modified control parameter for at least one of the one or more thrust effector devices based on the sound profile and a nominal schedule; and control the at least one of the one or more thrust effector devices according to the modified control parameter, deviating from the nominal schedule.

Turbine engine with sound-based active control

An engine for aeromechanical instability abatement includes a sensor configured to capture data from rotating blades of the engine system, a airflow effector device, and an engine controller. The engine controller is configured to control the airflow effector device according to a nominal schedule, detect, based on a signal from the sensor indicating a vibration amplitude of the rotating blades within a frequency band, an incipient instability condition, in response to the incipient instability condition being present, determine a modified control parameter for at least one of the airflow effector device, and control the airflow effector device according to the modified control parameter, deviating from the nominal schedule.

Aircraft engine aeromechanical instability detection

Systems and methods for high bandwidth control of thrust response for turbofan or turboprop engines are provided. Such systems and methods include an engine control system that processes a rate command and a feedback signal from an engine to generate separate fuel and electric machine control signals that respectively control fuel and electric machine dynamics of the engine to produce engine dynamics that result in desired thrust response.

High bandwidth control of turbofan/turboprop thrust response using embedded electric machines

A gas turbine engine fuel supply system can include a fuel delivery system, a thermal management system, a fuel manifold, and one or more sensors that identify one or more fuel parameters. A fuel control system can be controlled to adjust one or more parameters of the fuel based on data received from the sensors.

Methods of control for management of hot fuel

A method is provided for operating a hybrid-electric propulsion system having a first engine, a second engine, a first electric machine coupled to the first engine, and a second electric machine coupled to one of the first engine or the second engine. The method includes: receiving data indicative of a first engine operating parameter, a second engine operating parameter, or both; determining a first engine operating parameter margin, a second parameter operating margin, or both; determining a load share for the first engine, the second engine, or both, or between the first engine and the second engine based on the first engine operating parameter margin, the second engine operating parameter margin, or both; and transferring a first amount of power to or from the first electric machine and a second amount of power to or from the second electric machine in response to the determined load share.

Hybrid electric propulsion system load share

A propulsion system includes at least two propulsors. The at least two propulsors each include a fan and a controller having one or more processors configured to implement controller logic. The controller logic includes a phase angle control scheme and a speed control scheme. In implementing the controller logic, the one or more processors are configured to: determine an actual pairwise phase difference between a pair of propulsors of the at least two propulsors; generate a reference phase angle for the pair of propulsors; compare the actual pairwise phase difference to the reference phase angle to generate a phase error; provide the phase error to a phase controller module to generate an output based on the phase error; and adjust a speed of at least one propulsor of the at least two propulsors based on the output to drive the phase error towards zero.

System and method for synchrophasing a propulsion system using electric machines

A method of controlling an aeronautical gas turbine engine may be performed with an electronic controller. The method may include determining an airfoil pitch control command for at least one of a plurality of airfoils of the aeronautical gas turbine engine based at least in part on an excitation load acting upon the aeronautical gas turbine engine, and outputting the airfoil pitch control command to one or more actuators actuatable to change a pitch angle of the at least one of the plurality of airfoils. The airfoil pitch control command may be configured to augment and/or compensate for the excitation load acting upon the aeronautical gas turbine engine. The method may be embodied by a non-transitory computer-readable medium that includes computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a processor associated with the electronic controller, cause the electronic controller to perform the method.

A gas turbine engine fuel supply system can include a fuel delivery system, a thermal management system, a fuel manifold, and one or more sensors that identify one or more fuel parameters. A fuel control system adjusts parameters of the fuel based on data received from the sensors.

An engine controller may include a processor and a feedback interface electrically coupled to the processor and one or more electric machine motor generators deployed in an aircraft engine. A memory, electrically coupled to the processor, is configured to store reference data used to indicate a presence of an icing condition. The processor is configured to monitor a feedback signal received at the feedback interface from the one or more electric machine motor generators and identify whether the feedback signal indicates that the icing condition is currently present in the aircraft engine based on a correspondence between the feedback signal and the reference data. The processor is configured to initiate an icing condition mitigation action in response to identifying that the icing condition is present.

Systems and method for detecting and responding to icing conditions in gas turbine engines

Growing community of inventors

Maineville, OH, United States of America

Stefan Joseph Cafaro