General Electric Company

Timothy Deryck Stone

Robert Proctor

Robert Francis Manning

Victor Hugo Silva Correia

Jonathan Russell Ratzlaff

Jared Peter Buhler

Curtis Walton Stover

Robert Carl Murray

Gregory Michael Laskowski

Byron Andrew Pritchard, Jr

Corey Bourassa

Ronald Scott Bunker

Byron Andrew Pritchard

Robert David Briggs

John Howard Starkweather

Jason Randolph Allen

Stephen Mark Molter

Ryan Nicholas Porter

Christopher Joseph Greenwell

Andrew Stephen Pritchard

A turbine engine having a compressor section, a combustor section, a turbine section, and a rotatable drive shaft. A bypass conduit couples the compressor section to the turbine section. At least one centrifugal separator is fluidly coupled to the bypass stream, where the at least one centrifugal separator includes a body, a center body, a separator inlet, and a separator outlet fluidly coupled with the turbine section to output a reduced-particle stream that is provided to the turbine section for cooling. The centrifugal separator includes an angular velocity increaser, a flow splitter, a first outlet passage defined by an inner annular wall that receives the reduced-particle stream, and an angular velocity decreaser located downstream of the flow splitter. A second outlet passage receives the concentrated-particle stream.

Inducer assembly for a turbine engine

A turbine engine having a compressor section, a combustor section, a turbine section, and a rotatable drive shaft that couples a portion of the turbine section and a portion of the compressor section. A bypass conduit couples the compressor section to the turbine section while bypassing at least the combustion section. At least one particle separator is located in the turbine engine having a separator inlet that receives a bypass stream, a separator outlet that receives a reduced-particle stream flows, and a particle outlet that receives a concentrated-particle stream comprising separated particles. A conduit, fluidly coupled to the particle outlet, extends through an interior of at least one stationary vane.

A turbine engine having an inducer assembly. The inducer assembly includes a centrifugal separator fluidly coupled to an inducer with an inducer inlet and an inducer outlet. The centrifugal separator includes a body, an angular velocity increaser to form a concentrated-particle stream and a reduced-particle stream, a flow splitter, and an exit conduit fluidly coupled to the body to receive the reduced-particle stream and define a separator outlet.

A turbine engine having a bypass fluid conduit coupled to the turbine section includes at least one particle separator located within the bypass fluid conduit to separate particles from a bypass fluid stream prior to the bypass stream reaching the turbine section for cooling. A centrifugal separator for removing particles from a fluid stream includes an angular velocity increaser, a particle outlet, an angular velocity decreaser downstream of the angular velocity increaser, and a bend provided between the angular velocity increaser and the angular velocity decreaser.

Turbine engine and particle separators therefore

A centrifugal separator for removing particles from a fluid stream includes an angular velocity increaser configured to increase the angular velocity of a fluid stream, a flow splitter configured to split the fluid stream to form a concentrated-particle stream and a reduced-particle stream, and an exit conduit configured to receive the reduced-particle stream. An inducer assembly for a turbine engine includes an inducer with a flow passage having an inducer inlet and an inducer outlet in fluid communication with a turbine section of the engine, and a particle separator, which includes a particle concentrator that receives a compressed stream from a compressor section of the engine and a flow splitter. A turbine engine includes a cooling air flow circuit which supplies a fluid stream to a turbine section of the engine for cooling, a particle separator located within the cooling air flow circuit, and an inducer forming a portion of the cooling air flow circuit in fluid communication with the particle separator. A method of cooling a rotating blade of a turbine engine having an inducer includes directing a cooling fluid stream from a portion of turbine engine toward the rotating blade, separating particles from the cooling fluid stream by passing the cooling fluid stream through a inertial separator, accelerating a reduced-particle stream emitted from the inertial separator to the speed of the rotating blade, and orienting the reduced-particle stream by emitting the reduced-particle stream from the inertial separator into a cooling passage in the inducer.

Turbine engine, components, and methods of cooling same

An airfoil for a turbine engine having a perimeter wall bounding an interior and defining a pressure side and a suction side, a radially extending rib located within the interior and spaced from the leading edge to define a radially extending leading edge chamber, and at least one impingement opening in the rib defining a flow path aligned with the leading edge.

Airfoil having impingement openings

An engine component with particulate mitigation features is provided. The engine component comprises an internal engine component surface having a cooling flow path on one side thereof and a second component adjacent to the first component. The second component, for example an insert, may have a plurality of openings forming an array wherein the openings extend through the second component at a non-orthogonal angle to the surface of the second component.

Angled impingement insert

A dust mitigation system for airfoils includes a plurality of contoured tip turns which curve about at least two axes. This inhibits recirculation areas common within airfoils and further inhibits dust build up within the cooling flow path of the airfoil.

Dust mitigation for turbine blade tip turns

A coupling for splining together first and second shafts which may be inner and outer, co-axial annular members, abutting co-axial annular members, or intermeshing gears on parallel shafts. One embodiment is a coupling for splining together inner and outer annular members having corresponding inner and outer cylindrical surfaces concentrically disposed about an axis and having splines which are generally circumferentially disposed on the cylindrical surfaces along an axial length of at least one of the members such that the splines having a varying pitch so as to be curved with respect to the axis. The pitch is defined by a function which varies parabolically with respect to a shaft axis and, in a more particular embodiment, the function has a non-zero fixed pitch component and a parabolic component so that the shape of the splines are both helical and parabolic.

Growing community of inventors

Liberty Township, OH, United States of America

Timothy Deryck Stone