General Electric Company

General Electric Technology Gmbh

First Solar, Inc.

Timothy John Sommerer

Joseph Darryl Michael

David John Smith

Bernard Patrick Bewlay

James Scott Vartuli

James Anthony Brewer

Anteneh Kebbede

Sylvia M DeCarr

Sylvain S Coulombe

Luana Emiliana Iorio

Vikas Midha

James William Bray

Karim Younsi

Xu She

Rahul Shantilal Chokhawala

Narendra Digamber Joshi

Mohamed Rahmane

Nicholas William Rathay

Peter Joel Meschter

David Jeffrey Bryan

Jason Fredrick Trotter

Douglas Carl Hofer

Di Zhang

Rui Zhou

William Paul Minnear

George M Cotzas

Alok Mani Srivastava

Holly Ann Comanzo

William Winder Beers

Bruce Alan Knudsen

Christian Xavier Stevenson

Victor D Roberts

Venkat Eswarlu Tangirala

Brian Magann Rush

Bastiaan Arie Korevaar

George A Farrall

Ramanujam Ramabhadran

Brian Gene Brzek

Ethan Patrick O'Connor

Harald L Witting

Charles E Cook

Robert Arthur Giddings

Prasanth Kumar Nammalwar

James Neil Johnson

Badri Narayan Ramamurthi

Svetlana Selezneva

Gopi Chandran Ramachandran

Hongbo Cao

Andrey Meshkov

Gregory Alexander Natsui

Steven Charles Aceto

Douglas Allen Doughty

James E Lawler

Mark Wayne McWaters

Suchismita Sanyal

Madras Venugopal Shankar

Luana E Lorio

Luana E Iorlo

William Nicholas Guy Hitchon

Jason Frederick Trotter

Kirk Ernest Marquard

Sergey Joseph Zalubovsky

Alvaro Alexander Briceno

Arthur Klein, Iii

Hseuh-Rong Chang

George Michael Cotzas

A bidirectional gas discharge tube (GDT) includes a discharge chamber, first and second cathodes, a gas disposed within the discharge chamber, and a control grid. The first and second cathodes are disposed within the discharge chamber and include first and second faces, respectively. The first face and the second face are plane-parallel. The gas is configured to insulate the first cathode from the second cathode. The control grid is disposed between the first and second cathodes within the discharge chamber. The control grid is configured to generate an electric field to initiate establishment of a conductive plasma between the first and second cathodes to close a conduction path extending between the first and second cathodes.

Bidirectional gas discharge tube

An engine includes an inlet tube introducing air to a combustion process and a first plurality of fuel injectors disposed in the inlet tube and used for scram-jet engine operation. The engine includes a second plurality of fuel injectors used for ram-jet engine operation. The second plurality of fuel injectors is upstream from the first plurality of fuel injectors and is disposed in the inlet tube. The engine includes a combustor swirl zone downstream of and adjacent to the first plurality of fuel injectors.

Engine for an aircraft

A hypersonic aircraft includes one or more leading edge assemblies that are designed to cool the leading edge of certain portions of the hypersonic aircraft that are exposed to high thermal loads, such as extremely high temperatures and/or thermal gradients. Specifically, the leading edge assemblies may include an outer wall tapered to a leading edge or stagnation point. A coolant supply may be in fluid communication with at least one fluid passageway that passes through the outer wall to deliver a flow of cooling fluid, such as liquid metal, to the stagnation point. The liquid metal vaporizes when the leading edge experiences a high heat load, thereby transpiration cooling the leading edge and/or facilitating a magnetohydrodynamic process for generating thrust or electricity.

System and method for cooling a leading edge of a high speed vehicle

A hypersonic aircraft includes one or more leading edge assemblies that are designed to cool the leading edge of certain portions of the hypersonic aircraft that are exposed to high thermal loads, such as extremely high temperatures and/or thermal gradients. Specifically, the leading edge assemblies may include an outer wall tapered to a leading edge or stagnation point. A coolant supply provides a flow of cooling fluid to a porous tip that is joined to the forward end of the outer wall and defines variable porosity and/or internal barriers to direct a flow of cooling fluid to the regions of the leading edge experiencing the highest thermal loading.

A DC circuit breaker includes a gas discharge tube (GDT) coupled in parallel with an extinguishing path. The GDT conducts and interrupts a load current through a normal current path. The GDT includes a thermionic cathode, an anode, and a control grid. The control grid is configured to regulate opening and closing of the normal current path. The extinguishing path is configured to lengthen a break time for the DC circuit breaker.

Gas discharge tube DC circuit breaker

The present disclosure relates to gas turbine engine operation in which an igniter assembly is provided with an electrical energy input (e.g., an electrical waveform) that is configured to increase a likelihood of igniting a fuel-air mixture surrounding the igniter assembly. In certain embodiments, the igniter assembly is supplied with an augmented electrical waveform that may reduce a quantity of sparks generated by the igniter assembly before successful light-off (e.g., ignition) of the fuel-air mixture is achieved (e.g., as compared to a quantity of sparks generated to achieve ignition by an igniter assembly that receives an electrical energy input in the form of a conventional electrical waveform). Accordingly, the augmented electrical waveform may reduce wear (e.g., via oxidation) on electrodes of the igniter assembly, such as a primary electrode (e.g., a center electrode) and a secondary electrode (e.g., an outer shell electrode) disposed about the primary electrode.

Electrical waveform for gas turbine igniter

A fuel oxygen reduction unit for an aeronautical engine is provided. The fuel oxygen reduction unit includes a stripping gas line that provides a stripping gas flow and a plasma reactor in fluid communication with the stripping gas line. The plasma reactor includes a plasma reactor gas inlet that receives the stripping gas flow from the stripping gas line and a plasma reactor gas outlet that provides the stripping gas flow back to the stripping gas line, the plasma reactor configured to reduce a free oxygen content of the stripping gas flow such that an outlet free oxygen content of the stripping gas flow that exits the plasma reactor gas outlet is lower than an inlet free oxygen content of the stripping gas flow that enters the plasma reactor gas inlet.

Fuel oxygen reduction unit with plasma reactor

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a spark gap device that includes a first electrode having a first surface and a second electrode having a second surface offset from and facing the first surface. The spark gap device also includes a light source configured to emit light toward at least the first surface such that photons emitted by the light source when the spark gap is operated are incident on the first surface and cause electron emission from the first surface. The light source includes a discharge probe having a third electrode sealed in a tube filled with an inert gas. The spark gap device may not include a radioactive component.

Krypton-85-free spark gap with a discharge probe

A high voltage gas switch includes a gas-tight housing containing an ionizable gas at a preselected gas pressure. The gas switch includes a gas-tight housing containing an ionizable gas at a gas pressure selected based upon a Paschen curve for the ionizable gas, where the Paschen curve plots breakdown voltages of the ionizable gas as a function of gas pressure multiplied by grid-to-anode distance, and where values of gas pressure multiplied by grid-to-anode distance increase over at least a portion of the Paschen curve in conjunction with increasing breakdown voltages. The gas switch also includes an anode disposed within the gas-tight housing, a cathode disposed within the gas-tight housing, and a control grid positioned between the anode and the cathode, where the control grid is spaced apart from the anode by a grid-to-anode distance selected based upon a desired operating voltage.

High voltage, cross-field, gas switch and method of operation

A cold-cathode switching device is presented. The cold-cathode switching device includes a housing defining a chamber; an ionizable gas disposed in the chamber; and a plurality of electrodes disposed in the chamber. The plurality of electrodes includes a cathode and an anode defining a discharge gap, and wherein at least one of the cathode and anode comprises a material that is liquid at an operating temperature of the cathode or the anode.

Cold cathode switching device and converter

A gas switch includes a gas-tight housing containing an ionizable gas, an anode disposed within the gas-tight housing, and a cathode disposed within the gas-tight housing, where the cathode includes a conduction surface. The gas switch also includes a control grid positioned between the anode and the cathode, where the control grid is arranged to receive a bias voltage to establish a conducting plasma between the anode and the cathode. In addition, the gas switch includes a plurality of magnets selectively arranged to generate a magnetic field proximate the conduction surface that reduces the kinetic energy of charged particles striking the conduction surface and raises the conduction current density at the cathode surface to technically useful levels.

Low sputtering, cross-field, gas switch and method of operation

A gas switch includes an anode and a cathode spaced apart from the anode, wherein the cathode includes a conduction surface. The gas switch also includes a plurality of magnets arranged to generate a magnetic field that defines an annular path over a portion of the conduction surface at a radial distance from a switch axis, and a control grid positioned between the anode and the cathode. In operation, the control grid is arranged to establish a conducting plasma between the anode and the cathode, wherein, in the presence of the conducting plasma, a voltage drop between the anode and the cathode is less than 150 volts, and wherein the conducting plasma forms a cathode spot that circles the annular path.

Low voltage drop, cross-field, gas switch and method of operation

An approach is disclosed for generating seed electrons at a spark gap in the absence ofKr. The present approach utilizes the photo-electric effect, using a light source with a specific nominal wave length (or range of wavelengths) at a specific level of emitted flux to generate seed electrons.

Krypton-85-free spark gap with photo-emission

A var compensator circuit is provided. The var compensator circuit includes a gas tube switch and a reactive impedance. The gas tube switch is configured to be coupled to a transmission line. The transmission line is configured to deliver real power and reactive power to a load at an alternating current (AC) line voltage. The reactive impedance is configured to be coupled to the transmission line at the AC line voltage through the gas tube switch. The reactive impedance is configured to modify the reactive power configured to be delivered to the load.

Gas tube-switched flexible alternating current transmission system

A direct current (DC)-DC converter includes a transformer and a gas tube-switched inverter circuit. The transformer includes a primary winding and a secondary winding. The gas tube-switched inverter circuit includes first and second inverter load terminals and first and second inverter input terminals. The first and second inverter load terminals are coupled to the primary winding. The first and second inverter input terminals are couplable to a DC node. The gas tube-switched inverter circuit further includes a plurality of gas tube switches respectively coupled between the first and second inverter load terminals and the first and second inverter input terminals. The plurality of gas tube switches is configured to operate to generate an alternating current (AC) voltage at the primary winding.

Gas tube-switched high voltage DC power converter

Growing community of inventors

Ballston Spa, NY, United States of America

Timothy John Sommerer