General Electric Company

Vaibhav M Deshmukh

Bhaskar Nanda Mondal

Sushilkumar Shevakari

Rakshit Tirumala

Arthur William Sibbach

Jeffrey Douglas Rambo

Jeffrey Donald Clements

Vaishnav Raghuvaran

Thomas Ory Moniz

Atanu Saha

Pranav R Kamat

Curtis Walton Stover

Andrew Mark Del Donno

A turbine engine for an aircraft including a turbo-engine, a fan having a fan shaft coupled to the turbo-engine, and a steam system. The steam system is fluidly coupled to a core air flow path at a plurality of steam injection locations to selectively inject steam into the core air flow path at each of the plurality of steam injection locations, using a steam flow control valve. The plurality of steam injection locations include (i) an upstream steam injection location located to inject steam into the core air flow path at a primary combustion zone of a combustor or upstream thereof and (ii) a downstream steam injection location located to inject steam into the core air flow path downstream of the primary combustion zone.

Turbine engine including a steam system

A turbine engine includes a spool with a compressor for providing a compressed air flow to a turbine, a shaft that connects the compressor and a turbine such that the compressor and the turbine rotate together, and a fuel supply. A combustor located downstream of the compressor receives and combusts the compressed air flow and the fuel supply, generating combustion gases. The combustion gases rotate the turbine, in turn rotating the spool. A balance piston for applying an axial force on the spool includes a rotating boundary portion and a fixed enclosure portion that does not rotate, defining a balance piston cavity. A water system provides water to the balance piston cavity, heat transfer from the balance piston to the water causes expansion of the water, the water in the balance piston cavity being balance piston fluid that is pressurized and applies an axial force to the spool.

Turbine engine including a water system

Structures for reducing forward loads in compressors are described. A compressor includes inner and outer circumferential support structures positioned concentrically around a central axis, and an aft-most stage including a vane extending radially inward from the outer circumferential support structure. An axial length of the aft-most stage is defined by a spacer arm of the inner circumferential support structure. The vane includes a root, a tip, and a trailing edge extending between the root and the tip. A ratio of a first radial distance between a first point located at an intersection of the tip of the vane and the trailing edge to a radially inner wall of the spacer arm of the inner circumferential support structure to a second radial distance between the first point and a second point located at an intersection of the root of the vane and the trailing edge is between 0.95 and 4.5.

Forward load reduction structures for aft-most stages of high pressure compressors

A gas turbine engine having an interdigitated turbine assembly including a first turbine rotor and a second turbine rotor, wherein a total number of stages at the interdigitated turbine assembly is between 3 and 8, and an average stage pressure ratio at the interdigitated turbine assembly is between 1.3 and 1.9. A gear assembly is configured to receive power from the interdigitated turbine assembly, and a fan assembly is configured to receive power from the gear assembly. The interdigitated turbine assembly and the gear assembly are together configured to allow the second turbine rotor to rotate at a second rotational speed greater than a first rotational speed at the first turbine rotor. The fan assembly and the gear assembly are together configured to allow the fan assembly to rotate at a third rotational speed less than the first rotational speed and the second rotational speed. The interdigitated turbine assembly, the gear assembly, and the fan assembly together have a maximum ANat the second turbine rotor between 30 and 90.

Gas turbine engine with interdigitated turbine and gear assembly

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Bengaluru, India

Vaibhav M Deshmukh