Pratt-Whitney Canada Corp

Vijay Kandasamy

Hien Duong

Peter Townsend

Jason Nichols

Koundinya Upadrasta

Yau-Wai Li

Madhusudhan Keragodu

Karan Anand

Saurabh S Nair

Rakesh Munlyappa

Hein Duong

A vane array structure for a gas turbine engine includes a first platform, a second platform, a plurality of vanes and a flowpath. Each of the vanes extends across the flowpath between the first platform and the second platform. The vanes include a first vane and a second vane disposed longitudinally next to the first vane along the flowpath. The first vane includes a first airfoil and a first recess. The first airfoil extends spanwise between a first end at the first platform and a second end at the second platform. The first airfoil extends chordwise between a leading edge and a trailing edge. The first airfoil extends laterally between a first side and a second side. The first recess projects spanwise into the first airfoil from the first end. The first recess projects chordwise into the first airfoil from the trailing edge.

Vane array structure with recessed stator vanes

A compressor has: a rotor and a stator having vanes, a vane of the vanes having an airfoil extending from a root proximate an inner hub to a radially outer tip, the airfoil having a leading edge, a trailing edge, and a chord extending between the leading edge and the trailing edge to define a chord length, the airfoil having a pressure side surface and a suction side surface, and a fillet disposed at the leading edge of the root of the airfoil and extending between the pressure side surface and the inner hub, the fillet having a radial height being maximum at the leading edge, the radial height decreasing from the leading edge to blend smoothly into a remainder of the airfoil, the fillet extending downstream from the leading edge a chord-wise distance of less than 50% of a chord length of the airfoil on the pressure side surface.

Compressor stator with leading edge fillet

A strut includes a strut body extending in a radial direction and defining an airfoil shape in cross-section perpendicular to the radial direction. The airfoil shape includes a leading edge and a trailing edge. An extraction inlet is defined through an exterior surface of the strut body, in fluid communication with an internal conduit of the strut body. An injection outlet is defined through the exterior surface of the strut body, in fluid communication with the internal conduit for fluid communication through the internal conduit from the extraction inlet to the injection outlet.

Engine strut flow control

A fluid machine for an aircraft engine has: first and second walls; a gaspath defined between the first wall and the second wall; a rotor having blades rotatable about the central axis; and a stator having: a row of vanes having airfoils including leading edges, trailing edges, pressure sides and suction sides opposed the pressure sides, and depressions defined in the first wall, the depressions extending from a baseline surface of the first wall away from the second wall, a depression of the depressions located circumferentially between a pressure side of the pressure sides and a suction side of the suction sides, the depression axially overlapping the airfoils and located closer to the suction side than to the pressure side, an upstream end of the depression located closer to a leading edge of the leading edges than to a trailing edge of the trailing edges.

Stator with depressions in gaspath wall adjacent leading edges

A casing treatment for a compressor includes one or more cavities in a casing disposed radially outwardly of tips of the compressor rotor blades. A liner is moveable relative to the casing between a first position and a second position. The liner is shaped to add a volume to the tip clearance gap when moving from the second position toward the first position. The liner is displaceable between the first and second positions in coordination with at least the rotation of inlet guide vanes (IGVs) between IGV positions.

Compressor with casing treatment

There is disclosed a fan assembly including a fan rotor including a hub and fan blades. The fan blades have a leading edge and a trailing edge. A fan stator downstream of the fan rotor relative to a direction of an airflow through the fan assembly. The fan stator includes vanes extending between radially inner ends and radially outer ends. A flow recirculation circuit has an inlet downstream of the vanes of the fan stator and an outlet upstream of the vanes. A recirculation rotor has a plurality of airfoils circumferentially distributed around the axis and located in the flow recirculation circuit. The recirculation rotor is rotatable about the axis within the recirculation circuit. A method of operating the fan assembly is also disclosed.

Fan assembly having flow recirculation circuit with rotating airfoils

A gas turbine engine includes rotor having a hub, and a plurality of blades extending generally radially from the hub. Each of the blades has an airfoil portion. The airfoil portion has a leading edge and a trailing edge defining a chordwise direction, and a root and a tip defining a spanwise direction. Only a sub-set of the blades has a cutback at at least one of the trailing edge and the leading edge. A method of designing and a method of assembling a rotor having noise reduction properties in a gas turbine engine is also presented.

Blade cutback distribution in rotor for noise reduction

A fluid machine has: first and second walls; a gaspath defined between the first wall and the second wall; a rotor having blades rotatable about the central axis; and a tandem having: a first row of first vanes having first airfoils including first leading edges, first trailing edges, first pressure sides and first suction sides opposed the first pressure sides, and a second row of second vanes downstream of the first vanes and having second airfoils including second leading edges, second trailing edges, second pressure sides and second suction sides opposed the second pressure sides, the first vanes being circumferentially offset from the second vanes; and depressions defined in the first wall, a depression of the depressions located circumferentially between a pressure side of the first pressure sides and a suction side of the second suction sides, the depressions axially overlapping the first airfoils and the second airfoils.

Tandem stator with depressions in gaspath wall

A compressor diffuser for a gas turbine engine includes one or more diffuser pipes having a tubular body defining an internal flow passage extending therethrough. The tubular body includes a first portion extending in a first direction, a second portion extending in a second direction different from the first direction, and a curved portion fluidly linking the first portion and the second portion. A splitter vane is disposed within the internal flow passage of the curved portion of the tubular body, the splitter vane defining a convergent flow passage between itself and a radially inner wall of the curved portion, and a divergent flow passage between itself and a radially outer wall of the curved portion.

Diffuser pipe with splitter vane

A compressor of a gas turbine engine includes a rotor and a stator located downstream of the rotor. The stator has a plurality of vanes each with an airfoil extending span-wise between a root proximate an inner hub of the stator and a tip. A fillet is disposed at the leading edge of the root of the airfoil, and extends between a pressure side surface of the airfoil and the inner hub.

There is disclosed a fan assembly including a fan rotor including a hub and fan blades. The fan blades have a leading edge and a trailing edge. A fan stator downstream of the fan rotor relative to a direction of an airflow through the fan assembly. The fan stator includes vanes extending between radially inner ends and radially outer ends. A flow recirculation circuit has an inlet downstream of radially inner ends of the vanes of the fan stator and an outlet upstream of radially inner ends of the vanes. A recirculation stator has a plurality of stationary guide vanes circumferentially distributed around the axis and located in the flow recirculation circuit between the inlet and the outlet A method of operating the fan assembly is also disclosed.

Fan assembly having flow recirculation circuit with guide vanes

A method of operating a compressor of a gas turbine engine is described which includes directing a main airflow through tandem stator rows in a gaspath of the compressor, extracting a first portion of the main airflow from a first location proximate radially inner roots of stators of the first or second stator rows, extracting a second portion of the main airflow from a second location proximate the radially inner roots of the stators of the first or second stator rows, the second location being downstream of the first location relative to the main airflow, and re-injecting the combined extracted flow back into the main airflow at a third location. The third location is located upstream of the first and second locations, and is upstream of a leading edge of stators of the first stator row.

Tandem stators with flow recirculation conduit

A vane diffuser for diffusing gases is disclosed. The diffuser has an annular diffuser body including a plurality of diffuser vanes defining diffuser passages. The diffuser passages are circumferentially distributed. A direction of main gas flow through the diffuser passages is defined from a passage inlet in fluid communication with the outlet of the compressor to a passage outlet. A plurality of fluid injection conduits each extend between a conduit inlet and a conduit outlet for at least one of the diffuser vanes. The conduit outlet defines at least one opening in at least one of the pressure and suction side surfaces and is configured to inject fluid along one of the pressure and suction side surfaces in the direction of main gas flow through the corresponding diffuser passage.

Vane diffuser and method for controlling a compressor having same

A rotor for a gas turbine engine includes a plurality of radially extending blades, each having a remote blade tip defining an outer tip surface, and a leading edge defined between opposed pressure and suction side airfoil surfaces. A shroud circumferentially surrounds the rotor, and a radial distance between an inner surface of the shroud and the outer tip surface of the blades defines a radial tip clearance gap therebetween. The tip of each of the blades has a pressure side edge formed at the intersection between the outer tip surface and the pressure side airfoil surface, and a suction side edge formed at the intersection between the outer tip surface and the pressure side airfoil surface. The suction side edge has a larger radius of curvature than the pressure side edge, thereby reducing the amount of tip leakage flow through the radial tip clearance gap.

Growing community of inventors

T. Palur, India

Vijay Kandasamy