The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 15, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 31, 1996
William M Farrell, Cincinnati, OH (US);
Padmakar M Niskode, Cincinnati, OH (US);
Michael W Horner, West Chester, OH (US);
General Electric Company, Cincinnati, OH (US);
Abstract
A cospander for extending the high efficiency range of a turbine engine is described. A cospander, in one aspect, is a turbomachinery device including at least one stage wherein stator vane and rotor blade rows are continuously variable to an extent that each stage can be operated in compression, expansion, or null modes depending on the blade and vane angles at any specific operating point. Such a device placed ahead or within a typical compressor has the effect of reducing, increasing, or maintaining the through flow of the primary working fluid. Such flow variation control can be used to achieve the desired overall turbomachinery thermal efficiency improvements over a wider operating range than is otherwise possible. In one specific embodiment, for example, the cospander includes a variable stator vane and a variable pitch rotor blade in series flow relationship.