Patent Application
20100005806
The present invention relates to a gas turbine engine, and more particularly to an eductor system therefor.
Gas turbine engine power plants are often mounted within an enclosure to reduce acoustic propagation therefrom. A primary airflow communicates with the gas turbine engine and a secondary airflow communicates with the enclosure to provide a cooling airflow for the gas turbine engine. The gas turbine engine generates exhaust products that are expelled through a stack for release to the environment. The secondary air from the enclosure is also exhausted to avoid overheating of engine external equipment and to minimize vapor build-up. An exhaust powered eductor system is to draw the secondary air out of the enclosure and up the stack. If the back pressure of the stack is high, however, the eductor system may not have sufficient capacity at all operating conditions to exhaust the enclosure air. This may be particularly problematic in ships powered by a multiple of gas turbine engines which exhaust though a common stack.
A power plant according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes an enclosure, a gas turbine engine contained at least partially within the enclosure; an eductor system in communication with the gas turbine engine; and a blower system in communication with the enclosure and the eductor system.
A method of communicating an exhaust from a gas turbine engine according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention including: communicating a primary airflow into a gas turbine engine; communicating a secondary airflow into an enclosure which at least partially contains the gas turbine engine; communicating an exhaust flow from the gas turbine engine into an eductor system; pressurizing the secondary airflow from the enclosure with a blower system; and communicating the pressurized secondary airflow into the eductor system.
The various features and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the disclosed non-limiting embodiment. The drawings that accompany the detailed description can be briefly described as follows:
The power plant 10 includes a gas turbine engine 14 within an enclosure 12. A primary air inlet 161 communicates with the gas turbine engine 14 to provide a primary airflow path into the gas turbine engine 14. A secondary air inlet 181 communicates with the enclosure 12 to provide a cooling airflow path for the gas turbine engine 14.
The gas turbine engine 14 communicates an exhaust flow through a primary exhaust duct 16E, an eductor system 20, and an exhaust stack 22. A blower system 24 communicates with the eductor 20 to communicate the secondary airflow from the enclosure 12 and utilize the kinetic energy of the secondary airflow to facilitate the flow of the gas turbine engine exhaust. That is, the blower system 24 essentially supercharges the gas turbine engine exhaust product.
The blower system 18 may include a multiple of blowers 24A, 24B for redundancy or arrangement requirements to facilitate operation over a wide range of engine power and stack back pressure. The blower system 24 also allows the enclosure 12 to avoid significant pressurization as contrasted with conventional enclosures which utilize fan systems for cooling. That is, the secondary airflow is pressurized, not the enclosure 12. The reduction or elimination of pressurization allows for the reduction in enclosure structural support and a thereby lighter weight enclosure 12.
Referring to
Although particular step sequences are shown, described, and claimed, it should be understood that steps may be performed in any order, separated or combined unless otherwise indicated and will still benefit from the present invention.
The foregoing description is exemplary rather than defined by the limitations within. Many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. The disclosed embodiments of this invention have been disclosed, however, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of this invention. It is, therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described. For that reason the following claims should be studied to determine the true scope and content of this invention.
