This application relates to a gas turbine engine, wherein an inlet particle separator provides a thermal management function.
Gas turbine engines are known, and include a compressor compressing air and delivering it into a combustor section. The air is mixed with fuel in the combustor and ignited. Products of the combustion pass downstream over turbine rotors driving them to rotate.
One type of gas turbine engine is a contra-rotating turbo prop gas turbine engine. In such a gas turbine engine, air may be delivered into a compressor section, as mentioned above from an inlet. The air may include impurities and, thus, it is known to include an inlet particle separator which will tend to force dirt or other impurities radially outwardly, such that clean air is delivered into the compression section.
Recently, the efficiency of gas turbine engines has become of increasing importance. Thus, the loss of air associated with the inlet particle separator, with no achieved benefit, hurts the efficiency of the overall engine.
In a featured embodiment, a gas turbine engine has a nose cone at an inlet end spaced radially inwardly of a nacelle. A compressor is downstream of the nose cone. A core inlet delivers air downstream of the nose cone into the compressor. An inlet particle separator includes a manifold for delivering air radially outwardly of the core inlet. The air is delivered by the inlet particle separator passing over a heat exchanger before passing to an outlet.
In another embodiment according to the previous embodiment, the heat exchanger cools oil associated with a gear reduction on the gas turbine engine.
In another embodiment according to any of the previous embodiments, the compressor rotates about a central axis of the engine. The nose cone has a radially outermost portion which is radially outward of a radially inner end of the core inlet, such that air having heavier particles is generally directed radially outwardly of the core inlet and into the inlet particle separator.
In another embodiment according to any of the previous embodiments, the manifold extends for 360 degrees about the axis of rotation.
In another embodiment according to any of the previous embodiments, the manifold has an open inlet at an upstream end, and a downstream outlet over a limited portion of the 360 degrees of the circumferentially extending portion.
In another embodiment according to any of the previous embodiments, an ejector is positioned downstream of the heat exchanger for selectively driving air across the heat exchanger.
In another embodiment according to any of the previous embodiments, a turbine section is downstream of the compressor and drives propellers.
These and other features of this application will be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description.
A gas turbine engine 20 is illustrated in
Downstream of the heat exchanger 32 the air passes through the ejector 31. The ejector 31 is provided with a control 90 which selectively shoots air into the ejector 31 when the gas turbine engine 20 is on the ground, as there will not be ram air delivered into the inlet when an aircraft associated with the gas turbine engine 20 is not moving. An outlet 30 is downstream of the ejector 31.
The nose cone 22 is designed to ensure the dirtier air will be delivered into the inlet 50, and the clean air passes into a path into a core inlet 26. Core inlet 26 feeds air into a compressor section 27, where it is compressed and delivered into a combustor section 25. The air is mixed with fuel and ignited, and products of this combustion pass downstream over turbine rotors 23, driving them to rotate. The engine 20 may be a contra-rotating prop aircraft with a pair of propellers 80 and 82 rotating in opposed directions. The propellers 80 and 82 are driven by the output shaft of a fan drive gear system 200, which in turn is powered by the turbine section 23. Of course, other engine types may benefit from this disclosure.
As shown in
The present invention now utilizes the inlet particle separator to perform a thermal management function and, thus, the efficiency of the overall operation of the gas turbine engine is improved.
Although an embodiment of this invention has been disclosed, a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of this invention. For that reason, the following claims should be studied to determine the true scope and content of this invention.