Seal panel for a gas turbine engine
AssigneeROLLS-ROYCE plc
InventorIain David Martin Phillips
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described is a shaft support system for a gas turbine engine comprising: a rotatable fan shaft; first and second support structures extending in parallel from the shaft to a load bearing structure to provide radial location of the shaft within an engine casing, wherein the first support and second support structures include first and second respective mechanical fusible joints; wherein the first fusible joint is a two-stage fuse which partially fails within a first predetermined load range, the second fusible joint fails within a second predetermined load range which is different to the first load range, and the first fusible joint fully fails only when the second fusible joint has failed.
Claims13
A gas turbine engine, comprising:
- a fan;
- a fan drive shaft driveably connected to the fan;
- a bearing chamber located axially aft of the fan and including a bearing for rotational support of the fan drive shaft and a fused joint configured to sever under a first predetermined radial load;
- a seal panel located axially between the fan and the bearing chamber, the seal panel extending between the fan drive shaft and a static structure and comprising a rotor portion and a stator portion;
- the rotor portion comprising a cantilever having an attached end attached to the fan drive shaft, and a free end;
- and
- a seal partitioning the rotor portion and stator portion of the seal panel, the seal having respective rotating parts and a stationary parts and wherein the rotating part of the seal is mounted to the free end of the rotor portion cantilever;
- wherein in either or both of the rotor portion or stator portion of the seal panel include a seal panel joint configured to sever upon a second predetermined radial load, and wherein the first predetermined radial load of the bearing chamber fused joint is greater than the second predetermined load of the seal panel joint.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.