Gas turbine engine
AssigneeROLLS-ROYCE plc
InventorMatthew Thomas
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A gas turbine engine that includes a fan blade having a tip, a root, a pressure side, a suction side, a trailing edge and a leading edge, the fan blade including a laminate body defined by a plurality of plies comprising reinforcement fibres, wherein an angle of the fibres in the plies from the trailing edge to the leading edge at the suction side and/or the pressure side of the blade are arranged such that the laminate body is unbalanced so that, during rotation of the fan blade, the fan blade deforms such that a centre of mass of the blade rotates about a centre of rotation of the fan so as to move the centre of mass towards a balanced position.
Claims14
A gas turbine engine comprising
- a fan blade having a tip, a root, a pressure side, a suction side, a trailing edge and a leading edge, the fan blade comprising:
- a laminate body defined by a plurality of plies comprising reinforcement fibres, wherein:
- an angle of the fibres in the plies from the trailing edge to the leading edge at the suction side and the pressure side of the fan blade are arranged such that the laminate body is unbalanced from the trailing edge to the leading edge so that, during rotation of the fan blade, the fan blade deforms such that a centre of mass of the fan blade rotates about a centre of rotation of the fan blade so as to move the centre of mass towards a balanced position,
- the fan blade comprises an inner region defined by a plurality of plies between the plies at the suction side and at the pressure side, and
- when at a state of rest, the angle of the fibres of the plies at the pressure side and the suction side continuously varies from the root to the tip of the fan blade and the plurality of plies of the inner region are arranged to be balanced and symmetric and a direction of the fibres of the plies of the inner region is substantially 0 degrees relative to a radial axis of the fan blade from the root to the tip of the fan blade.
A gas turbine engine comprising
- a fan blade comprising a tip, a root, a pressure side, a suction side, a trailing edge and a leading edge, the fan blade comprising:
- a laminate body defined by a plurality of plies comprising reinforcement fibres, wherein:
- an angle of the fibres in the plies from the trailing edge to the leading edge at the pressure side and the suction side are arranged such that the laminate body is non-symmetric from the trailing edge to the leading edge,
- the fan blade comprises an inner region defined by a plurality of plies between the plies at the suction side and at the pressure side, and
- when at a state of rest, a direction of the reinforcement fibres in the plies at the pressure side and the suction side continuously varies from the root to the tip of the fan blade and the plurality of plies of the inner region are arranged to be balanced and symmetric and a direction of the fibres of the plies of the inner region is substantially 0 degrees relative to a radial axis of the fan blade from the root to the tip of the fan blade.
A method of manufacturing a composite fan blade for a gas turbine engine, the composite fan blade including a laminate having a plurality of stacked plies, and the fan blade including a tip, a root, a pressure side, a suction side, a trailing edge and a leading edge, the method comprising:
- designing the plies of the laminate such that the laminate is unbalanced from the trailing edge to the leading edge so as to promote deformation of the fan blade when used under take off conditions compared to when used under cruise conditions,
- wherein, when at a state of rest, an angle of fibres of the plies at the pressure side and the suction side continuously varies from the root to the tip of the fan blade and a plurality of plies of an inner region between the plies at the suction side and at the pressure side are arranged to be balanced and symmetric and a direction of the fibres of the plies of the inner region is substantially 0 degrees relative to a radial axis of the fan blade from the root to the tip of the fan blade.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.