Bleed air systems for use with aircraft and related methods
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsSteve G. Mackin, Hosam E. El-Gabalawy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Bleed air systems for use with aircraft and related methods are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a compressor having a compressor inlet and a compressor outlet. The compressor inlet to receive airflow from a first air supply source. An air mixing device having a first mixer inlet to receive compressed air from the compressor outlet and a second mixer inlet to receive bleed air from a bleed air system. The bleed air to provide a motive fluid to enable the air mixing device to mix the bleed air and the compressed air to produce mixed air for the anti-icing system.
Claims20
A bleed air system comprising:
- a compressor mounted externally and separate from a core gas turbine engine, the compressor to be driven by the core gas turbine engine via a driveshaft operatively coupling the compressor and the core gas turbine engine, the compressor having a compressor inlet and a compressor outlet, the compressor inlet to receive airflow from a first air supply source;
- and
- an air mixing device having a first mixer inlet to receive compressed air from the compressor outlet and a second mixer inlet to receive bleed air directly from a bleed air system, the bleed air to provide a motive fluid to enable the air mixing device to mix the bleed air and the compressed air to produce mixed air for an anti-icing system.
A bleed air system for an aircraft, the bleed air system comprising:
- a compressor mounted external to and separate from a turbofan engine, the compressor to compress airflow received from a fan bypass duct;
- an air mixer having a first mixer inlet to receive compressed air from the compressor and a second mixer inlet to receive bleed air from a bleed air port, the air mixer to use the bleed air as motive fluid to mix the compressed air and the bleed air to produce mixed air at a discharge of the air mixer for an anti-icing system;
- wherein the second mixer inlet receives the bleed air directly from the bleed air port of the aircraft engine, and
- a controller to regulate a pressure of the compressed air at the first mixer inlet and a pressure of the bleed air at the second mixer inlet to produce the mixed air with a discharge pressure that is within a mixed air pressure threshold.
A method for controlling a bleed air system, the method comprising:
- receiving a flight condition;
- determining a heat flux of a mixed air to be discharged by an air mixer based on the flight condition;
- obtaining a reference pressure corresponding to the heat flux;
- providing fan air from a fan bypass to a compressor inlet of an external compressor mounted externally from a core compressor of an aircraft engine, the external compressor to provide compressed fan air at a compressor outlet of the external compressor;
- operating at least one of a first control valve a second control valve, the first control valve to regulate a pressure of the compressed fan air to a first mixer inlet of the air mixer, the second control valve to regulate a pressure of bleed air provided directly from the core compressor of the aircraft engine to a second mixer inlet of the air mixer, the bleed air to be received by the second mixer inlet via a duct directly coupled to the second mixer inlet, the compressed fan air and the bleed air, via the air mixer, to produce mixed air having a discharge pressure at a discharge of the air mixer that is within a mixed air pressure threshold of the reference pressure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.