Bearing cooling schemes for aircraft fans

#The present disclosure generally relates to cooling schemes for aircraft fans, and more specifically, cooling schemes for aircraft fans that employ foil bearings.

#Bearing cooling flow supply for motor driven fans using foil bearings originates from a low pressure source, such as ram air. These types of fans are traditionally used in environmental control systems. There is a need to use such fans/blowers as engine accessories to flow cool air through items including, but not limited to, oil coolers. Such engine accessories may have higher temperatures and thus cooling of bearings related to the fans/blowers may be more difficult than conventional configurations of such systems. Accordingly, improved cooling schemes for such fans/blowers may be desirable.

#According to some embodiments, aircraft blower systems are provided. The systems include a shaft, a motor having a stator and a rotor, the rotor being operably coupled to the shaft, a fan operably coupled to the shaft and configured to be driven by rotation of the shaft, one or more bearings arranged along the shaft, and a high pressure cooling source configured to supply high pressure air to the one or more bearings.

#The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1A is a schematic illustration of an aircraft that can incorporate various embodiments of the present disclosure;

#FIG. 1B is a schematic illustration of a bay section of the aircraft of FIG. 1A;

#FIGS. 1A-1B are schematic illustrations of an aircraft 101 that can employ one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIGS. 1A-1B, the aircraft 101 includes bays 103 beneath a center wing box. The bays 103 can contain and/or support one or more components of the aircraft 101. For example, in some configurations, the aircraft 101 can include environmental control systems and/or fuel inerting systems within the bay 103. As shown in FIG. 1B, the bay 103 includes bay doors 105 that enable installation and access to one or more components (e.g., environmental control systems, fuel inerting systems, etc.). During operation of environmental control systems and/or fuel inerting systems of the aircraft 101, air that is external to the aircraft 101 can flow into one or more environmental control systems within the bay doors 105 through one or more ram air inlets 107. The air may then flow through the environmental control systems to be processed and supplied to various components or locations within the aircraft 101 (e.g., passenger cabin, fuel inerting systems, etc.). Some air may be exhausted through one or more ram air exhaust outlets 109.

#Also shown in FIG. 1A, the aircraft 101 includes one or more engines 111. The engines 111 are typically mounted on wings of the aircraft 101 but may be located at other locations depending on the specific aircraft configuration. In some aircraft configurations, air can be bled from the engines 111 and supplied to environmental control systems and/or fuel inerting systems, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art. The engines 111 may be configured to generate both thrust for flight and electrical power generation for operation of electronics and/or other components onboard the aircraft 101.

#Turning now to FIG. 2, an example of an aircraft blower system 200 is shown. The aircraft blower system 200, also referred to as a fan system, may be arranged onboard an aircraft to provide cooling air for various auxiliary systems, such as environmental control systems of the aircraft. The aircraft blower system 200 includes a housing 202 with a motor section 204 and a fan section 206 arranged within the housing 202. A main flow path 208 is defined between the motor section 204 and an interior of the housing 202 with the fan section 206 arranged at an inlet side 232 of the aircraft blower system 200.