US 12,221,971 B1Granted

Bleed valve assembly for aircraft engines

AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.

InventorsDavid Menheere, Andrew Marshall

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Abstract

A compressor has: a rotor and a shroud having a internal and external sides and an air outlet; an annular case mounted to the external side and enclosing a plenum, the annular case having inner and outer sides and defining an aperture; a valve mounted to the annular case at the aperture and having: a support secured to the annular case and defining a seat surrounding a bleed passage, the seat located on the outer side, the support defining a guiding aperture, and a valve member having a head and a stem slidably received within the guiding aperture, the valve member having a closed position and an open position, the head abutting the valve seat in the closed position and offset from the valve seat in the open position; and an actuator engaged to the valve member for moving the valve member between the closed position and the open position.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A compressor for an aircraft engine, comprising:

a rotor rotatable about a central axis;
a shroud disposed around the rotor and surrounding a gaspath, the shroud having a internal side facing the rotor and an external side opposite the internal side, the shroud defining an air outlet extending through the shroud from the internal side to the external side;
an annular case extending around the central axis and mounted to the external side of the shroud radially outward of the air outlet, the annular case enclosing a plenum fluidly connected to the gaspath within the shroud via the air outlet extending through the shroud, the annular case having an inner side facing the external side of the shroud and an outer side opposite the inner side, the annular case defining an aperture extending from the inner side to the outer side;
a valve mounted to the annular case at the aperture, the valve having:
a valve support secured to the annular case and defining a valve seat surrounding a bleed passage, the valve seat located on the outer side of the annular case, the valve support defining a guiding aperture, and
a valve member having a valve head and a valve stem protruding from the valve head and slidably received within the guiding aperture, the valve member having a closed position and an open position, the valve head abutting the valve seat in the closed position and offset from the valve seat in the open position;
an actuator engaged to the valve member, the actuator configured for moving the valve member between the closed position and the open position;
and
a biasing member disposed between the valve head and the valve support, the biasing member exerting a biasing force on the valve head to bias the valve head in the open position.

6 more elements

An aircraft engine, comprising:

a compressor having a rotor rotatable about a central axis and a shroud disposed around the rotor, the shroud having an internal side facing the rotor and an external side opposite the internal side, the shroud defining an air outlet extending through the shroud from the internal side to the external side;
and
a bleed valve assembly having:
an annular case enclosing a plenum radially outward of the shroud, the plenum being fluidly connected to a gaspath of the aircraft engine via the air outlet, the annular case having an inner side facing the central axis and an outer side opposite the inner side, the annular case defining apertures extending from the inner side to the outer side;
and
commonly-actuated valves mounted to the annular case at the aperture, the commonly-actuated valves having valve members and valve supports, the valve supports secured to the annular case and defining valve seats surrounding bleed passages, the valve seats located on the outer side of the annular case, the commonly-actuated valves having an open configuration in which the valve members are offset from the valve seats and a closed configuration in which the valve members abut the valve seats;
and
an actuating system operatively connected to the commonly-actuated valves, the actuating system having a powered configuration to conjointly move all of the commonly-actuated valves from the open configuration towards the closed configuration, wherein the actuating system includes one of:
solenoids having coils extending around the valve members;
and
an actuator engaged to the valve members via a band, the band overlapping the valve members, the actuator configured to increase a tension in the band to move the valve members radially inwardly towards the central axis.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.