Back to results
US 12,338,766 B1Granted
Steam injected turbine engine steam generation control
AssigneeRtx Corporation
InventorsAbbas A. Alahyari, Neil J. Terwilliger, Milos Ilak, Daniel T. Pollock
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A propulsion system for an aircraft includes at least two steam generation assemblies that each include a condenser where water is extracted from the gas flow and an evaporator where the extracted water is heated to generate a portion of a total steam flow for injection into the core flow path. A monitoring system is configured to gather information indicative of operation of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies. A control system is configured to independently adjust operation of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies.
Claims20
A propulsion system for an aircraft comprising:
- a core engine including a core flow path where air is compressed in a compressor section, communicated to a combustor section, mixed with fuel, and ignited to generate a gas flow that is expanded through a turbine section;
- at least two steam generation assemblies that each include a condenser where water is extracted from the gas flow and an evaporator where the extracted water is heated to generate a portion of a total steam flow for injection into the core flow path, wherein a capacity for generating a portion of the total steam flow is different for each of the at least two steam generation assemblies;
- a monitoring system configured to gather information indicative of operation of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies;
- a control system configured to independently adjust operation of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies;
- and
- a controller programmed to receive information gathered by the monitoring system and operate the control system to adjust operation independently and individually of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies to control the total steam flow to maintain generation of a predefined quantity of the total steam flow, the controller is further programmed to operate the control system to generate the total steam flow from the at least two steam generation assemblies to maintain a predefined quantity of the total steam flow for a current engine operating condition, wherein the capacity for generating a portion of the total steam flow by each of the at least two steam generating assemblies varies during an engine operating cycle and the controller is further programmed to adjust continually and individually each of the at least two steam generating assemblies to maintain the predefined quantity of the total steam flow, and to shut down operation of at least one of the steam generation assemblies based on information from the monitoring system indicative of a deviation from a predefined operating condition outside of predefined limits.
3 more elements
A method of operating an aircraft propulsion system comprising:
- generating a gas flow with a core engine including a core flow path;
- generating a total steam flow for injection into the core flow path with at least two steam generation assemblies that each include a condenser where water is extracted from the gas flow and an evaporator where the extracted water is heated to generate a portion of the total steam flow;
- gathering information indicative of operation of the at least two steam generation assemblies with a monitoring system;
- independently adjust operation of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies with a controller operating at least one actuator to maintain a predefined quantity of the total steam flow, further comprising continually and individually adjusting each of the at least two steam generating assemblies during operation to maintain the predefined quantity of the total steam flow;
- and
- estimating operation of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies with a predictive model and adjusting operation to maintain the predefined quantity of total steam flow based on estimates from the predictive model.
3 more elements
A propulsion system for an aircraft comprising:
- a core engine including a core flow path where air is compressed in a compressor section, communicated to a combustor section, mixed with fuel, and ignited to generate a gas flow that is expanded through a turbine section;
- at least two steam generation assemblies that each include a condenser where water is extracted from the gas flow and an evaporator where the extracted water is heated to generate a portion of a total steam flow for injection into the core flow path;
- a monitoring system configured to gather information indicative of operation of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies;
- a control system configured to independently adjust operation of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies;
- and
- a controller programmed to receive information gathered by the monitoring system and operate the control system to adjust operation independently and individually of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies to control the total steam flow, wherein the controller further comprises a predictive model of each of the at least two steam generation assemblies that estimates operation based on the gathered information and the controller is further programmed to operate the control system based on the predictive model to generate the total steam flow from the at least two steam generation assemblies to maintain a predefined quantity of the total steam flow for a current engine operating condition.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.