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US 12,372,050 B2Granted
Removing non-homogeneous ice from a fuel system
AssigneeRtx Corporation
InventorBehzad Hagshenas
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The presently disclosed embodiments utilize an ice separator vessel to trap ice particles in a non-homogeneous ice/fuel mixture flowing in a fuel system. A source of heat, such as heated fuel provided to the ice separator vessel, is used to melt at least a portion of the ice particles so that they do not enter the fuel system downstream of the ice separator vessel.
Claims9
A fuel system comprising:
- an ice separator vessel configured to separate ice particles from a first supply of fuel comprising a non-homogeneous fuel/ice mixture, the first supply of fuel being supplied to the ice separator vessel by a fuel supply line at a first ice separator vessel input;
- a first stage pump coupled to an output of the ice separator vessel;
- a heat exchanger coupled to an output of the first stage pump;
- a second stage pump coupled to a fuel output of the heat exchanger;
- a pump relief check valve coupled to an output of the second stage pump,
- wherein the pump relief check valve provides heated fuel to a second input of the ice separator vessel and wherein the heated fuel is at a temperature greater than a temperature of the first supply of fuel and the heated fuel melts at least a portion of the ice particles in the ice separator vessel, wherein the heat exchanger is a fuel oil heat exchanger in a gas turbine engine.
3 more elements
A fuel system comprising:
- an ice separator vessel configured to separate ice particles from a first supply of fuel comprising a non-homogeneous fuel/ice mixture, and to receive a second supply of fuel;
- wherein the second supply of fuel melts at least a portion of the ice particles in the ice separator vessel.
A fuel system, comprising:
- a first supply of first fuel comprising a non-homogeneous fuel/ice mixture at a first temperature;
- a vessel including a first vessel input operatively coupled to the first supply of the first fuel, a second vessel input, and a vessel output, the vessel being operative to substantially separate at least a portion of ice particles from the non-homogeneous fuel/ice mixture such that fuel may be discharged from the vessel output while the at least the portion of ice particles remain in the vessel;
- and
- a second supply of second fuel at a second temperature greater than the first temperature, the second supply of the second fuel operatively coupled to the second vessel input;
- wherein the second fuel applied to the second vessel input is operative to melt the at least the portion of the ice particles within the vessel.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.