Bearing support assembly
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsPrashant Bhujabal, Ravindra Shankar Ganiger, Narayanan Payyoor, Mohankumar Banakar, Weize Kang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A bearing support assembly to support one or more bearings on a shaft. The bearing support assembly includes a bearing support frame configured to be coupled to a static frame, a plurality of ribs connected to the bearing support frame, and a bearing support connected to the plurality of ribs and configured to support a bearing of the one or more bearings. The bearing support assembly has a non-axisymmetric stiffness around a circumference of the bearing support assembly.
Claims18
A bearing support assembly configured to support one or more bearings on a shaft, the bearing support assembly comprising:
- a bearing support frame configured to be coupled to a static frame;
- a plurality of ribs connected to the bearing support frame;
- and
- a bearing support connected to the plurality of ribs and configured to support a bearing of the one or more bearings,
- wherein the bearing support assembly has a non-axisymmetric stiffness varying around a circumference of the bearing support assembly, the non-axisymmetric stiffness being achieved by at least one of (i) a split bearing support, (ii) a hybrid rib arrangement of the plurality of ribs, the hybrid rib arrangement including a combination of solid ribs, hollow ribs, hollow-filled ribs, or any combination thereof, (iii) at least one rib of the plurality of ribs having a different orientation than at least one other rib of the plurality of ribs, at least one of the plurality of ribs being movable (iv) a gap between the bearing support and the bearing support frame, (v) a bearing support having a nonsymmetric cross section, or (vi) a bearing supplemental support,
- the non-axisymmetric stiffness resulting in a directional stiffness of the bearing support assembly, the directional stiffness of the bearing support assembly resulting in an active support of the bearings on the shaft at various locations around the circumference of the bearing support assembly based on the directional stiffness at one of the locations.
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a rotating shaft for driving a component of the gas turbine engine;
- a bearing to support rotation of the rotating shaft with respect to a static frame;
- and
- a bearing support assembly coupled between the static frame and the bearing, the bearing support assembly comprising:
- a bearing support frame coupled to the static frame;
- a plurality of ribs connected to the bearing support frame;
- and
- a bearing support connected to the plurality of ribs and configured to support the bearing,
- wherein the bearing support assembly has a non-axisymmetric stiffness varying around a circumference of the bearing support assembly, the non-axisymmetric stiffness being achieved by at least one of (i) a split bearing support, (ii) a hybrid rib arrangement of the plurality of ribs, the hybrid rib arrangement including a combination of solid ribs, hollow ribs, hollow-filled ribs, or any combination thereof, (iii) at least one rib of the plurality of ribs having a different orientation than at least one other rib of the plurality of ribs, at least one of the plurality of ribs being movable (iv) a gap between the bearing support and the bearing support frame, (v) a bearing support having a nonsymmetric cross section, or (vi) a bearing supplemental support,
- the non-axisymmetric stiffness resulting in a directional stiffness of the bearing support assembly, the directional stiffness of the bearing support assembly resulting in an active support of the bearings on the shaft at various locations around the circumference of the bearing support assembly based on the directional stiffness at one of the locations.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.