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US 2006/0123795 A1Published application
Bearing chamber pressurization system
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorsJason Fish, Pierre-Yves Legare, Eduardo Hawie
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and device for improved pressure balancing in a bearing chamber pressurization system for gas turbine engines employ a partition member to substantially separate first and second air-oil seals of the bearing housing.
Claims16
A bearing chamber pressurization system for a gas turbine engine, comprising:
- a bearing housing defining a bearing chamber therein, the housing having first and second air-oil seals;
- a source of pressurized air communicating with the air-oil seals along an air flow path;
- a partition disposed within the air flow path between the first and second air-oil seals of the bearing housing;
- and
- at least one metering orifice in the air flow path upstream of the second air-oil seal, forming a passage by-passing the first air-oil seal, the orifice being disposed in the partition and adapted to regulate relative pressures of the pressurized air provided to the first and second air-oil seals.
2 more elements
A bearing chamber pressurization system for a gas turbine engine, comprising:
- a bearing housing defining a bearing chamber therein, the housing having first and second air-oil seals;
- a source of pressurized air communicating with the air-oil seals along an air flow path;
- means for regulating a pressure of the pressurized air, said means being provided at least partially by a centrifugal compressor heat shield of the engine and adapted to provide a pre-determined pressure difference in the pressurized air provided to the first and second air-oil seals, said pressure difference adapted to preferentially direct an oil leak from the housing through the second air-oil seal.
A method of controlling pressurized air delivered to a plurality of air-oil seals of a bearing housing in a gas turbine engine, the method comprising:
- directing an compressor bleed air flow to the bearing housing;
- dividing the flow into at least two flows;
- directing a first flow to a first air-oil seal;
- metering a second flow and thereby creating a step drop in pressure thereof;
- and
- directing the pressure dropped second flow to a second air-oil seal,
- wherein the step drop in pressure is adapted in magnitude to provide a pre-selected pressure differential between air pressures of the first and second flows provided to the first and second air-oil seals.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.