Stress Reduction Feature to Improve Fuel Nozzle Sheath Durability
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorsBhawan PATEL, Nagaraja Rudrapatna
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fuel nozzle sheath has a lateral opening for admitting air about a nozzle stem. The stress distribution along the perimeter of the window is smoothed out by increasing the corner radius of the window corner presenting higher stress concentration.
Claims19
A fuel nozzle sheath adapted to be mounted about a gas turbine engine fuel nozzle stem having a spray tip, the sheath comprising a tubular body having a perimeter and extending longitudinally from a first end to an opposite second end, the first end being adapted to surround an inlet portion of the fuel nozzle stem while the second end surrounds the spray tip, and a lateral opening defined through the tubular body and extending longitudinally along at least a portion of said perimeter, said lateral opening having four corners, the radius of at least one of said corners being larger than the radii of the other corners.
A gas turbine engine fuel nozzle comprising:
- a fuel conveying member defining at least one fuel passage, a spray tip connected in fluid flow communication with said at least one fuel passage, said spray tip having an air discharged openings, a sheath provided about said fuel conveying member, an air passage defined between said fuel conveying member and said sheath, said air passage leading to said air discharged openings, a window defined in said sheath for supplying air to said air passage, said window being circumscribed by an edge having at least one corner presenting a stress concentration, and wherein said stress concentration is smoothed out by increasing a radius of curvature of said corner.
A method of smoothing out a stress distribution in a fuel nozzle sheath mounted about a fuel conveying member of a filet nozzle, the fuel nozzle sheath defining a lateral window for supplying air about the fuel conveying member, the method comprising:
- reducing a stress concentration at a first corner of said window by increasing a corner radius of said first corner.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.