Variable shape rotor blade
AssigneeROLLS-ROYCE plc
InventorsCosimo BUFFONE, John R. WEBSTER, Ian C.D. CARE
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rotor blade comprising a core blade section; and a trailing edge section, the trailing edge section being attached to the core blade section along a join interface. The trailing edge section comprises a shape memory material which is actuable so as to cause selective deformation of the trailing edge section between a first condition in which a trailing edge of the trailing edge section follows a substantially smooth profile and a second condition in which the trailing edge is perturbed. The direction of the perturbation may be oblique or perpendicular to the direction of flow over the blade in use. The rotor blade may be a fan or propeller for a gas turbine engine.
Claims17
A rotor blade comprising:
- a core blade section;
- and
- a trailing edge section, the trailing edge section being attached to the core blade section along a join interface,
- wherein the trailing edge section comprises a shape memory material which is actuable so as to cause selective deformation of the trailing edge section between a first condition in which a trailing edge of the trailing edge section follows a substantially smooth profile and a second condition in which the trailing edge is perturbed.
A rotor arrangement comprising:
- first and second rotor blade arrays mounted for rotation about a common axis, the first blade array being arranged to rotate in an opposite direction to the second blade array, wherein the first blade array is positioned upstream of the second blade array and comprises a plurality of blades, each blade having a core blade section and a tail section, wherein the tail section comprises actuation means for causing selective deformation of the trailing edge section between a first condition in which a trailing edge of the trailing edge section follows a smooth profile and a second condition in which the trailing edge is perturbed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.