Geared turbofan gas turbine engine with reliability check on gear connection
OwnerMichael E. McCune, Frederick M. Schwarzinventors
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Abstract
A gas turbine engine includes a fan and a compressor. A combustor drives a turbine, including a first turbine with a shaft to drive the compressor. A fan drive turbine drives the fan through a speed reduction. A sensor senses a speed of rotation of the fan and communicates sensed speed information to a control. The control develops an expected speed for the fan. A problem is identified should the sensed speed be less than the expected speed by more than a predetermined amount. A method is also described.
Claims21
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a fan;
- a compressor section;
- a combustor;
- a turbine system, including a first turbine including a shaft to drive said compressor, and at least a fan drive turbine, said fan drive turbine being operable to drive said fan through a speed reduction;
- and
- a sensor to sense a speed of rotation of said fan and communicate said sensed speed to a control, said control being operable to develop an expected speed for said fan and identify a problem should said sensed speed be less than the expected speed by more than a predetermined amount.
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a fan;
- a compression section, including at least a first compressor and a second compressor downstream of said first compressor;
- a combustor;
- a turbine system, including a first turbine including a shaft to drive said second compressor, and at least a fan drive turbine, said fan drive turbine being operable to drive said fan through a speed reduction, an intermediate turbine positioned between said first and fan drive turbines, and said intermediate turbine drives said first compressor;
- a sensor to sense rotation information of said fan and communicate said sensed information to a control, said control being operable to develop expected information for said fan and identify a problem should said sensed information be different than the expected information by more than a predetermined amount;
- a sensor associated with said fan drive turbine to sense rotation information of said fan drive turbine;
- information relative to said fan drive turbine being utilized to determine said expected information of said fan;
- and
- said engine being shut down should said sensed information differ from said expected information by more than a predetermined amount, and said sensed rotation information being based upon a time of arrival of a feature that rotates with said fan, and said expected speed being developed by sensing a time of arrival of a feature rotating with said fan drive turbine to develop said expected information.
A method of operating a gas turbine engine comprising:
- a turbine system having a first turbine including a shaft driving a high compressor, and at least a fan drive turbine driving a fan through a speed reduction;
- and
- sensing a speed of rotation of said fan and comparing a sensed speed to an expected speed for said fan and identifying a problem should said sensed speed of said fan be less than the expected speed by more than a predetermined amount.
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a fan and a fan drive turbine for driving said turbine through a speed reduction;
- and
- a sensor for sensing speed of rotation of said fan, and communicating said sensed speed to a control, said control configured for determining an expected speed for said fan and identifying when said sensed speed differs from said expected speed by more than a predetermined amount.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.