Gas turbine rotor assembly methods
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorCAMERON WALTERS
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method of assembling a rotor assembly of a gas turbine engine having a plurality of components. The method comprises in one aspect calculating the bending forces due to the mass distribution along the rotor. In another aspect, an optimization routine iterates different rotor arrangements, comparing the calculated bending moments to determine a set of component positions that minimizes the bending forces. In another aspect, mass corrections are optimized to balance the rotor assembly.
Claims18
A method of assembling a rotor assembly of a gas turbine engine, the rotor assembly including a plurality of rotor components mounted between axially spaced-apart bearings, the method comprising the steps of:
- for an initial assembly of the rotor components, determining initial geometric data indicative of a radial deviation of a centre of mass of each rotor component relative to an axis of rotation of the assembly;
- determining an initial mass of each rotor component;
- using the initial geometric data and mass data to calculate unbalance forces at the rotor supports;
- calculating the bending moment distribution acting on the rotor induced by the rotor components;
- determining a set of rotor component stacking positions and associated bearing reactions which minimize bending moments in the rotor;
- and
- assembling the rotor assembly using said set of rotor component stacking positions.
A method of assembling a rotor assembly of a gas turbine engine having a plurality of components, the method comprising the steps of:
- determining bearing reaction loads and a bending moment induced by each component by using a mass and a center of mass location of each component;
- determining an assembly bending moment distribution for a plurality of combinations of component stacking positions and mass corrections,
- determining a rotor arrangement which provides a lowest total bending moment for the assembly,
- defining the component stacking positions and mass corrections associated with the lowest assembly bending moment as optimal stacking arrangement;
- and
- assembling the rotor assembly using said optimal stacking arrangement.
A method of assembling a rotor assembly of a gas turbine engine having a set of rotor components, the method comprising the steps of:
- for each rotor component, determining a mass and a location of a center of mass with respect to an axis of rotation of the rotor assembly;
- using the mass and the location of the center of mass to determine a static unbalance force associated with each rotor component;
- summing the static unbalance forces of the rotor components to provide a total static unbalance force of the rotor assembly;
- providing an optimized rotor arrangement by optimizing at least one mass correction to be applied to the rotor components to thereby minimize the total static unbalance force of the rotor assembly;
- and
- assembling the rotor in the optimized rotor arrangement, including applying said at least one optimized mass correction to the set of rotor components.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.