Apparatus and method for reducing oil mist ingestion in a heavy duty gas turbine engine
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsSanji Ekanayake, Alston Ilford Scipio
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lubrication system for a heavy duty gas turbine includes a bearing lubrication assembly coupled to the bearing and an oil and vapor extraction assembly disposed in a cavity defined by a bell mouth hood in an air inlet duct. A high volume vacuum blower is coupled to the oil and vapor extraction assembly to provide a relative negative pressure. An oil and vapor separator is disposed downstream from the high volume vacuum blower. The lubrication system also includes a control subsystem that maintains a cavity pressure lower than an air inlet pressure.
Claims20
A lubrication system for a heavy duty gas turbine having an air inlet duct, an air inlet assembly disposed in the air inlet duct, the air inlet assembly having a bell mouth hood defining a cavity, and a bearing disposed in the cavity, the lubrication system comprising:
- a bearing lubrication assembly coupled to the bearing;
- an oil and vapor extraction assembly disposed in the cavity;
- a negative pressure assembly coupled to the oil and vapor extraction assembly;
- an oil and vapor separator disposed downstream from the negative pressure assembly;
- and
- a control subsystem that maintains a cavity pressure lower than an air inlet pressure.
A heavy duty gas turbine engine, comprising:
- an air inlet duct maintained at an air inlet pressure;
- an air inlet assembly disposed in the air inlet duct, the air inlet assembly comprising a bell mouth hood and defining a cavity maintained at a cavity pressure;
- a compressor bearing disposed in the cavity;
- a bearing lubrication assembly coupled to the bearing;
- an extraction assembly disposed in the cavity for extracting a mixture of oil and vapor from the cavity;
- a negative pressure assembly coupled to the extraction assembly;
- an oil and vapor separator disposed downstream from the negative pressure assembly;
- and
- a control subsystem that maintains the cavity pressure lower than the air inlet pressure.
A method for reducing oil mist ingestion by a compressor, the method comprising:
- sensing a compressor inlet pressure;
- generating an alarm if the cavity pressure is not below compressor inlet pressure;
- sensing a cavity pressure in a cavity in which a compressor bearing is disposed;
- maintaining the cavity pressure lower than the compressor inlet pressure;
- extracting a vapor and oil mixture from the cavity with a vacuum blower;
- conveying the vapor and oil mixture to a separator downstream from the vacuum blower;
- separating oil from the vapor and oil mixture;
- conveying the oil to an oil reservoir
- sensing the oil flow;
- generating an alarm if the oil flow is above or below thresholds.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.