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US 2017/0248076 A1Published application
Gas turbine engine with thermoelectric cooling air heat exchanger
AssigneeRolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc.
InventorsDouglas D. Dierksmeier, Daniel K. Vetters, Michael A. Karam
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Abstract
A gas turbine engine includes a cooling air system, a coolant system, and a thermoelectric heat exchanger adapted for selective operation in response to operational states of the gas turbine engine.
Claims20
A gas turbine engine comprising
- a cooling air system adapted to provide cooling air to portions of the gas turbine engine,
- a coolant system adapted to provide coolant for heat exchange with the cooling air system of the gas turbine engine, and
- a thermoelectric heat exchanger including a cooling air passageway fluidly coupled to the cooling air system to conduct cooling air of the cooling air system therethrough, a coolant passageway fluidly coupled to the cooling system to conduct coolant of the coolant system therethrough, and a thermoelectric section configured in thermal communication with each of the cooling air passageway and the coolant passageway.
A gas turbine engine for generating power from combustion of fuel, comprising
- a compressor configured to pressurized air,
- a combustor configured to receive pressurized air from the compressor and fuel for combustion to yield combustion products,
- a turbine configured to receive and expand combustion products from the combustor to drive rotation around a central axis, and
- a thermoelectric heat exchanger including a cooling air passageway fluidly coupled to the compressor to receive pressurized air through the cooling air passageway, a coolant passageway fluidly coupled to a coolant system to receive coolant through the coolant passageway, and a thermoelectric section configured in thermal communication with each of the cooling air passageway and the coolant passageway.
1 more element
A method of operating a gas turbine engine for providing propulsion for an aircraft, the method comprising
- determining an operational state of the gas turbine engine,
- based on the determined operational state, determining whether excess thermal differential exists between a cooling air system and a coolant system of the gas turbine engine,
- based on the determined operational state, selectively:
- applying voltage across a thermoelectric section of a thermoelectric heat exchanger of the gas turbine engine in response to determination that excess thermal differential does not exist, or
- extracting electric power from the thermoelectric section of the thermoelectric heat exchanger in response to determination that excess thermal differential does exist.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.