Air cooler for gas turbine engine
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorsBryan William OLVER, Daniel ALECU, Jason FISH, Zoran MARKOVIC
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A turbofan engine comprising an outer bypass duct, an annular bypass flow path between the outer bypass duct and a core engine, an engine component forming an airflow obstruction adjacent the outer bypass duct, an air cooler having a tube, the tube having at least a sinuous portion extending in the annular bypass flow path, the sinuous portion extending along the outer bypass duct, downstream of the airflow obstruction, the sinuous portion configured for exchanging heat between a fluid circulating in the tube and air circulating in the bypass flow path during operation of the turbofan engine.
Claims20
A turbofan engine comprising an outer bypass duct, an annular bypass flow path between the outer bypass duct and a core engine, an engine component forming an airflow obstruction adjacent the outer bypass duct, an air cooler having a tube, the tube having at least a sinuous portion extending in the annular bypass flow path, the sinuous portion extending along the outer bypass duct, downstream of the airflow obstruction, the sinuous portion configured for exchanging heat between a fluid circulating in the tube and air circulating in the bypass flow path during operation of the turbofan engine, wherein the sinuous portion has a circumferential span of at least 2% of a circumference of the annular bypass flow path.
A method of cooling a fluid in a turbofan engine, the method comprising conveying the fluid in a sinuous tube positioned along an outer bypass duct and exposed to bypass air flow, and shielding the sinuous tube from foreign object damage.
A heat exchanging element having a tube having an inlet and an outlet, the tube having a sinuous portion extending circumferentially around a main axis, and having a sequence of portions oriented in opposite radial orientations and connected to one another by a corresponding plurality of elbows, the sinuous portion being entirely contained within a given radial span.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.