Controlling lubricant flow in epicyclic gearbox
AssigneeRaytheon Technologies Corporation
InventorsPaul H. Dolman, Michael E. McCune
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A disclosed lubrication system for a turbofan engine includes a pump for driving lubricant through a lubrication circuit, at least one sensor generating a signal indicative of an engine operating condition and at least one valve for controlling a flow of lubricant through the lubrication circuit. A controller controls operation of the valve to vary the flow of lubricant based on the engine operating condition to maintain lubricant flow within predefined operating limits.
Claims18
A lubrication system for a gas turbine engine comprising:
- a pump for driving lubricant through a lubrication circuit, wherein the lubrication circuit includes a first lubricant line for providing a first flow of lubricant to a first location requiring lubricant and a second lubricant line for providing a second flow of lubricant to a second location requiring lubricant;
- a speed change device, wherein the first location and the second location are part of the speed change device;
- at least one sensor for generating a signal indicative of an operating condition;
- at least one valve for controlling a flow of lubricant through the lubrication circuit to the first location and to the second location;
- and
- a controller for controlling operation of the at least one valve to vary the flow of lubricant based on the operating condition, wherein the controller is configured to vary each of the first flow of lubricant to the first location and the second flow of lubricant to the second location based on a plurality of predefined lubricant flow rates corresponding to the operating condition such that the second flow of lubricant to the second location is varied independent of a variation of the first flow of lubricant to the first location.
A method of operating a lubrication system of a gas turbine engine comprising;
- determining a plurality of desired lubricant flow rates to a first location of a speed change device and a second location within the speed change device corresponding to an operating condition;
- generating a signal indicative of an operating condition with at least one sensor;
- and
- varying lubricant flow to through a first lubricant line to the first location and through a second lubricant line to the second location based on the determined plurality of desired lubricant flow rates corresponding to the signal indicative of the sensed operating condition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.