Lubrication system for aerial vehicles
AssigneesGeneral Electric Company, Ge Aviation Czech S.R.O.
InventorsGabriele Mariotti, Vladimir Soukup, Robert Burton Brown, Emil Paul, Jakub Biganovsky, Martin Borovicka
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lubrication system for an aerial vehicle, the lubrication system including: a lubrication oil (LO) tank configured to operate at a first internal pressure; and an intake chamber (IC) configured to operate at a second internal pressure greater than the first internal pressure, the IC including an ingress port configured to receive LO from a sump of an equipment of the aerial vehicle; an overflow port in fluid communication with the LO tank; and a supply port in fluid communication with the sump and configured to supply LO to the sump.
Claims20
A lubrication system for an aerial vehicle, the lubrication system comprising:
- a lubrication oil (LO) tank configured to operate at a first internal pressure;
- and
- an intake chamber (IC) configured to operate at a second internal pressure greater than the first internal pressure, the IC comprising:
- an ingress port configured to receive LO from a sump of an equipment of the aerial vehicle;
- an overflow port in fluid communication with the LO tank;
- and
- a supply port in fluid communication with the sump and configured to supply LO to the sump.
An aerial vehicle comprising:
- equipment comprising a sump configured to receive lubrication oil (LO);
- a lubrication system in fluid communication with the sump and configured to continuously supply LO to the sump at a generally constant pressure independent of an attitude of the aerial vehicle with respect to gravitational force.
The aerial vehicle of claim 10, wherein the lubrication system comprises an intake chamber (IC) in fluid communication with one or more egress ports of the sump, wherein the IC is configured to receive LO from the one or more egress ports of the sump at a first pressure, P1, wherein the IC comprises:
- an overflow port in fluid communication with an LO tank configured to receive overflow LO from the IC, the overflow port being configured to dispense the overflow LO to the LO tank at a second pressure, P2;
- and
- a supply port configured to supply LO to the sump at a third pressure, P3, wherein P1 is generally equal to a sum of P2 and P3.
The aerial vehicle of claim 11, wherein the overflow port is configured to pass a flow of LO into the LO tank at substantially all times during operation of the aerial vehicle.
The aerial vehicle of claim 11, wherein P2 is variable, and wherein P3 is generally constant.
The aerial vehicle of claim 10, wherein the generally constant pressure of LO supplied to the sump by the lubrication system is configured to deviate from a desired pressure by less than 1 pound per square inch (PSI) during operation of the aerial vehicle.
A method of installing a lubrication system in an aerial vehicle, the method comprising:
- providing an intake chamber (IC) in the aerial vehicle such that an ingress port of the IC is in fluid communication with lubrication oil (LO) exiting a sump of an equipment of the aerial vehicle;
- fluidly coupling an overflow port of the IC to a LO tank of the aerial vehicle;
- and
- fluidly coupling a supply port of the IC to the sump, the IC being configured to supply LO to the sump.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.