Cooling air cooler for a gas turbofan engine
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorErnest Elovic
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An air-to-air heat exchanger is provided for a gas turbofan engine to significantly reduce the quantity of cooling air that is presently needed to effectively cool the hot turbine parts. Typically, the turbine is internally cooled with air bled from the compressor which, though cooler than the turbine, has been heated due to the work done on it by the compressor. In accordance with the present invention, the heat exchanger is located internally of the bypass duct to place in heat exchange relationship a captured portion of the relatively cool bypass flow and this warmer compressor bleed air, thereby cooling the turbine coolant and significantly reducing the amount of such coolant required. This results in a decrease in engine specific fuel consumption.
Claims2
In a gas turbine engine of the bypass variety having a fan for pressurizing a cool flow of fan bypass air;
- a core engine including a compressor for pressurizing a hot flow of cooling air;
- a turbine of the air cooled variety;
- a heat exchanger for receiving a portion of the cool bypass air and a portion of the hot cooling air, wherein heat is transferred directly from the hot cooling air portion to the bypass air portion thereby resulting in a flow of cooled cooling air;
- and a means for routing the cooled cooling air to the turbine for turbine cooling;
- an improvement comprising:
- a duct for routing the bypass air around the core engine;
- means for capturing a portion of the bypass air from said duct, said capturing means defining a flow passage having a diffuser section to substantially recover the dynamic head of the fan bypass portion, and wherein said heat exchanger is disposed within said passage downstream of said diffuser section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.