Fluid outlet duct
AssigneeROLLS-ROYCE plc
InventorBernard E. Seed
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to fluid outlet ducts particularly cooling air outlet ducts of a gas turbine engine. A fluid outlet duct for a gas turbine engine is divided across its width into a plurality of second plenum chambers, each of the second plenum chambers has an associated exit nozzle located in the casing of the gas turbine engine for discharging cooling air. The cooling air from a heat exchanger is supplied through a first plenum chamber to each of the second plenum chambers. Each of the second plenum chambers has a valve to vary the flow of cooling into the second plenum chambers so that the total flow area of the fluid outlet duct may be varied to obtain relatively high exit velocities for the cooling air to give good thrust recovery.
Claims10
A fluid outlet duct system from a heat exchanger of a gas turbine engine, the fluid outlet duct having a width and a total flow area, the system comprising:
- a first plenum chamber and a plurality of second plenum chambers,
- the first plenum chamber having means for receiving fluid from the heat exchanger,
- the plurality of second plenum chambers being arranged across the width of the fluid outlet duct, the plurality of second plenum chambers having means for receiving fluid from the first plenum chamber,
- each of the second plenum chambers having an associated exit nozzle for discharging the fluid, the exit nozzle of each of the second plenum chambers being located in a casing of the gas turbine engine, the exit nozzle of each of the second plenum chambers having a flow area,
- each of the second plenum chambers having valve means, the valve means being arranged to vary the flow of fluid into each of the second plenum chambers,
- the total flow area of the fluid outlet duct being at least the sum of the flow areas of the exit nozzles of the second plenum chambers for which the valves means are open whereby the valve means may vary the total flow area of the fluid outlet duct to obtain relatively high exit velocities for the fluid discharging from each of the exit nozzles of the second plenum chambers to give good thrust recovery.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.