Acoustical anti-icing system
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
InventorsDaryl J. Graber, Gregory J. Mack
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Hollow inlet guide vanes in the air intake of a gas turbine engine are supplied with pressurized bleed air. The interior of the vanes are provided with orifices through which the bleed air must flow, and those orifices are tuned to a desired frequency which sets up vane vibrations. This arrangement provides deicing by both the supply of heated bleed air which impinges on the selected areas of the vanes and by the vibrations which are set up in the vanes, and it does so simply with the use of the bleed air.
Claims5
In a system for deicing a selected surface of an inlet guide vane of a gas turbine engine, the combination comprising:
- a hollow guide vane having at least one air inlet and one air outlet;
- a thin wall in said vane separating said inlet from said outlet, said wall having a plurality of orifices, said orifices being tuned to a selected frequency, said frequency being selected to set up vibrations in said vane;
- and
- means for supplying gas under pressure to said inlet, said gas passing through said tuned orifices to establish vibrations in said vane at said selected frequency.
In a gas turbine engine having an annular air inlet, and hollow inlet guide vanes radially disposed within said annular air inlet, each of said inlet guide vanes having a leading edge and a trailing edge and a radial air inlet and a radial air outlet, the improvement comprising:
- a thin wall fixed in said vane and separating said inlet and said outlet;
- a plurality of orifices in said thin wall, said orifices being tuned to a selected frequency, said frequency being selected to set up vibrations in said vane;
- and
- means for flowing heated gas through said orifices to impinge on selected areas of said inlet guide vane, whereby said areas are heated by said gas, and whereby the gas flowing through said tuned orifices cause the vibration of said inlet guide vanes at said selected frequency.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.