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US 7,451,753 B2Granted
Pre-heating of a liquid in an aircraft reservoir
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorsJoshua David Bell, Kevin Allan Dooley, William J. K. Savage
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electric motor thermally associated with a liquid reservoir of an aircraft engine is selectively operated to generate heat for pre-heating a liquid in a reservoir prior to engine start.
Claims14
An apparatus for pre-heating liquid in a liquid reservoir of an aircraft engine, the apparatus comprising:
- a liquid system communicating with the aircraft engine;
- an electric motor connected to a pump for pumping the liquid from the reservoir into the liquid system, at least the motor mounted to the reservoir, and
- a controller associated with the electric motor and the pump to selectively set the electric motor and the pump at least in a pre-heating mode and a pumping mode, the motor in the pre-heating mode generating and transferring heat to the liquid in the reservoir while the pump is substantially prevented from pumping the liquid into the liquid system.
An apparatus for heating liquid in a reservoir of a gas turbine engine, the apparatus comprising:
- an electric motor thermally associated with the reservoir, the motor having a rotor;
- means for selectively locking the rotor of the motor while electrical power is provided to the motor so as to generate heat to thereby transfer heat to the liquid in the reservoir.
A method of pre-heating liquid of an aircraft engine, the method comprising:
- providing an electric pump unit mounted to a liquid reservoir, the pump unit and the reservoir communicating with an aircraft engine liquid system;
- pre-heating the liquid in the reservoir by supplying electrical power to the pump unit, thereby causing the pump unit to heat the liquid;
- controlling the pump unit to prevent pumping of liquid to the aircraft engine liquid system during said pre-heating;
- and then
- staffing the engine.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.