Tip clearance control system
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorDaniel E. Kane
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention is a method for controlling blade tip clearance in a turbine engine having a flowpath extending therethrough, and a system for carrying out the method. The method includes acquiring a first nonpulsating pressure signal PC representative of tip clearance, sensing a second pressure PB substantially unaffected by tip clearance, forming an actual ratio of the acquired pressure and the sensed pressure, determining an error E having an actual component and a desired component, the actual component being a function of the actual ratio; and commanding a clearance control system to reduce the error.
Claims7
A method for controlling blade tip clearance in a turbine engine, the engine having a flowpath extending therethrough, the method comprising
- acquiring a nonpulsating pressure signal representative of tip clearance;
- sensing a pressure substantially unaffected by tip clearance;
- forming an actual ratio of the acquired pressure signal and the sensed pressure;
- determining an error having an actual component and a desired component, the actual component being a function of the actual ratio;
- and
- commanding a clearance control system to reduce the error.
A system for controlling blade tip clearance in the turbine of a turbine engine having a flowpath extending therethrough, the system comprising:
- a first sensor responsive to a nonpulsating first pressure signal representative of tip clearance;
- a second sensor responsive to a second pressure signal substantially unaffected by tip clearance;
- a controller for
- a) forming an actual ratio of the first and second pressure signals;
- b) determining an error having an actual component and a desired component, the actual component being a function of the actual ratio;
- c) reducing the error by issuing commands to change the first pressure signal;
- and
- wherein the actual component of the error is an estimated actual clearance and the desired component of the error is a desired clearance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.