Back to results
US 8,747,055 B2Granted
Geared architecture for high speed and small volume fan drive turbine
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorsMichael E. McCune, Jason Husband, Frederick M. Schwarz, Daniel Bernard Kupratis, Gabriel L. Suciu, William K. Ackermann
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A gas turbine engine includes a flex mount for a fan drive gear system. A very high speed fan drive turbine drives the fan drive gear system.
Claims20
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a fan shaft driving a fan;
- a frame which supports said fan shaft;
- a plurality of gears to drive said fan shaft;
- a flexible support which at least partially supports said plurality of gears, said flexible support having a lesser stiffness than said frame;
- a first turbine section providing a drive input into said plurality of gears;
- and
- a second turbine section,
- wherein said first turbine section has a first exit area at a first exit point and rotates at a first speed,
- wherein said second turbine section has a second exit area at a second exit point and rotates at a second speed, which is faster than the first speed,
- wherein a first performance quantity is defined as the product of the first speed squared and the first area,
- wherein a second performance quantity is defined as the product of the second speed squared and the second area, and
- wherein a ratio of the first performance quantity to the second performance quantity is between about 0.5 and about 1.5.
9 more elements
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a fan shaft driving a fan;
- a frame which supports said fan shaft;
- a plurality of gears which drives the fan shaft;
- a flexible support which at least partially supports said plurality of gears, said flexible support having a lesser stiffness than said frame;
- a high pressure turbine;
- a low pressure turbine, said low pressure turbine being configured to drive one of said plurality of gears;
- a ratio of a thrust provided by said engine, to a volume of a turbine section including both said high pressure turbine and said low pressure turbine being greater than or equal to about 1.5 and less than or equal to about 5.5 lbf/inch3.
4 more elements
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a fan shaft;
- a frame which supports said fan shaft, said frame defines at least one of a frame lateral stiffness and a frame transverse stiffness;
- a gear system which drives said fan shaft;
- a flexible support which at least partially supports said gear system, said flexible support defines at least one of a flexible support lateral stiffness with respect to said frame lateral stiffness and a flexible support transverse stiffness with respect to said frame transverse stiffness;
- and
- an input coupling to said gear system, said input coupling defines at least one of an input coupling lateral stiffness with respect to said frame lateral stiffness and an input coupling transverse stiffness with respect to said frame transverse stiffness.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.