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US 8,997,500 B2Granted
Gas turbine engine oil buffering
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorsJorn A. Glahn, Frederick M. Schwarz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A turbine engine includes a shaft, a fan, at least one bearing mounted on the shaft and rotationally supporting the fan, a fan drive gear system coupled to drive the fan, a bearing compartment around the at least one bearing and a source of pressurized air in communication with a region outside of the bearing compartment.
Claims20
A turbine engine comprising:
- a shaft;
- a fan;
- at least one bearing mounted on the shaft and rotationally supporting the fan;
- a fan drive gear system coupled to drive the fan;
- a bearing compartment around the at least one bearing;
- an accessory gearbox located radially outward of a core flow path;
- and
- a centrifugal compressor driven by the accessory gearbox configured to supply pressurized air to a region surrounding the bearing compartment.
5 more elements
A method of operating a turbine engine, the method comprising:
- in a gas turbine engine that includes a shaft, a fan, at least one bearing mounted on the shaft and rotationally supporting the fan, a fan drive gear system coupled to drive the fan, a bearing compartment around the at least one bearing, an accessory gearbox located radially outward of a core flow path, and a centrifugal compressor driven by the accessory gearbox configured to pressurize air, and providing the pressurized air to a region outside of the bearing compartment to establish a positive pressure differential between the region outside of the bearing compartment and an interior of the bearing compartment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.