Subsonic swept fan blade
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorsEdward J. Gallagher, Thomas H. Rogers
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A gas turbine engine includes a spool, a turbine coupled to drive the spool, a propulsor coupled to be driven at a at a design speed by the turbine through the spool, and a gear assembly coupled between the propulsor and the spool. Rotation of the turbine drives the propulsor at a different speed than the spool. The propulsor includes a hub and a row of propulsor blades that extend from the hub. Each of the propulsor blades includes an airfoil body. The leading edge of the airfoil body has a swept profile such that, at the design speed, a component of a relative velocity vector of a working gas that is normal to the leading edge is subsonic along the entire radial span.
Claims10
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a spool;
- a turbine coupled with said spool;
- a propulsor coupled to be rotated at a design speed about an axis by said turbine through said spool;
- and
- a gear assembly coupled between said propulsor and said spool such that rotation of said turbine drives said propulsor at a different speed than said spool,
- wherein said propulsor includes a hub and a row of propulsor blades that extend from said hub, each of said propulsor blades includes an airfoil body that extends in a radial span between a root and a tip, in a chord direction between a leading edge and a trailing edge and in a thickness direction between a pressure side and a suction side, said leading edge of the airfoil body has a swept profile such that, at the design speed, a component of a relative velocity vector of a working gas that is normal to the leading edge is subsonic along the entire radial span,
- wherein said swept profile has a rearward sweep from 0% to at least 50% of the radial span and a forward sweep from at least 60% to 100% of said radial span, with said root being at 0% of said radial span and said tip being at 100% of said radial span, said rearward sweep has a sweep angle of less than 15°, and said swept profile has a single, exclusive transition between a rearward sweep and a forward sweep from 0% to 100% of said radial span.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.