Air intake with scroll portion and strutted portion for gas turbine engine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10030581-B2
Application number	US-201615052189-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 24, 2016
Priority date	Feb 24, 2016
Publication date	Jul 24, 2018
Grant date	Jul 24, 2018

Abstract

An air intake for efficiently channeling a flow of ambient air toward an air inlet of a turboprop or turboshaft gas turbine engine is disclosed. The air intake comprises an intake inlet for receiving the flow of air, an intake duct for channelling the flow of air, and an intake outlet for discharging the flow of air toward the air inlet of the gas turbine engine. The air intake may comprise a scroll portion and a strutted portion configured to receive the flow of air from the intake duct and channel the flow of air toward the intake outlet. The strutted portion may comprise one or more vanes for interacting with the flow of air. The intake duct may be oriented toward a flow direction of the air pushed aft by a propeller coupled to the gas turbine engine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An air intake for channeling a flow of ambient air toward an annular engine inlet of a gas turbine engine, the air intake having a reference axis that is substantially coaxial with the annular engine inlet when the air intake is installed on the gas turbine engine, the air intake comprising:
an intake inlet for receiving the flow of air therein, the intake inlet being generally axially facing and offset radially outwardly relative to the reference axis;
an intake duct in fluid communication with the intake inlet, the intake duct being configured to channel the flow of air received in the intake inlet;
a scroll portion in fluid communication with the intake duct and configured to channel the flow of air received from the intake duct, the scroll portion comprising a first scroll-shaped branch extending on one side of the reference axis and a second scroll-shaped branch extending on another side of the reference axis; and
a strutted portion in fluid communication with the scroll portion, the strutted portion being configured to receive the flow of air from the scroll portion and channel the flow of air toward an intake outlet of the air intake for discharging the flow of air toward the annular engine inlet, the strutted portion comprising one or more struts defining one or more respective vanes for interacting with the flow of air.

2. The air intake as defined in claim 1 , wherein the one or more struts define de-swirl vanes.

3. The air intake as defined in claim 1 , wherein the one or more struts comprise a first strut and a second strut respectively defining a first vane and a second vane for interacting with the flow of air from the first scroll-shaped branch, the first strut and the second strut being circumferentially spaced apart about the reference axis, the first vane and the second vane having different shapes.

4. The air intake as defined in claim 1 , wherein the first scroll-shaped branch and the second scroll-shaped branch merge together and a flow separator is disposed substantially at a merging location of the first scroll-shaped branch and the second scroll-shaped branch.

5. The air intake as defined in claim 4 , wherein the merging location is diametrically opposed to the intake duct relative to the reference axis.

6. The air intake as defined in claim 1 , wherein each of the first scroll-shaped branch and the second scroll-shaped branch defines an inner passage for channeling the flow of air, the inner passage being at least partially defined by a radially outer passage wall, the radially outer passage wall converging radially inwardly relative to the reference axis and along a streamwise direction of the air intake.

7. The air intake as defined in claim 6 , wherein a shape of the radially outer passage wall is at least partially defined based on an Archimedean spiral function.

8. The air intake as defined in claim 1 , wherein:
at least part of the intake duct adjacent the intake inlet extends along an intake axis that is non-parallel to the reference axis; and
the intake axis is oriented to be substantially parallel to a predetermined flow direction of an incoming mass of air, the intake axis being at an angle (β 1 ) that is greater than 0 degree and less than 5 degrees from the reference axis measured in a horizontal plane relative to the installed orientation of the air intake on the gas turbine engine.

9. The air intake as defined in claim 8 , wherein the intake duct has a first internal cross-sectional area at a first location proximal to the intake inlet and a second internal cross-section area at a second location downstream of the first location and along the intake axis, a ratio of the second internal cross-section area over the first internal cross-sectional area being between about 1.15 and about 1.25.

10. The air intake as defined in claim 8 , wherein the intake duct has a first internal cross-sectional area at a first location proximal to the intake inlet and a second internal cross-section area at a second location downstream of the first location and along the intake axis, a ratio of the second internal cross-section area over the first internal cross-sectional area being less than 2.0.

11. The air intake as defined in claim 10 , wherein the intake duct has a cross-sectional profile at the second location downstream of the first location that is kidney-shaped.

12. The air intake as defined in claim 11 , wherein the intake inlet has a cross-sectional profile that is kidney-shaped.

Assignees

• Pratt & Whitney Canada

Inventors

• Gekht Eugene
• Bisson Francois
• Cunningham Mark
• Desjardins Michel
• YAN Guo Rong

Classifications

• B64D33/02

  of combustion air intakes · CPC title

• B64D2033/0293

  for turboprop engines · CPC title

• F02C7/042 Primary

  having variable geometry · CPC title

• F05D2250/51

  Inlet · CPC title

• F02C6/206

  the vehicles being airscrew driven · CPC title