Method and system for rotating air seal with integral flexible heat shield

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10247106-B2
Application number	US-201615183046-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2016
Priority date	Jun 15, 2016
Publication date	Apr 2, 2019
Grant date	Apr 2, 2019

Abstract

An apparatus and method of reducing a flow of fluid and heat between a first space and a second space in a rotatable machine and an integral seal and heat shield device are provided. The device includes an annular flange configured to couple to the rotating member of the rotatable machine and a multi-walled seal shield member extending axially from the flange. The multi-walled seal shield member is formed integrally with the flange. The seal shield member includes a first wall including a plurality of surface features, a second wall spaced radially inwardly with respect to the first wall, and a cavity formed between the first and second walls. The integral seal and heat shield device also includes a cap end integrally formed and configured to seal the first and second walls. Each of the flange, the seal shield member, and the cap end are formed of a sintered metal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An integral seal and heat shield device for use in a rotatable machine including a rotatable member having a longitudinal axis of rotation, said seal and heat shield device comprising:
an annular radially extending flange configured to couple to the rotating member of the rotatable machine;
a multi-walled seal shield member extending axially from said flange, said multi-walled seal shield member formed integrally with said flange, said multi-walled seal shield member comprising:
a first wall comprising a plurality of surface features;
a second wall spaced radially inwardly with respect to said first wall, said second wall configured to direct a flow of fluid to a drain opening; and
a cavity formed between said first and second walls; and

a cap end integrally formed and configured to seal said first and second walls,
each of said flange, said seal shield member, and said cap end being formed of a sintered metal.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein each of said flange, said seal shield member, and said cap end are formed of at least one of a metallic powder and a metallic wire fused in layers from a first starting end to a second finishing end.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein said second wall comprises a surface divergent in an aft axial direction and configured to direct a flow of oil along said divergent surface and away from said forward cap end.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein said rotatable machine comprises a gas turbine engine and said rotatable member comprises a turbine shaft, said second wall comprising an aft extending lip configured to engage the turbine shaft in a friction fit engagement.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein said flange is configured to couple to said turbine shaft.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of surface features comprise at least one of a radially outwardly extending ridge, a radially inwardly extending trough, and a combination of ridges and troughs.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein at least some of said plurality of surface features are skewed with respect to the longitudinal axis by an angle greater than or equal to 0° and less than 90°.

8. The device of claim 7 , further comprising one or more secondary surface features configured to modify a windage effect of said surface features.

9. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a seal facing coupled to a surface of said seal shield member.

10. The device of claim 9 , further comprising a labyrinth seal honeycomb facing coupled to said surface of said seal shield member.

11. The device of claim 1 , wherein said cavity is at least one of sealed under vacuum and sealed containing an insulative fluid.

12. The device of claim 1 , wherein said cavity is at least one of vented and purged using an aperture through at least one of a wall of said of said multi-walled seal shield member and said connection flange.

13. The device of claim 12 , wherein said cavity is purged from a compressed air source.

14. The device of claim 1 , wherein said divergent surface includes a first inner diameter at an axially aft position and a second inner diameter at an axially forward position, said first inner diameter being greater than said second inner diameter.

15. The device of claim 1 , wherein said each of said flange, said seal shield member, and said cap end is formed of a continuous piece of sintered material.

16. The device of claim 1 , wherein each of said flange, said seal shield member, and said cap end being formed of at least one of a high-temperature alloy, cobalt chrome and an austenite nickel-chromium-based superalloy.

17. A method of reducing a flow of fluid and heat between a first space and a second space in a rotatable machine, said method comprising:
forming an annular seal shield of a sintered superalloy material using an additive manufacturing process, the seal shield including at least one of surface features configured to relieve stress in the seal shield during temperature transients and an oil-running lip configured to direct a flow of oil accumulated on a radially inner surface of the seal shield towards an oil drain opening;
aligning the seal shield to a rotatable member of the rotatable machine using a lip extending from a radially inner surface of the seal shield;
coupling the seal shield axisymmetrically to the rotatable member between the first space and the second space.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising coupling a sealing face to the seal shield, the sealing face configured to engage a non-rotatable complementary sealing device.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein forming an annular seal shield comprises forming the annular seal shield with at least some of the surface features aligned at an angle of between 0° and 89° with respect to the axis of rotation.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein forming an annular seal shield comprises forming the annular seal shield with the surface features circumferentially-spaced and aligned at an angle with respect to an axis of rotation of the rotatable member.

21. A gas turbine engine comprising:
a core engine including a multistage compressor, a combustor, and a high pressure (HP) turbine coupled in serial flow relation;
a low pressure turbine configured to receive combustion exhaust gases from said core engine; and
a seal and heat shield device positioned between a relatively low temperature space and a relatively high temperature space within said gas turbine engine, said seal and heat shield device comprising:
an annular radially extending flange configured to couple to the rotating member of the rotatable machine;
a multi-walled seal shield member extending axially from said flange, said multi-walled seal shield member formed integrally with said flange, said multi-walled seal shield member comprising:
a first wall comprising a plurality of surface features;
a second wall spaced radially inwardly with respect to said first wall, said second wall configured to direct a flow of fluid to a drain opening; and
a cavity formed between said first and second walls; and
a cap end integrally formed and configured to seal said first and second walls,

each of said flange, said seal shield member, and said cap end being formed of a sintered metal.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Dansereau Michael Thomas
• Snow Kyle Robert

Classifications

• F05D2260/609

  Deoiling or demisting · CPC title

• Y02T50/675

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• F05D2220/32

  in gas turbines · CPC title

• F01D25/32

  Collecting of condensation water; Drainage {; Removing solid particles} · CPC title

• F02C7/28 Primary

  Arrangement of seals · CPC title