Combustion chamber wall and a method of manufacturing a combustion chamber wall

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10260749-B2
Application number	US-201514608943-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2015
Priority date	Feb 27, 2014
Publication date	Apr 16, 2019
Grant date	Apr 16, 2019

Abstract

A combustion chamber wall is hollow, has a first surface and a second surface and includes a plurality of polyhedron shaped chambers defined by a matrix of integral interconnected walls. The walls of the chambers in a first layer define the first surface of the combustion chamber wall and the walls of the chambers in a third layer define the second surface of the combustion chamber wall. The chambers are fluidly interconnected by apertures extending through the integral interconnected walls of the chambers for the flow of coolant there-between. The walls of the chambers in the first layer have apertures extending there-through to supply coolant into the first layer and the walls of the chambers in the third layer have apertures extending there-through to supply coolant from the third layer into the combustion chamber. The combustion chamber wall is manufactured by additive layer manufacture.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An annular combustion chamber wall, which is hollow, the annular combustion chamber wall comprising:
a first surface located on an outer side of the annular combustion chamber wall;
a second surface located on an inner side of the annular combustion chamber wall forming an inner side of a combustion chamber;
a plurality of polyhedron shaped chambers defined by a matrix of integral interconnected walls, the plurality of polyhedron shaped chambers being arranged in at least two layers between the first surface and the second surface including:
a first layer formed by the integral interconnected walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers and defining the first surface of the annular combustion chamber wall; and
a second layer formed by the integral interconnected walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers and defining the second surface of the annular combustion chamber wall;

a plurality of apertures extending through the integral interconnected walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers for the flow of coolant there-between, the apertures fluidly interconnecting the polyhedron shaped chambers in each layer to the polyhedron shaped chambers in each adjacent layer, adjacent polyhedron shaped chambers share a common wall, a first plurality of apertures of the plurality of apertures extending through the integral interconnected walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers in the first layer from the first surface to supply coolant into the first layer, and a second plurality of apertures of the plurality of apertures extending through the integral interconnected walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers in the second layer to the second surface to supply coolant from the second layer into the combustion chamber;
at least one rib formed on an interior surface of at least one of the interconnected walls within at least one of the plurality of polyhedron shaped chambers, the at least one rib projecting from the interior surface towards another one of the interconnected walls that is on an opposite side of the polyhedron shaped chamber from the interior surface and into the at least one polyhedron shaped chamber, the at least one rib extending along a length of the annular combustion chamber wall; and
a plurality of circumferential segments joined together to form the annular combustion chamber wall, each having a circumferential ends, the circumferential ends of each of the plurality of circumferential segments including a tongue or a groove configured to be inserted into a groove or to receive a tongue of an adjacent circumferential segment of the plurality of circumferential segments, the circumferential ends of each of the plurality of circumferential segments being formed of solid metal or a plurality of layers of polyhedron shaped chambers.

2. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein all the polyhedron shaped chambers have a same shape.

3. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the polyhedron shaped chambers are selected from the group consisting of: parallelogram sided cuboid shaped chambers, square based pyramid shaped chambers, rhombic dodecahedron shaped chambers, elongated dodecahedron shaped chambers, truncated dodecahedron shaped chambers, spherical shaped chambers, spheroid shaped chambers and two types of polyhedron shaped chambers.

4. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 3 , wherein:
the polyhedron shaped chambers are elongated dodecahedron shaped chambers, the elongated dodecahedron shaped chambers being elongated in a longitudinal direction of the annular combustion chamber,
the annular combustion chamber wall includes three layers of the elongated dodecahedron shaped chambers, and
the elongated dodecahedron shaped chambers in the first layer are adjacent to the elongated dodecahedron shaped chambers in the second layer, and the elongated dodecahedron shaped chambers in a third layer are longitudinally located between two rows of the elongated dodecahedron shaped chambers in the first layer and two rows of the elongated dodecahedron shaped chambers in the second layer.

5. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the polyhedron shaped chambers are rhombic dodecahedron shaped chambers.

6. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a thickness of a wall of each polyhedron shaped chamber is in a range of 0.2 to 2 mm.

7. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a distance between walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers is 1 to 4 mm.

8. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein one or two layers of polyhedron shaped chambers are provided between the first layer and the second layer.

9. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first surface of the annular combustion chamber wall is multi-faceted and the facets are defined by walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers in the first layer.

10. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 9 , wherein a portion of the facets defined by the walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers in the first layer face in an upstream direction, the portion of the facets facing in the upstream direction include apertures extending there-through to supply coolant into the first layer.

11. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the portion of the facets facing in the upstream direction have a same cross-sectional area as the portion of the facets facing in a downstream direction, such that the portion of the facets facing in the downstream direction form scoops to supply coolant through the apertures in the portion of the facets facing in the upstream direction into the first layer.

12. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first surface has at least one rib extending from the first surface in a direction away from the second surface.

13. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first surface is corrugated.

14. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the second surface is cylindrical, and
downstream walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers defining the second surface include apertures extending through the downstream walls to supply coolant from the second layer in a downstream direction into the annular combustion chamber.

15. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the apertures in the downstream walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers defining the second surface have a same cross-sectional area as the downstream walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers.

16. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the apertures extending through the downstream walls are fan shaped and the fan shape diverges in a direction perpendicular to the downstream direction.

17. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a plurality of the polyhedron shaped chambers have at least one rib extending from at least one of the walls of the polyhedron shaped chambers into respective polyhedron shaped chambers.

18. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the combustion chamber wall is formed from a superalloy selected from a group consisting of: a nickel base superalloy, a cobalt base superalloy and an iron base superalloy.

19. The annular combustion chamber wall as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a thermal barrier coating is provided on the second surface of the annular combustion chamb

Assignees

• Rolls Royce Plc

Inventors

• Harding Stephen Charles

Classifications

• B22F12/70

  Gas flow means · CPC title

• B22F10/32

  of the atmosphere, e.g. composition or pressure in a building chamber · CPC title

• B22F12/41

  characterised by the type, e.g. laser or electron beam · CPC title

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title

• Y10T29/49231

  I.C. [internal combustion] engine making · CPC title