Seal panel for a gas turbine engine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10590801-B2
Application number	US-201815915551-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 8, 2018
Priority date	Mar 14, 2017
Publication date	Mar 17, 2020
Grant date	Mar 17, 2020

Abstract

Described is a shaft support system for a gas turbine engine comprising: a rotatable fan shaft; first and second support structures extending in parallel from the shaft to a load bearing structure to provide radial location of the shaft within an engine casing, wherein the first support and second support structures include first and second respective mechanical fusible joints; wherein the first fusible joint is a two-stage fuse which partially fails within a first predetermined load range, the second fusible joint fails within a second predetermined load range which is different to the first load range, and the first fusible joint fully fails only when the second fusible joint has failed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A gas turbine engine, comprising:
a fan;
a fan drive shaft driveably connected to the fan;
a bearing chamber located axially aft of the fan and including a bearing for rotational support of the fan drive shaft and a fused joint configured to sever under a first predetermined radial load;
a seal panel located axially between the fan and the bearing chamber, the seal panel extending between the fan drive shaft and a static structure and comprising a rotor portion and a stator portion; the rotor portion comprising a cantilever having an attached end attached to the fan drive shaft, and a free end; and
a seal partitioning the rotor portion and stator portion of the seal panel, the seal having respective rotating parts and a stationary parts and wherein the rotating part of the seal is mounted to the free end of the rotor portion cantilever;
wherein in either or both of the rotor portion or stator portion of the seal panel include a seal panel joint configured to sever upon a second predetermined radial load, and wherein the first predetermined radial load of the bearing chamber fused joint is greater than the second predetermined load of the seal panel joint.

2. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the stator portion of the seal panel comprises a cantilevered wall extending from an attached end which is attached to a static structure and a free end to which the stationary part of the seal is mounted.

3. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the stator portion cantilever includes a conical portion.

4. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the seal panel is attached to the bearing chamber.

5. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 4 , further comprising a second seal panel extending between the bearing chamber and an engine casing.

6. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the seal panel and the second seal panel are attached to the bearing chamber at a common node.

7. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the seal panel and the bearing chamber form part of a first chamber and the second seal panel and bearing chamber form part of a second chamber, and wherein the first and second sealed chambers are fluidically connected.

8. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the second seal panel includes a load reduction portion which is provided to allow the seal panel to deform under a predetermined radial load.

9. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the rotor portion cantilever lies in a radial plane normal to a rotational axis of the fan drive shaft.

10. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the second seal panel is a disc-like structure and load reduction portion is offset so as to be out-of-plane from the disc-like structure.

11. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the second seal panel is located in two parallel planes, and an undulation of the load reduction portion bridges the two parallel planes.

12. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the stator portion further comprises an annular seal plate having an axially extending part with a radially inwards facing seal surface which sealably opposes the rotating seal part.

13. A gas turbine engine as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the bearing chamber has fore and aft bearing chamber walls.

Assignees

• Rolls Royce Plc

Inventors

• Phillips Iain David Martin

Classifications

• F05D2240/50

  Bearings · CPC title

• F16C2360/23

  Gas turbine engines · CPC title

• F01D21/08

  Restoring position · CPC title

• F02C7/28

  Arrangement of seals · CPC title

• F05D2260/311

  of the frangible or shear type · CPC title