Jet engine assembly and method for generating electricity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10830085-B2
Application number	US-201314896038-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2013
Priority date	Jun 6, 2013
Publication date	Nov 10, 2020
Grant date	Nov 10, 2020

Abstract

A jet engine assembly includes a jet engine having at least one spool and a generator. The generator comprising a rotor and a stator, with the rotor being operably coupled to the at least one spool, and an electronic commutator controlling the rotation of a magnetic field of the rotor such that the electric motor generates electricity. Also, a method of generating electricity from a generator having a stator and a rotor, the method comprising controlling a rotation of a magnetic field to generate electricity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A jet engine assembly comprising:
a jet engine having at least one spool;
a generator comprising:
a synchronous electric machine comprising a rotor and a stator, with the rotor being operably coupled to the at least one spool such that a rotational speed of the rotor varies with the speed of the spool, the rotor having a plurality of main machine rotor field windings defining a plurality of main machine rotor poles;
an exciter having an exciter stator and an exciter rotor, which rotates with the rotor of the synchronous machine, the exciter stator and rotor having a plurality of exciter rotor field windings corresponding to the plurality of main machine rotor field windings wherein the plurality of exciter rotor field windings are electrically coupled to a respective subset of the plurality of main machine rotor field windings of the synchronous electric machine rotor through rectifiers; and
an electronically commutating device coupled to a rotor speed sensor that receives a rotor speed signal from the rotor speed sensor and selectively energizing the plurality of main machine rotor field windings, by way of selectively energizing the plurality of exciter rotor field windings, to control a magnetic direction of each of the plurality of main machine rotor poles based on the rotor speed signal such that, when the generator is generating electricity at a generator output, the energizing the plurality of main machine rotor field windings generating a magnetic field rotating relative to the rotor, and the rotation of the magnetic field generates electricity at a predetermined frequency.

2. The jet engine assembly of claim 1 wherein the predetermined frequency comprises a constant frequency.

3. The jet engine assembly of claim 2 wherein the generated electricity comprises at least one of alternating current, multi-phase, constant voltage, and three-phase 115 VAC at 400 Hz.

4. The jet engine assembly of claim 1 further comprising at least one of an accessory gearbox directly coupling the rotor to the at least one spool, and the rotor operably coupled to the at least one spool without a constant speed device.

5. The jet engine assembly of claim 1 wherein the at least one spool comprises at least one of a low pressure spool and a high pressure spool.

6. The jet engine assembly of claim 1 wherein the generator further comprises a permanent magnet generator (PMG) having a PMG stator and a PMG rotor, which rotates with the rotor of a synchronous motor, and the PMG rotor comprises a first speed sensor.

7. The jet engine assembly of claim 1 wherein controlling the rotation of the magnetic field comprises controlling at least one of a rotational direction and a rotational speed such that the difference in the rotation of the magnetic field and the rotation of the rotor is constant.

8. A jet engine assembly comprising:
a jet engine having at least one spool;
a generator comprising:
a synchronous electric machine comprising a rotor and a stator, with the rotor being operably coupled to the at least one spool such that the speed of the rotor varies with the speed of the spool, the rotor having a plurality of main machine rotor field windings defining a plurality of main machine rotor poles and generating electricity at a generator output;
an exciter having an exciter stator and an exciter rotor, which rotates with the rotor of the synchronous machine, the exciter stator and rotor having a plurality of exciter rotor field windings corresponding to the plurality of main machine rotor field windings wherein the plurality of exciter rotor field windings are electrically coupled to a respective subset of the plurality of main machine rotor field windings of the synchronous electric machine rotor through rectifiers; and
an electronically commutating device coupled to a rotor speed sensor that receives a rotor speed signal from the rotor speed sensor and selectively energizing the plurality of main machine rotor field windings to control a magnetic direction of each of the plurality of main machine rotor poles based on the rotor speed signal such that the energizing the plurality of main machine rotor field windings generating a magnetic field rotating relative to the rotor, and wherein an effective rotation of the magnetic field relative to the stator generates electricity at a predetermined frequency independent of the speed of the rotor.

9. A method of generating electricity having a predetermined frequency from a generator having a stator and a rotor, which is rotated by a variable speed prime mover, the method comprising using an electronically commutating device coupled to a rotor speed sensor that receives a rotor speed signal from the rotor speed sensor and selectively energizes a set of main machine rotor field windings based on the rotor speed signal to dynamically generate a set of magnetic fields thereby controlling a rotation of a magnetic field of the rotor relative to the rotation of the rotor to generate electricity at the predetermined frequency.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the predetermined frequency comprises a constant frequency.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein controlling the rotation of the magnetic field comprises controlling at least one of the rotational speed and rotational direction of the magnetic field.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein controlling the rotation of the magnetic field comprises at least one of controlling the rotational speed of the magnetic field to maintain a constant difference in the relative speed between the rotational speeds of the magnetic field and the rotor, and controlling the rotational speed of the magnetic field relative to the rotational speed of the rotor to maintain a predetermined difference.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the predetermined difference is constant.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the generated electricity comprises at least one of alternating current, multi-phase, constant voltage, and three-phase 115 VAC at 400 Hz.

Assignees

• Ge Aviation Systems Llc

Inventors

• Blazer Rock O'Brien
• Rhynard Joshua Martin

Classifications

• H02P25/03

  with brushless excitation · CPC title

• H02K2213/06

  Machines characterised by the presence of fail safe, back up, redundant or other similar emergency arrangements · CPC title

• H02K19/38

  Structural association of synchronous generators with exciting machines · CPC title

• F05D2220/768

  equipped with permanent magnets · CPC title

• F05D2270/061

  in particular the electrical frequency of driven generator · CPC title