Turbine engine with airfoil having high acceleration and low blade turning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11434765-B2
Application number	US-202117148635-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 14, 2021
Priority date	Feb 11, 2020
Publication date	Sep 6, 2022
Grant date	Sep 6, 2022

Abstract

A turbine engine with at least a compressor section, combustor section, turbine section and a set of airfoils. The airfoils include geometric characteristics to create a high contraction ratio (CR), a low blade turning (BT) at a radially inward location the airfoil, a low solidity, or a low aspect ratio (AR).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A turbine engine comprising: at least one blade carried by a rotor and rotating about a rotational axis, the at least one blade comprising: an outer wall defining a pressure side and a suction side extending in a chord-wise direction between a leading edge to a trailing edge and extending in a span-wise direction between a root and a tip; a mean camber line extending between the leading edge and the trailing edge and intersecting the leading edge to define a leading edge intersection, and intersecting the trailing edge to define a trailing edge intersection; an inlet angle, β in , in degrees defined by an included angle between a line parallel to the mean camber line at the leading edge intersection and the rotational axis; an outlet angle, β out , in degrees defined by an included angle between a line parallel to the mean camber line at the trailing edge intersection and the rotational axis; wherein the at least one blade has a contraction ratio (CR) of greater than 0.55 along at least 80% of a span of the at least one blade, wherein the contraction ratio (CR) is determined by the formula:

C
⁢
R

=

1
-

(

cos
⁡
(

β
out

)

cos
⁡
(

β

i
⁢
n

)

)

wherein the at least one blade has a blade turning (BT) of less than 100 degrees along at least 30% of the span, wherein the blade turning (BT) is determined by the formula:

BT
=

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

β

o
⁢
u
⁢
t

❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"

+

β

i
⁢
n

×

β
out

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

β
out

❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"

.

2. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein β in constant along the span from the root to the tip.

3. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein β out is constant along the span from the root to the tip.

4. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein the blade turning (BT) is less than 90 degrees along at least 30% of the span.

5. The turbine engine of claim 4 wherein the blade turning (BT) is less than 110 degrees along the entire span.

6. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein the at least one blade comprises multiple blades that are circumferentially spaced about the rotor.

7. The turbine engine of claim 6 wherein a blade solidity of the multiple blades is less than 0.9.

8. The turbine engine of claim 6 wherein a blade aspect ratio of the multiple blades is less than 5 and at least 3.

9. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein the rotor has two counter-rotating portions, with the at least one blade being carried by at least one of the two counter-rotating portions.

10. The turbine engine of claim 9 wherein the at least one blade comprises a first blade on one of the counter-rotating portions and a second blade on the other of the counter-rotating portions.

11. An airfoil configured to rotate about a rotational axis and comprising: an outer wall defining a pressure side and a suction side extending in a chord-wise direction between a leading edge to a trailing edge and extending in a span-wise direction between a root and a tip; a mean camber line extending between the leading edge and the trailing edge and intersecting the leading edge to define a leading edge intersection, and intersecting the trailing edge to define a trailing edge intersection; an inlet angle, β in , in degrees defined by an included angle between a line parallel to the mean camber line at the leading edge intersection and the rotational axis; an outlet angle, β out , in degrees defined by an included angle between a line parallel to the mean camber line at the trailing edge intersection and the rotational axis; wherein the airfoil has a contraction ratio (CR) of greater than 0.55 along at least 80% of a span of the airfoil, wherein the contraction ratio (CR) is determined by the formula:

C
⁢
R

=

1
-

(

cos
⁡
(

β
out

)

cos
⁡
(

β

i
⁢
n

)

)

wherein the airfoil has a blade turning (BT) of less than 100 degrees along at least 30% of the span, wherein the blade turning (BT) is determined by the formula:

BT
=

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

β

o
⁢
u
⁢
t

Assignees

• Gen Electric
• Ge Avio Srl

Inventors

• Sozio Ernesto
• Bertini Francesco
• Clements Jeffrey Donald
• Ong Jonathan
• Dailey Lyle Douglas
• Vitt Paul Hadley
• Usseglio Matteo Renato

Classifications

• F05D2240/121

  related to the leading edge of a stator vane · CPC title

• F05D2240/304

  related to the trailing edge of a rotor blade · CPC title

• F01D5/145 Primary

  Means for influencing boundary layers or secondary circulations (for compressors F04D29/68) · CPC title

• F05D2240/303

  related to the leading edge of a rotor blade · CPC title

• Y02T50/60

  Efficient propulsion technologies, e.g. for aircraft · CPC title