Turbine engine with airfoil having high acceleration and low blade turning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11885233-B2
Application number	US-202217876009-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2022
Priority date	Mar 11, 2020
Publication date	Jan 30, 2024
Grant date	Jan 30, 2024

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. An airfoil assembly comprising:
at least two airfoils carried by a rotor and configured to rotate about a rotational axis, the at least two airfoils being circumferentially spaced from each other, with respect to the rotational axis, to define a pitch (P) therebetween, each airfoil of the at least two airfoils 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, βin, 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; and
an outlet angle, βout, 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;
an axial chord length (C ax ) extending between the leading edge and the trailing edge in an axial direction with respect to the rotational axis;
a blade turning (BT) of less than 100 degrees along at least 30% of a span of the airfoil, wherein the blade turning (BT) is determined by:

BT
=

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

β
out

❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"

+

β

i
⁢
n

*

β
out

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

β
out

❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"

 and
an airfoil solidity (Sl) of the at least two airfoils is determined by:

c

a
⁢
x

P

;

wherein the airfoil solidity (Sl) is greater than or equal to 0.6 and less than or equal to 1.2 (0.6≤Sl≤1.2); and

wherein β in is constant along the span from the root to the tip, or β out is constant along the span from the root to the tip.

2. The airfoil assembly of claim 1 , wherein the airfoil solidity (Sl) is greater than or equal to 0.7 and less than or equal to 0.9 (0.7≤Sl≤0.9).

3. The airfoil assembly of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the at least two airfoils has a contraction ratio (CR) of greater than 0.45 along at least 80% of the span of the airfoil, where the contraction ratio (CR) is determined by:

CR
=

1
-

(

cos
⁡
(

β
out

)

cos
⁡
(

β

i
⁢
n

)

)

.

4. The airfoil assembly of claim 1 , wherein the airfoil assembly is provided within a turbine engine.

5. The airfoil assembly of claim 4 , wherein the turbine engine is a counter-rotating turbine engine and the rotor is one of either an inner rotor or an outer rotor.

6. An airfoil operably coupled to a rotor and configured to rotate about a rotational axis, the airfoil 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 to define a span (S);
an axial chord length (C ax ) extending between the leading edge and the trailing edge in an axial direction with respect to the rotational axis; and
an aspect ratio (AR) of the airfoil is determined by:

C
ax

S

;

wherein the aspect ratio (AR) is greater than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to 6 (2<AR<6); and
wherein β in is constant along the span from the root to the tip, or β out is constant along the span from the root to the tip.

7. The airfoil of claim 6 , wherein the aspect ratio (AR) is greater than or equal to 3 and less than or equal to 5 (3≤AR≤5).

8. The airfoil of claim 6 , further comprising:
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, βin, 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; and
an outlet angle, βout, 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.

9. The airfoil of claim 8 , further comprising a contraction ratio (CR) of greater than 0.45 along at least 80% of the span of the airfoil, where the contraction ratio (CR) is determined by:

CR
=

1
-

(

cos
⁡
(

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

• F01D5/141 Primary

  Shape, i.e. outer, aerodynamic form (F01D5/148 - F01D5/20 take precedence; blade construction F01D5/147) · CPC title

• F04D29/324

  Blades · CPC title

• F04D29/544

  Blade shapes · CPC title

• F05D2220/32

  in gas turbines · CPC title

• F05D2240/30

  Characteristics of rotor blades, i.e. of any element transforming dynamic fluid energy to or from rotational energy and being attached to a rotor · CPC title