Compressor of Axial Turbine Engine with Contra-Rotating Rotor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016102607-A1
Application number	US-201514865202-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 25, 2015
Priority date	Oct 9, 2014
Publication date	Apr 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present application relates to an axial turbine engine with a turbine, a low-pressure compressor, and a fan. The turbine drives the compressor and the fan via a plurality of epicyclic reducing gears. The rotor of the compressor includes upstream a disc with a row of vanes and downstream a drum with a plurality of rows of vanes. The disc and the drum are connected to different parts of the epicyclic reducing gears, so as to be counter-rotating. The turbine engine includes a row of stator vanes arranged between two rows of rotor blades of the drum of the compressor, so as to straighten the flow and improve the efficiency. The turbine engine includes at least two epicyclic reducing gears, so that the vane rows of the drum turn faster than that downstream, which itself turns faster than the fan.

First claim

I claim:

1 . An axial turbine engine, comprising:
a fan; an epicyclic reducing gear driving the fan; a compressor exhibiting successively two annular counter-rotating blade rows driven by the epicyclic reducing gear, and then an annular row of stator vanes.

2 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the row of stator vanes is arranged downstream of the two counter-rotating rows of rotor blades which may be two successive rows.

3 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the epicyclic reducing gear comprises:
an outer planet wheel; an inner planet wheel; and a satellite carrier fixed to the stator of the turbine engine, one of the two counter-rotating rows being fixed to the outer planet wheel and the other of the two counter-rotating rows being fixed to the inner planet wheel.

4 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein each rotor blade is connected to the rotor via an inner end, and wherein the row of stator vanes is a first row, the compressor further comprising:
a second row of stator vanes, the counter-rotating blade rows being arranged between the first stator row and the second stator row.

5 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the epicyclic reducing gear comprises:
a satellite carrier with an upstream portion fixed to the stator of the turbine engine, the epicyclic reducing gear lying inside the vanes of the compressor rotor.

6 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein one of the two counter-rotating rows of blades, that which is upstream, has blades which are higher radially than those downstream.

7 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the epicyclic reducing gear is configured such that the row of rotor blades furthest upstream of the compressor is that which turns more slowly.

8 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the counter-rotating row arranged axially closest to the fan turns at an intermediate speed relative to the rotation speed of the fan and the rotation speed of the other of the two counter-rotating rows.

9 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the rotor comprises:
a bladed disc and a bladed drum, the disc supporting one row of blades and the drum supporting at least two rows of blades, the disc and the drum each supporting one of the counter-rotating rows of blades.

10 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 9 , wherein the disc is arranged upstream of the drum.

11 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 10 , wherein the two rows of rotor blades between which the annular row of stator vanes is arranged, are the at least two rows of blades supported by the drum.

12 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the compressor comprises:
a plurality of rows of vanes, wherein an upstream row and a downstream row at opposing ends of the compressor define the rows of stator vanes; wherein the compressor is a low-pressure compressor.

13 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the compressor comprises:
at least three rows of rotor blades, of which at least two rows are fixed to each other.

14 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising:
a fixing housing for the fan with at least one or more rows of housing arms passing through a primary flow of the turbine engine, the compressor being arranged downstream of one of the rows of housing arms.

15 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the epicyclic reducing gear comprises:
an outer planet wheel on which one of the two counter-rotating rows is fixed; and an inner planet wheel on which the other of the two counter-rotating rows and, in some cases, the fan are fixed.

16 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the epicyclic reducing gear is a first reducing gear with a first outer planet wheel, the turbine engine also comprising:
a second epicyclic reducing gear with a second outer planet wheel, the fan being fixed to the second outer planet wheel, the one of the two counter-rotating blade rows being fixed to the first outer planet wheel.

17 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 16 , wherein the epicyclic reducing gears each comprise:
an inner planet wheel and a satellite carrier, the satellite carriers being fixed to the stator of the turbine engine, and the inner planet wheels being joined to each other.

18 . The axial turbine engine in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the two counter-rotating rows and the two stator vane rows form a succession of four successive rows.

19 . An axial turbine engine, comprising:
a fan; a compressor fitted with a rotor including at least two annular rows of rotor blades, of which two rows are counter-rotating; an epicyclic reducing gear connecting the fan to the compressor rotor and connecting the counter-rotating rows, the epicyclic reducing gear being arranged in order to reduce the fan rotation speed with respect to the compressor rotation speed; and an annular row of stator vanes arranged between two rows of rotor blades, the stator vanes being arranged so as to straighten axially the flow between the two rows of rotor blades.

20 . An axial turbine engine, comprising:
a fan; a compressor fitted with a rotor with at least two annular rows of rotor blades, of which two rows are counter-rotating; an epicyclic reducing gear connecting the fan to the compressor rotor and connecting the counter-rotating rows; and an annular row of cambered stator vanes arranged between two rows of rotor blades, the stator vanes being arranged so as to straighten axially the flow between the two rows of rotor blades.

Assignees

• Techspace Aero Sa

Inventors

• Hiernaux Stéphane

Classifications

• F02C3/067 Primary

  having counter-rotating rotors (F02C3/073 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F02C3/107

  with two or more rotors connected by power transmission · CPC title

• F04D19/024

  with contrarotating parts · CPC title

• F02K3/072

  with counter-rotating {, e.g. fan} rotors · CPC title

• F05D2260/40311

  of the epicyclical, planetary or differential type · CPC title