Gas turbine engine seal assembly having flow-through tube

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9080449-B2
Application number	US-201113210609-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2011
Priority date	Aug 16, 2011
Publication date	Jul 14, 2015
Grant date	Jul 14, 2015

Abstract

A seal assembly for a gas turbine engine includes an annular body and a flow-through tube that extends through the annular body. The flow-through tube includes an upstream orifice, a downstream orifice and a tube body that extends between the upstream orifice and the downstream orifice. The tube body establishes a gradually increasing cross-sectional area between the downstream orifice and the upstream orifice.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A seal assembly for a gas turbine engine, comprising:
an annular body that includes a first flange and a second flange spaced from said first flange, said first flange and said second flange both including an upstream face and a downstream face;
a flow-through tube extending through said upstream face and said downstream face of each of said first flange and said second flange of said annular body and including an upstream orifice, a downstream orifice and a tube body that extends between said upstream orifice and said downstream orifice, said tube body including an axial portion and a tangential portion, wherein said axial portion and said tangential portion together communicate a conditioning airflow in an upstream direction from said downstream orifice toward said upstream orifice of said flow-through tube.

2. The assembly as recited in claim 1 , wherein said seal assembly is an inner vane seal assembly of a compressor section of the gas turbine engine.

3. The assembly as recited in claim 1 , comprising a seal system that extends radially inwardly from said annular body.

4. The assembly as recited in claim 1 , comprising a plurality of flow-through tubes circumferentially disposed about said annular body.

5. The assembly as recited in claim 1 , wherein said annular body includes a first channel seal and a second channel seal.

6. The assembly as recited in claim 5 , wherein said flow-through tube is disposed between said first channel seal and said second channel seal.

7. The assembly as recited in claim 1 , wherein said tube body includes a first tube body section and a second tube body section received within said first tube body section.

8. The assembly as recited in claim 1 , wherein said tube body establishes a gradually increasing cross-sectional area between said downstream orifice and said upstream orifice.

9. The assembly as recited in claim 8 , wherein said gradually increasing cross-sectional area increases in a direction from said downstream orifice toward said upstream orifice.

10. The assembly as recited in claim 1 , wherein a portion of a vane assembly extends between said first flange and said second flange.

11. The assembly as recited in claim 1 , comprising a first channel seal mounted to said first flange and a second channel seal mounted to said second flange.

12. A gas turbine engine, comprising:
a first rotor assembly;
a second rotor assembly downstream from said first rotor assembly;
a vane assembly positioned between said first rotor assembly and said second rotor assembly;
a seal assembly on a radially inner side of said vane assembly, and said seal assembly includes a plurality of flow-through tubes that receive a conditioning airflow; and
wherein said conditioning airflow is communicated in an upstream direction through said second rotor assembly and said plurality of flow-through tubes of said seal assembly to condition said first rotor assembly.

13. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 12 , wherein said first rotor assembly, said second rotor assembly and said vane assembly define a primary gas path and a secondary gas path radially inward from said primary gas path.

14. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 13 , wherein a core airflow of said primary gas path is communicated in a first direction and said conditioning airflow of said secondary gas path is communicated in a second direction that is opposite from said first direction.

15. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 12 , wherein said first rotor assembly includes a first slot and said second rotor assembly includes a second slot, wherein an axial centerline axis of said plurality of flow-through tubes is aligned with an axial centerline axis of each of said first slot and said second slot.

16. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 12 , comprising a nozzle assembly downstream from said second rotor assembly, wherein said conditioning airflow is communicated from said nozzle assembly to said second rotor assembly.

17. A method for communicating conditioning airflow through a gas turbine engine, comprising the steps of:
communicating the conditioning airflow in a direction that is opposite of a core airflow of a primary gas path of the gas turbine engine, including communicating the conditioning airflow in an upstream direction through a first rotor assembly and then through a seal assembly prior to conditioning a second rotor assembly, wherein the seal assembly includes an annular body including a first flange, a second flange spaced from the first flange, and a flow-through tube that extends through an upstream face and a downstream face of both of the first flange and the second flange.

18. The method as recited in claim 17 , wherein the step of communicating the conditioning airflow includes the step of:
communicating the conditioning airflow through a slot of the first rotor assembly and then through the seal assembly and then through a slot of the second rotor assembly.

19. The method as recited in claim 18 , wherein the conditioning airflow is communicated through the flow-through tube of the seal assembly.

20. The method as recited in claim 17 , wherein the conditioning airflow includes an axial component and a tangential component.

21. The method as recited in claim 17 , wherein the conditioning airflow is communicated from a nozzle assembly to the first rotor assembly.

Assignees

• Bridges Joseph W
• Cloud David F
• Houston David P
• Malmborg Eric W
• United Technologies Corp

Inventors

• Bridges Joseph W
• Cloud David F
• Houston David P
• Malmborg Eric W

Classifications

• F01D11/005

  Sealing means between non relatively rotating elements · CPC title

• F01D5/082 Primary

  on the side of the rotor disc · CPC title

• F01D11/127

  with a deformable or crushable structure, e.g. honeycomb · CPC title

• F01D11/02

  by non-contact sealings, e.g. of labyrinth type (for sealing space between rotor blade tips and stator F01D11/08) · CPC title