IIIHIHIIIHIIII O US005143329A United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 5,143,329 Coffinberry (45) Date of Patent: Sep
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
IIIHIHIIIHIIII O US005143329A United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 5,143,329 Coffinberry (45) Date of Patent: Sep. 1, 1992 (54) GASTURBINE ENGINE POWERED AIRCRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS SYSTEM AND BOUNDARY LAYER BLEED 0065855 5/1982 European Pat. Off. (75) Inventor: George A. Coffinberry, West Chester, g 32 E." Ohio 143598 4/1953 United Kingdom. (73) Assignee: General Electric Company, 744923 5/1954 United Kingdom. 774695 4/1955 United Kingdom . Cincinnati, Ohio 846358 6/1958 United Kingdom. 21 Appl. No.: 738,985 1530330 1/1976 United Kingdom . 202.7874 2/1980 United Kingdom ............. 24418.5 22 Filed: Aug. 1, 1991 2074654 4/1980 United Kingdom . 2076897 12/1981 United Kingdom ............. 244/118.5 Related U.S. Application Data 2127492 6/1983 United Kingdom . 62 Division of Ser. No. 531,718, Jun. 1, 1990. Primary Examiner-Joseph F. Peters, Jr. 5 Assistant Examiner-Christopher P. Ellis O2,207. Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Jerome C. Squillaro 244/53 R; 45.4/71 57 ABSTRACT 58) Field of Search ..................... 244/118.5, 207, 208, 244/209 53 R. 60/39. 142 39.07, 39.15, 39.183: An aircraft gas turbine engine is provided with a start s A 4-y 9. '987 ing air turbine that is directly connected through the starter gearbox to the high pressure (HP) shaft and is 56) References Cited provided with an apparatus to extract excess energy U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS from engine compressor bleed air, return it to the en 2,734,443 2/1956 Wood ..................................... oss gine, and to start the engine with compressed air from 2,777,301 1/1957 Kuhn ...... 244/118.5 starting air sources, and to cool and provide com 3,024,624 3/1962 Morley .................................. 62/402 pressed air for powering the Environmental Control 3,097,817 7/1963 Towzey ..... ... 244/209 System (ECS) and using the bleed air for cabin refresh 3,428,242 2/1969 Rannenberg - - - - - - - 230/116 ening. The air turbine may be connected to a nacelle 3,711,044 1/1973 Matalich ... 244/118.5 X boundary layer bleed compressor to bleed boundary 3,878,677 4/1975. Colvin ................................ 60/39.14 4,193,262 3/1980 Snell ...................................... 60/261 layer air from a forward portion of the nacelle to reduce 4,419,926 12/1983 Cronin et al. .......................... 97.5 nacelle surface drag. The ECS may be provided with a 4,462,561 7/1984 Cronin ........... ... 244/118.5 wing boundary layer bleed means which uses a cooling 4,482, 114 11/1984 Gupta et al. ... 244/118.5 X air fan in the ECS to draw cooling air through the heat 4,494,372 1/1985 Cronin ....... ... 244/118.5 X exchangers in the ECS pack from the boundary layer 4,546,9394,503,666 10/19853/1985 CroninChristoff ....... ... ... E.60/350, air: from a forward portionion of the aircraft's---ala wing- - - to 4,642,997 2/1987 Krafka .................................... reduce its surface drag. 4,666,104 5/1987 Kelber ................................. 244/209 4,684,081 8/1987 Cronin ......................... 244/118.5 X 7 Claims, 6 Drawing Sheets U.S. Patent Sep. 1, 1992 Sheet 1 of 6 5,143,329 U.S. Patent Sep. 1, 1992 Sheet 2 of 6 5,143,329 say 190 18O 280-1 66 U.S. Patent Sep. 1, 1992 Sheet 3 of 6 5,143,329 ?” 38 70 u --56 (& 93 59 5. 67 48 NE 57 550 400 50 U.S. Patent sep. 1, 1992 Sheet 4 of 6 5,143,329 76 } \167 162 ------- 56 130 is 71 20 73 - 38 S /1 70 M. Y. 77 47 54 Q ear -- QS 56 93 9 48 50/ 6. 52~ 280-1 66 U.S. Patent Sep. 1, 1992 Sheet 5 of 6 5,143,329 U.S. Patent Sep. 1, 1992 Sheet 6 of 6 5,143,329 5,143,329 1 2 ited to 350° to 500 F. Temperature control requires GASTURBINE ENGINE POWERED AIRCRAFT cooling the bleed air with a precooler. Most modern ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL SYSTEMAND engines use fan air to cool compressor bleed air. Use of BOUNDARY LAYER BLEED fan air imposes an additional penalty on fuel consump tion. Further, the precooler is usually large and requires This is a division of application Ser. No. 07/531,718 a fan air scoop which produces drag. A typical large filed Jun. 1, 1990. turbofan engine will consume about 2% extra fuel and run at about 20 F. hotter turbine temperature in order BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION to provide aircraft system bleed air. The present inven The invention relates to aircraft environmental con O tion addresses these problems and deficiencies charac trol systems powered by gas turbine engines for supply teristic of the prior art and conventional apparatus used ing aircraft system bleed air. In particular, the invention to supply aircraft bleed air. relates to an aircraft gas turbine engine powered bleed A second aspect of this invention concerns the engine air supply system for an environmental control system air driven starter. Air starters are conventionally air wherein the excess pressure energy is returned to the 15 powered turbines having planetary gearboxes which engine to improve fuel efficiency and the system is also are usually connected to a high pressure rotor in driving used to reduce drag on engine nacelles or other surfaces relationship and mounted to the engine accessory gear by pumping boundary layer air. Environmental control box. The starter turbine rotates at very high speed and systems, commonly referred to as ECS systems, incor drives the engine through a planetary gear system dur porate various pieces of equipment such as turbocom 20 ing engine acceleration to just below idle speed. Once pressors, regulating valves, heat exchangers, and other the engine lights it begins to develop its own power and, devices in a system which is often referred to as and at a speed below idle, accelerates away from the starter. ECS pack to condition engine bleed air. Modern day jet An overrunning mechanical clutch allows the starter to aircraft use turbocompressors in their environmental disengage and then the starter air is shut off and the controls systems to condition bleed air for use in the 25 starter turbine comes to rest. During the remainder of cabin wherein the turbocompressors are powered by the flight the starter is not used for any purpose and the same bleed that is conditioned for cabin refreshing simply represents extra weight carried around by the air and which is usually supplied by the gas turbine aircraft. engines which provide aircraft propulsion. Bleed air is Within a very narrow flight profile of the aircraft, the conventionally taken from the engine compressor at a 30 starter can sometimes be used for emergency engine stage downstream of the variable vane compressor relight, but only at conditions where the windmill speed stages so as not to interfere with the operation of the of the engine is low enough that the starter clutch can variable vane stages which greatly enhance the effi be engaged without damage due to what is referred to ciency of the gas turbine engine and greatly reduces the as crash engagement. Engine starters can not be used specific fuel consumption (SFC) of the engine. 35 during normal aircraft cruise conditions; where the only The compressor bleed air is cooled by fan air in a heat means for relight is from the freely windmilling engine. exchanger and is then delivered to the environmental One advantage of the present invention is that it permits control system for controlling cabin air freshness, pres operation of the air starter during all aircraft flight sure, and temperature. The ECS conventionally in conditions thereby avoiding the delay in engine relight cludes two ECS packs mounted in ECS bays on differ which can be associated with flight conditions unfavor ent sides of the aircraft which receive compressor bleed able for fast windmill relights. The present invention air from the engines. The bleed after being used to further enhances the solution to the relight problem by power the ECS pack and refresh the cabin is then using the starter turbine during all operation conditions dumped overboard. All the energy remaining in the as a means for improving the performance of the auxil bleed air dumped overboard cost fuel and therefore 45 iary bleed air compressor. represents a significant loss in specific fuel consumption. A third advantage of this invention relates to aerody Extraction of aircraft bleed air from the engine com namic drag associated with engine nacelles, wings, py pressor has adverse affects on the propulsion cycle and lons, tail sections and other aircraft outer surfaces. As engine life. Engine turbine power is needed to compress air flows on to and over a surface such as an engine air and account for compressor inefficiency. Therefore, 50 nacelle and aircraft wing it progressively builds up a extra fuel consumption is always associated with gas low velocity boundary layer of increasing thickness. turbine engine compressor bleed air (air which does not Within this boundary layer a portion of the velocity produce thrust). This extra fuel burned in the engine component of free stream total pressure is converted to combustor results in higher gas temperature delivered increased static pressure. As the result of rise in static to the engine turbine and reduction of turbine blade life. 55 pressure, boundary layer thickness, and diffusion a point Such penalties must be incurred in order that the engine is reached where back pressure causes an otherwise turbine provide extra power associated with bleed air. laminar boundary layer to become turbulent.