Dilating fan duct nozzle
View Patent ↗A turbofan engine includes an engine core and a ducted fan assembly, with the ducted fan assembly including an annular cowling and a dilating fan duct nozzle. The nozzle includes continuous nozzle sections with intermeshing tiles. The tiles include drive tiles that are pivotal between nominal and dilated positions and driven tiles that intermesh with the drive tiles and shift with the drive tiles between the positions. The intermeshing tiles cooperatively adjust an orifice size of the nozzle by shifting between the positions and thereby affect the thrust and noise developed by the ducted fan assembly.
1. A turbofan duct assembly operable to direct a duct flow generated by a fan in a rearward direction into ambient and operable to be powered by a power source, said turbofan duct assembly comprising:
a fan duct presenting fore and aft ends,
said fan duct configured to surround the fan and extend rearwardly of the fan to the aft end, with the fan duct being operable to fluidly engage the duct flow; and
a dilating fan duct nozzle operable to fluidly engage the duct flow discharged from the fan duct,
said dilating fan duct nozzle comprising:
a bracket attached adjacent the aft end of the fan duct,
and a plurality of shiftable intermeshing tiles, including a plurality of drive tiles and a plurality of driven tiles, supported by the bracket and circumferentially spaced to cooperatively form a first arcuate continuous tiled nozzle section that at least partly defines an adjustably-sized nozzle orifice, the drive tiles and the driven tiles alternating in a circumferential direction and in intermeshing engagement so that the drive tiles and the driven tiles overlap and are radially shiftable with each other, and
a drive assembly drivingly engaged with at least one of the drive tiles and configured to be drivingly attached to the power source, operable to radially shift the tiles being between nominal and dilated configurations to adjust the nozzle orifice size and thereby control the duct flow passing through the nozzle,
wherein the plurality of driven tiles are driven by the plurality of drive tiles,
said shiftable intermeshing tiles being circumferentially shiftable relative to each other and remaining overlapped as the tiles shift between the configurations so that the first tiled nozzle section remains continuous as the nozzle orifice is sized.
2. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 1 ,
said tiles forming a second arcuate continuous tiled nozzle section spaced oppositely from the first arcuate continuous tiled nozzle section, with the first and second tiled nozzle sections at least partly defining the nozzle orifice.
3. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 1 ,
said bracket comprising a plurality of brackets, with each of the brackets being positioned relative to and supporting a corresponding drive tile.
4. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 1 ,
said drive tile presenting a space that receives an adjacent driven tile therein.
5. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 1 ,
said drive element comprising an axially extending tile lever that is pivotally attached to the bracket.
6. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 5 ,
said drive assembly including a cam that drivingly engages the tile lever and is operable to be powered by the power source.
7. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 1 ,
said tiles being radially shiftable relative to the bracket between nominal and dilated configurations, with the tiles operable to be driven between the configurations by the power source,
said tiles being shiftable between the configurations to adjust the nozzle orifice size and thereby control the duct flow passing through the nozzle,
each of said tiles being in intermeshing engagement with an adjacent tile so that each pair of adjacent intermeshing tiles overlap one another and are radially shiftable with each other,
said adjacent intermeshing tiles being circumferentially shiftable relative to each other and remaining overlapped as the tiles shift between the configurations so that the tiled nozzle section remains continuous as the nozzle orifice is sized,
said tiles each including inner and outer tile portions,
said inner tile portion operable to fluidly engage the duct flow and the outer tile portion operable to fluidly engage ambient, with the portions being shiftable relative to one another.
8. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 7 ,
said portions cooperatively presenting an aft tile end and being in sliding contact with one another adjacent the aft tile end, with the duct flow being operable to flow into ambient adjacent the aft tile end.
9. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 8 ,
said tiles forming a second arcuate continuous tiled nozzle section spaced oppositely from the first arcuate continuous tiled nozzle section, with the surfaces at least partly defining the nozzle orifice.
10. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 9 ,
said dilating fan duct nozzle including a drive assembly drivingly engaged with a first tile and configured to be drivingly attached to the power source,
said drive assembly operable to radially shift the tiles between the configurations.
11. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 10 ,
said drive assembly including a drive element attached to the first tile, with the first tile serving as a drive tile, and with a second tile being driven by the drive tile.
12. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 11 ,
said drive and driven tiles being shiftable with each other and alternating in a circumferential direction.
13. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 12 ,
said drive tile portions cooperatively presenting a space that receives the inner and outer portions of adjacent driven tiles therein.
14. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 1 ,
said bracket comprising a plurality of brackets, with each of the brackets being positioned relative to and supporting a corresponding tile,
said tiles each including inner and outer tile portions,
said inner tile portions operable to fluidly engage the duct flow and the outer tile portions operable to fluidly engage ambient, with the portions being shiftable relative to one another,
said tile portions each presenting fore and aft tile ends, with the aft tile ends being shiftable relative to the fan duct to adjust the nozzle orifice size,
said fore tile ends of the inner tile portions each being fixed to a respective bracket,
said fore tile ends of the outer tile portions each being shiftably attached to a corresponding bracket.
15. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 14 ,
said inner tile portions being flexible to permit relative shifting movement of the aft tile ends.
16. The turbofan duct assembly as claimed in claim 14 ,
each of said outer tile portions and said corresponding brackets being pivotally attached to one another at a pivotal joint adjacent the fore tile end to permit pivotal movement of the outer tile portions relative to the corresponding brackets.