Aircraft bypass duct heat exchanger
A turbine engine heat exchanger has an array of heat exchanger plates mounted to an inner case wall for providing heat transfer from a bleed flowpath to a bypass flowpath. Each plate has: first and second faces along the bypass flowpath; a proximal edge mounted to the inner case wall; an inlet along the proximal edge; an outlet along the proximal edge; and a branch segment of the bleed flowpath passing from the inlet to the outlet.
1. A turbine engine comprising:
one or more fan sections;
one or more compressor sections aft and downstream of the one or more fan sections along a core flowpath;
a combustor section downstream of the one or more compressor sections along the core flowpath;
one or more turbine sections downstream of the combustor section along the core flowpath;
a bypass flowpath;
an inner case wall along the bypass flowpath and having a plurality of first ports and a plurality of second ports;
an array of heat exchanger plates mounted to the inner case wall for providing heat transfer from a first flowpath to the bypass flowpath, wherein each plate has:
first and second faces along the bypass flowpath;
a proximal edge mounted to the inner case wall;
an inlet along the proximal edge and mated to a respective one of the first ports;
an outlet along the proximal edge and mated to a respective one of the second ports; and
a branch segment of the first flowpath passing from the inlet to the outlet; and
an outlet plenum, the inner case wall second ports open to the outlet plenum wherein:
the first flowpath is a bleed flowpath branching from the core flowpath and rejoining the core flowpath after passing through the array of heat exchanger plates.
2. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein:
the array of heat exchanger plates is mounted to a segment of the inner case wall.
3. The turbine engine of claim 2 wherein: the segment of the inner case wall is a single metallic plate.
4. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein:
the first flowpath extends from within or downstream of the one or more compressor sections.
5. The turbine engine of claim 4 wherein:
the inner case wall first ports are aft of the inner case wall second ports.
6. The turbine engine of claim 4 wherein:
a diffuser surrounds the combustor; and
the inner case wall first ports are open to flail the diffuser outboard of the combustor to receive a bleed flow from the diffuser.
7. The turbine engine of claim 6 wherein:
a manifold shroud is mounted to an inner diameter surface of the inner case wall to bound the outlet plenum.
8. The turbine engine of claim 7 wherein:
a flange extends radially inward from the inner diameter surface of the inner case wall to separate a downstream segment of the first flowpath exiting the heat exchanger from an upstream segment of the first flowpath entering the heat exchanger.
9. The turbine engine of claim 6 wherein:
the outlet plenum has a plurality of legs.
10. The turbine engine of claim 6 wherein each plate has:
multiple said inlets along the proximal edge;
multiple said outlets along the proximal edge; and
respective said branch segments from each said inlet to an associated said outlet.
11. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein:
the first flowpath passes radially inward across the core flowpath via vanes to cool turbine blade stages before rejoining the core flowpath.
12. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein:
the first flowpath provides turbine cooling before rejoining the core flowpath.
13. The turbine engine of claim 1 wherein:
the bypass flowpath extends from a stage of the one or more fan sections.
14. The turbine engine of claim 13 wherein:
the first flowpath extends from within or downstream of the one or more compressor sections.
15. A method for using the turbine engine of claim 1 , the method comprising running the turbine engine to:
transfer thermal energy from a flow along the first flowpath to a bypass flow along the bypass flowpath.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein the running:
passes the bypass flow to the heat exchanger at a first temperature and first pressure; and
passes the flow along the first flowpath to the heat exchanger at a second temperature and second pressure greater than the first temperature and first pressure, respectively.
17. The method of claim 15 wherein:
the flow is generally counter-flow to the bypass flow.
18. The method of claim 15 wherein:
the flow is generally cross-flow to the bypass flow.
19. The method of claim 15 wherein:
the first flowpath
passes to a blade outer air seal before rejoining the core flowpath.
20. The method of claim 15 wherein:
the first flowpath
passes radially inward across the core flowpath via vanes to cool turbine blade stages before rejoining the core flowpath.