IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,994,075
Granted Patent B2
US 11,994,075 · App. 18/135,526 · Granted May 28, 2024

Geared gas turbine engine

Inventor: Craig W Bemment (Derby, GB)
Assignee: ROLLS-ROYCE plc
F02C9/24F01D19/00F02C9/18F02C7/268F02C7/36
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,994,075
App. No.
18/135,526
Granted
May 28, 2024
Kind
B2
Abstract

A gas turbine engine for an aircraft and a method of operating a gas turbine engine on an aircraft. Embodiments disclosed include a gas turbine engine for an aircraft including: an engine core has a turbine, a compressor, and a core shaft; a fan located upstream of the engine core, the fan has a plurality of fan blades; a nacelle surrounding the engine core and defining a bypass duct and bypass exhaust nozzle; and a gearbox that receives an input from the core shaft and outputs drive to the fan wherein the gas turbine engine is configured such that a jet velocity ratio of a first jet velocity exiting from the bypass exhaust nozzle to a second jet velocity exiting from an exhaust nozzle of the engine core at idle conditions is greater by a factor of 2 or more than the jet velocity ratio at maximum take-off conditions.

Claims (80)

1. A method of operating a gas turbine engine on an aircraft, the gas turbine engine comprising:

an engine core comprising a turbine, a combustor, a compressor, and a core shaft connecting the turbine to the compressor;

a fan located upstream of the engine core, the fan comprising a plurality of fan blades;

a nacelle surrounding the engine core and defining a bypass duct and bypass exhaust nozzle; and

a gearbox that receives an input from the core shaft and outputs drive to the fan so as to drive the fan at a lower rotational speed than the core shaft,

wherein the method comprises operating the gas turbine engine to provide propulsion such that a jet velocity ratio, R J , of a first jet velocity exiting from the bypass exhaust nozzle to a second jet velocity exiting from an exhaust nozzle of the engine core is defined as:

R

J

=

V

B

⁢

C

B

V

C

⁢

C

C

⁢

η

LPT

⁢

η

F

where V B is a fully expanded first jet velocity, C B is a thrust coefficient of the bypass exhaust nozzle, V C is a fully expanded second jet velocity, C C is a thrust coefficient of the engine core exhaust nozzle, η LPT is an isentropic efficiency of a lowest pressure turbine of the engine core and η F is an isentropic efficiency of a fan tip; and

the jet velocity ratio, R J , is between around 0.75 and 1.3 at maximum take-off conditions.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the jet velocity ratio R J , is between around 0.8 and 1.0 at the maximum take-off conditions.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature of the flow at the exit of the combustor, at a position immediately upstream of a first turbine vane, is at least 1800K at the maximum take-off conditions.

4. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein a temperature of a flow at an exit of the combustor, at a position immediately upstream of a first turbine vane, is at least 1850K at the maximum take-off conditions.

5. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein a temperature of a flow at an exit of the combustor, at a position immediately upstream of a first turbine vane, is at least 1900K at the maximum take-off conditions.

6. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein a temperature of a flow at an exit of the combustor, at a position immediately upstream of a first turbine vane, is at least 1950K at the maximum take-off conditions.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the temperature of the flow at the exit of the combustor, at the position immediately upstream of the first turbine vane, is less than 2000K at the maximum take-off conditions.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the jet velocity ratio, R J , is between around 2 and 3 at idle conditions.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the jet velocity ratio, R J , is between around 0.75 and 1.3 at cruise conditions.

10. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein a gear ratio of the gearbox is between 3.1 and 3.3; a fan tip loading defined as dH/Uti p 2 is between 0.28 and 0.31 at cruise conditions, where dH is an enthalpy rise across the fan and U t i p is a translational velocity of the leading edge of the fan tip; and a bypass ratio, defined as a ratio of a mass flow rate of a flow through the bypass duct to a mass flow rate of a flow through the core at cruise conditions, is in a range of from 11.5 to 13.5.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein an overall pressure ratio defined as a ratio of a stagnation pressure upstream of the fan to a stagnation pressure at an exit of a highest pressure compressor is between 40 and 55 at the cruise conditions.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fan has an outer diameter of around 220 cm.

13. A method of operating a gas turbine engine on an aircraft, the gas turbine engine comprising:

an engine core comprising a turbine, a combustor, a compressor, and a core shaft connecting the turbine to the compressor;

a fan located upstream of the engine core, the fan comprising a plurality of fan blades;

a nacelle surrounding the engine core and defining a bypass duct and bypass exhaust nozzle; and

a gearbox that receives an input from the core shaft and outputs drive to the fan so as to drive the fan at a lower rotational speed than the core shaft,

wherein the method comprises operating the gas turbine engine to provide propulsion such that a jet velocity ratio, R J , of a first jet velocity exiting from the bypass exhaust nozzle to a second jet velocity exiting from an exhaust nozzle of the engine core is defined as:

R

J

=

V

B

⁢

C

B

V

C

⁢

C

C

⁢

η

LPT

⁢

η

F

where V B is a fully expanded first jet velocity, C B is a thrust coefficient of the bypass exhaust nozzle, V C is a fully expanded second jet velocity, C C is a thrust coefficient of the engine core exhaust nozzle, η LPT is an isentropic efficiency of a lowest pressure turbine of the engine core and η F is an isentropic efficiency of a fan tip; and

the jet velocity ratio, R J , is between around 2 and 3 at idle conditions.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the jet velocity ratio, R J , is between around 0.75 and 1.3 at cruise conditions.

15. The method of claim 13 ,

wherein a fan tip loading defined as dH/Utip 2 is between 0.28 and 0.35 at cruise conditions, where dH is an enthalpy rise across the fan and Uti p is a translational velocity of a leading edge of the fan tip.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein a specific thrust, defined as a net thrust of the engine divided by a total mass flow through the engine, is between 80 Nkg −1 s and 95 Nkg −1 s at cruise conditions.

17. The method of claim 13 ,

wherein a temperature of a flow at an exit of the combustor, at a position immediately upstream of a first turbine vane, is at least 1600K at cruise conditions.

18. The method of claim 13 ,

wherein a temperature of a flow at an exit of the combustor, at a position immediately upstream of a first turbine vane, is between 1600K and 1650K at cruise conditions.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the fan comprises 22 or 24 fan blades.

20. The method of claim 13 ,

wherein a gear ratio of the gearbox is between 3.1 and 3.4; a fan tip loading defined as dH/Uti p 2 is between 0.28 and 0.32 at cruise conditions, where dH is an enthalpy rise across the fan and U tip is a translational velocity of a leading edge of the fan tip; a bypass ratio, defined as a ratio of a mass flow rate of a flow through the bypass duct to a mass flow rate of a flow through the core at cruise conditions, is in a range of from 11.5 to 14; an overall pressure ratio defined as a ratio of a stagnation pressure upstream of the fan to a stagnation pressure at an exit of a highest pressure compressor is between 40 and 55 at the cruise conditions; a ratio of a radius of a fan blade of the fan at a hub to a radius of the fan blade at the tip is in a range of 0.27 to 0.31; and a specific thrust, defined as a net thrust of the engine divided by a total mass flow through the engine, is between 80 s and 95 s at cruise conditions.

Priority Claims (1)
GB 1907256 · May 23, 2019 · national
Continuity (4)
Continuation 17870270 · Jul 21, 2022
Continuation 17411617 · Aug 25, 2021
Continuation 16526221 · Jul 30, 2019
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