IP Library Granted Patent US 10,107,191
Granted Patent B2
US 10,107,191 · App. 14/964,727 · Granted Oct 23, 2018

Geared gas turbine engine with reduced fan noise

Inventors: Jonthan Gilson (West Hartford, CT); Burce L. Morin (Springfield, MA); Ramons A. Reba (South Windsor, CT); David A. Topol (West Hartford, CT); Wesley K. Lord (South Glastonbury, CT)
Assignee: United Technologies Corporation
F02C3/107F01D9/041F01D25/162F02K3/06F04D29/542F04D29/544F04D29/664F04D29/667F05D2220/36F05D2250/191F05D2250/38F05D2260/40311F05D2260/96F05D2260/961F05D2300/603
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,107,191
App. No.
14/964,727
Granted
Oct 23, 2018
Kind
B2
Abstract

A fan section for a gas turbine engine according to an example of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a fan rotor having fan blades, and a plurality of fan exit guide vanes positioned downstream of the fan rotor. The fan rotor is configured to be driven through a gear reduction. A ratio of a number of fan exit guide vanes to a number of fan blades is defined. The fan exit guide vanes are provided with optimized sweep and optimized lean.

Claims (76)

1. A gas turbine engine comprising:

a fan section having a plurality of fan blades, said fan section having a low fan pressure ratio of less than 1.45, wherein the low fan pressure ratio is measured across one of said fan blades alone;

a geared arrangement that drives said fan section;

a compressor section including a first compressor section and a second compressor section;

a turbine section including a first turbine section that drives said first compressor section, and a second turbine section that drives said second compressor section and said geared arrangement;

a plurality of exit guide vanes positioned downstream of said fan blades;

wherein a first ratio of a number of exit guide vanes to a number of fan blades being between 0.8 and 2.5; and

wherein said exit guide vanes are provided with sweep and lean,

wherein sweep means that: (a) an outer periphery of said exit guide vane is positioned to be downstream of a location of an inner periphery of said exit guide vane; and (b) a sweep angle is between 15 degrees and 30 degrees, and

wherein lean means that: (a) an outer periphery of said exit guide vane is positioned at a greater circumferential distance than an inner periphery of said exit guide vane in a direction of rotation of said fan blades; and (b) a lean angle is greater than or equal to 2 degrees and less than or equal to 15 degrees.

2. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said sweep angle is greater than or equal to 20 degrees.

3. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said fan section has 26 or fewer fan blades.

4. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 3 , wherein:

said geared arrangement has a gear reduction ratio greater than or equal to 2.3;

wherein the second turbine section includes an inlet, an outlet and a pressure ratio of greater than 5, the pressure ratio being pressure measured prior to the inlet as related to pressure at the outlet prior to an exhaust nozzle; and

wherein the fan has a low corrected fan tip speed of less than 1150 ft/second.

5. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 4 , wherein said first ratio is greater than or equal to 2.0.

6. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 4 , wherein said first ratio is less than 2.0.

7. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 4 , wherein:

each of said exit guide vanes defines a hollow opening covered by an acoustic liner having a perforated face sheet;

said face sheet has a thickness, and a diameter of holes in said face sheet is selected to be less than or equal 0.3 of the thickness.

8. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 7 , wherein said holes in said face sheet are at least 5% of a surface area of said face sheet.

9. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 8 , wherein said diameter is less than or equal to 0.2 of the thickness.

10. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 1 , wherein:

each of said exit guide vanes defines a hollow opening covered by an acoustic liner having a perforated face sheet;

said face sheet has a thickness, and a diameter of holes in said face sheet is selected to be less than or equal 0.3 of the thickness.

11. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 10 , wherein said holes in said face sheet are at least 5% of a surface area of said face sheet.

12. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 11 , wherein said diameter is less than or equal to 0.2 of the thickness.

13. A gas turbine engine comprising:

a fan section having a plurality of fan blades, said fan section having a low fan pressure ratio of less than 1.45, wherein the low fan pressure ratio is measured across one of said fan blades alone;

a geared arrangement that drives said fan section;

a compressor section including a first compressor section and a second compressor section;

a turbine section including a first turbine section that drives said first compressor section, and a second turbine section that drives said second compressor section and said geared arrangement;

a plurality of exit guide vanes positioned downstream of said fan blades;

wherein a first ratio of a number of exit guide vanes to a number of fan blades being between 0.8 and 2.0; and

wherein said exit guide vanes are provided with sweep and lean,

wherein sweep means that: (a) an outer periphery of said exit guide vane is positioned to be downstream of a location of an inner periphery of said exit guide vane; and (b) a sweep angle is between 5 degrees and 35 degrees,

wherein lean means that: (a) an outer periphery of said exit guide vane is positioned at a greater circumferential distance than an inner periphery of said exit guide vane in a direction of rotation of said fan blades; and (b) a lean angle is greater than or equal to 2 degrees and less than or equal to 15 degrees.

14. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 13 , wherein said lean angle is greater than or equal to 2 degrees, and said sweep angle is greater than or equal to 20 degrees.

15. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 13 , wherein said fan section has 26 or fewer fan blades.

16. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 15 , wherein:

said geared arrangement has a gear reduction ratio greater than or equal to 2.3;

wherein the second turbine section includes an inlet, an outlet and a pressure ratio of greater than 5, the pressure ratio being pressure measured prior to the inlet as related to pressure at the outlet prior to an exhaust nozzle; and

wherein the fan has a low corrected fan tip speed of less than 1150 ft/second.

17. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 16 , wherein said first ratio is greater than or equal to 2.0.

18. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 16 , wherein said first ratio is less than 2.0.

19. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 16 , wherein:

each of said exit guide vanes defines a hollow opening covered by an acoustic liner having a perforated face sheet;

said face sheet has a thickness, and a diameter of holes in said face sheet is selected to be less than or equal to 0.3 of the thickness; and

holes in said face sheet are at least 5% of a surface area of said face sheet.

20. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 19 , wherein said diameter is less than or equal to 0.2 of the thickness.

21. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 13 , wherein said geared arrangement is between said fan section and said second turbine section.

22. A gas turbine engine comprising:

a fan section having a plurality of fan blades;

a geared arrangement that drives said fan section;

a compressor section including a first compressor section and a second compressor section;

a turbine section including a first turbine section that drives said first compressor section, and a second turbine section that drives said second compressor section and said geared arrangement;

a plurality of exit guide vanes positioned downstream of said fan blades;

wherein a first ratio of a number of exit guide vanes to a number of fan blades being between 0.8 and 2.5;

wherein said exit guide vanes are provided with sweep and lean,

wherein sweep means that: (a) an outer periphery of said exit guide vane is positioned to be downstream of a location of an inner periphery of said exit guide vane; and (b) a sweep angle is between 5 degrees and 35 degrees,

wherein lean means that: (a) an outer periphery of said exit guide vane is positioned at a greater circumferential distance than an inner periphery of said exit guide vane in a direction of rotation of said fan blades; and (b) a lean angle is greater than 0 degrees and less than or equal to 15 degrees; and

each of said exit guide vanes defines a hollow opening covered by an acoustic liner having a perforated face sheet;

said face sheet has a thickness, and a diameter of holes in said face sheet is selected to be less than or equal to 0.3 of the thickness; and

holes in said face sheet are at least 5% of a surface area of said face sheet.

23. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 22 , wherein said lean angle is greater than or equal to 2 degrees, and said sweep angle is greater than or equal to 20 degrees.

24. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 22 , wherein said fan section has 26 or fewer fan blades.

25. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 4 , wherein:

said geared arrangement has a gear reduction ratio greater than or equal to 2.3;

wherein the second turbine section includes an inlet, an outlet and a pressure ratio of greater than 5, the pressure ratio being pressure measured prior to the inlet as related to pressure at the outlet prior to an exhaust nozzle; and

wherein the fan has a low corrected fan tip speed of less than 1150 ft/second.

26. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 25 , wherein said first ratio is greater than or equal to 2.0.

27. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 25 , wherein said first ratio is less than 2.0.

28. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 25 , wherein said diameter is less than or equal to 0.2 of the thickness.

29. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 28 , wherein said lean angle is greater than or equal to 2 degrees, and said sweep angle is greater than or equal to 20 degrees.

30. The gas turbine engine as set forth in claim 22 , wherein said first ratio is less than 2.0.

Assignments (5)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Jul 27, 2023
From: RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
To: RTX CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 064714/0001 →
CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE AND REMOVE PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER 11886281 AND ADD PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER 14846874. TO CORRECT THE RECEIVING PARTY ADDRESS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL: 054062 FRAME: 0001. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE CHANGE OF ADDRESS. Recorded Mar 4, 2021
From: UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
To: RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 055659/0001 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Sep 4, 2020
From: UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
To: RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 054062/0001 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded May 6, 2020
From: UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
To: RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 052582/0337 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 10, 2015
From: GILSON, JONATHAN; MORIN, BRUCE L.; REBA, RAMONS A.; TOPOL, DAVID A.; LORD, WESLEY K.
To: UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 037257/0672 →
Continuity (2)
Continuation In Part 13408382 · Feb 29, 2012
Related Publication 20160090909A1 · Mar 31, 2016
Cited By (17)
US 12,292,017 US 12,351,323 US 12,421,854 US 12,428,962 US 12,429,067 US 12,497,923 US 12,497,934 US 12,510,104 US 12,560,125 US 12,577,926 US 12,612,883 US 12,631,197 US 12,637,952 US 12,638,025 US 12,674,420 US 12,698,747 US 12,704,097