Inlet pre-swirl gas turbine engine

US10711797B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• General Electric Company · US

Inventors

• Christopher James Kroger · West Chester, US
• Brandon Wayne Miller · Monroe, US
• Trevor Wayne Goerig · Cincinnati, US
• David William Crall · Loveland, US
• Tsuguji Nakano · Sharonville, US
• Jeffrey Donald Clements · Evendale, US
• Bhaskar Nanda Mondal · Bengaluru, IN

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 16, 2017
• Grant date: Jul 14, 2020
• Expiry date: Feb 1, 2038

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02T50/60
• WIPO field: Engines, pumps, turbines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A gas turbine engine includes a turbomachine and a fan rotatable by the turbomachine. The fan includes a plurality of fan blades, each of the plurality of fan blades defining a fan blade span along a radial direction. The gas turbine engine further includes an outer nacelle surrounding the plurality of fan blades and a plurality of part-span inlet guide varies attached to the outer nacelle at a location forward of the plurality of fan blades along an axial direction. Each of the plurality of inlet guide vanes defines an IGV span along the radial direction, the IGV span being at least about five percent of the fan blade span and up to about fifty-five percent of the fan blade span.