Microturbomachinery

US5932940A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology · US

Inventors

• Alan H. Epstein · Lexington, US
• Stephen D. Senturia · Boston, US
• Ian A. Waitz · Newton, US
• Jeffrey H. Lang · Sudbury, US
• Stuart A. Jacobson · Somerville, US
• Fredric F. Ehrich · Marblehead, US
• Martin Schmidt · Brookline, US
• G. K. Ananthasuresh · Philadelphia, US
• Mark S. Spearing · Newton, US
• Kenneth S. Breuer · Newton, US
• Steven F. Nagle · Cambridge, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 15, 1996
• Grant date: Aug 3, 1999
• Expiry date: Nov 15, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC F): Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
• CPC primary: F23C2900/03001
• WIPO field: Engines, pumps, turbines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

The invention provides a micro-gas turbine engine and associated microcomponentry. The engine components, including, e.g., a compressor, a diffuser having diffuser vanes, a combustion chamber, turbine guide vanes, and a turbine are each manufactured by, e.g., microfabrication techniques, of a structural material common to all of the elements, e.g., a microelectronic material such as silicon or silicon carbide. Vapor deposition techniques, as well as bulk wafer etching techniques, can be employed to produce the engine. The engine includes a rotor having a shaft with a substantially untapered compressor disk on a first end, defining a centrifugal compressor, and a substantially untapered turbine disk on the opposite end, defining a radial inflow turbine. The rotor is preferably formed of a material characterized by a strength-to-density ratio that enables a rotor speed of at least about 500,000 rotations per minute. An annular, axial-flow combustion chamber is provided that is located axially between the compressor and turbine disks and that has a ratio of annular height to axial length of at least about 0.5. The micro-gas turbine engine can be configured with an integral microgenera…