Aircraft Turbofan Engine with Multiple High-Pressure Core Modules Not Concentric with the Engine Centerline

• US 20150260127A1
• Filed: 03/13/2014
• Published: 09/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Arthur J. Wennerstrom
• Original Assignee: Arthur J. Wennerstrom
• Inventors: Wennerstrom, Arthur J.
• Application Number:
  US14/209,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20150260127A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 15/10 Adaptations for driving, or combinations with, electric generators
• CPC Class Codes: F02C 6/02 Plural gas-turbine plants having a common power output
• CPC Class Codes: F02K 3/115 by means of indirect heat exchange
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2250/312 the axes being parallel to each other
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2260/85 Starting

Abstract

An aircraft turbofan engine configuration is described that has two or more high-pressure core modules operating in parallel flowpaths, each comprised of a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine, the axes of which are adjacent to but removed from the engine axis, in lieu of a single high-pressure core serving the same purpose that is coaxial with the engine axis in prior-art designs. An intercooler is included between the low-pressure compressor and the high-pressure compressor that differs from prior-art designs by being made an integral part of the fan stator rather than inserted as a separate entity. Both features offer advantages relative to prior-art designs.

Claims

1. An intercooled aircraft turbofan engine construction in which the fan stator blades function as the intercooler by containing internal flow passages through which air leaving the low-pressure compressor is passed on its way to the high-pressure compressor.

2. An intercooled aircraft turbofan engine construction as in claim 1 in which the prior-art single high-pressure spool (typically consisting of a compressor, one or more combustors, and a drive turbine, all concentric with the engine axis) is replaced with two or more high-pressure modules (each consisting of a compressor, a combustor, and a drive turbine) that divide the flow, that would have previously passed through the prior-art single high-pressure spool, into multiple parallel paths the axes of which surround the engine axis at some distance radially removed from it.

3. An intercooled aircraft turbofan engine construction as in claim 2 in which each high-pressure module incorporates a coaxial electric motor/generator used to start each module and to provide electrical power for engine and aircraft systems during operation.