Gas turbine engine buffer cooling system

• US 9,038,398 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2012
• Issued: 05/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rtx Corporation
• Original Assignee: United Technologies Corporation (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Suciu, Gabriel L., Alvanos, Ioannis
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, CRAIG SANG
• Application Number:
  US13/405,466
• Publication Number:
  US 20130219917A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,184 Days
• Field of Search: 607/85, 607/95, 608/06, 607/28, 60/390.8, 602/66, 602/67, 607/82
• US Class Current: 60/782
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 25/125 of bearings
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 5/081 Cooling fluid being directed on the side of the rotor disc or at the roots of the blades F01D5/087 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F02C 6/08 the gas being bled from the gas-turbine compressor
• CPC Class Codes: F02C 7/06 Arrangements of bearings bearings F16C; Lubricating of turbo machines F01D25/18; of machines or engines in general F01M
• CPC Class Codes: F02C 7/185 Cooling means for reducing the temperature of the cooling air or gas
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2220/32 in gas turbines
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2260/232 characterized by the cooling medium

Abstract

A gas turbine engine includes a heat exchanger, a bearing compartment, and a nozzle assembly in fluid communication with the bearing compartment. The heat exchanger exchanges heat with a bleed airflow to provide a conditioned airflow. The bearing compartment is in fluid communication with the heat exchanger. A first passageway communicates the conditioned airflow from the heat exchanger to the bearing compartment. A second passageway communicates the conditioned airflow from the bearing compartment to the nozzle assembly.

Claims

1. A gas turbine engine, comprising:

a compressor section, a combustor section and a turbine section circumferentially disposed about an engine centerline axis;

a buffer cooling system that establishes a buffer cooled cooling air path that conditions a part of at least one of said compressor section and said turbine section, wherein said buffer cooling system includes a heat exchanger, a passageway and a nozzle assembly, and said buffer cooled cooling air path extends from said heat exchanger, through said passageway, and then through said nozzle assembly to condition hardware of at least one of said compressor section and said turbine section; and

a second nozzle assembly, wherein a first portion of a conditioned airflow of said buffer cooled cooling air path is communicated through said nozzle assembly to condition said turbine section and a second portion of said conditioned airflow is communicated through said second nozzle assembly to condition said compressor section.

2. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 1, wherein said hardware includes a rotor assembly.

3. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 1, wherein said nozzle assembly is a tangential onboard injection (TOBI) nozzle.

4. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 1, comprising a bearing compartment, wherein said buffer cooled cooling air path extends through a portion of said bearing compartment between said passageway and said nozzle assembly.

5. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 4, wherein said buffer cooled cooling air path communicates a conditioned airflow radially outwardly from a bearing housing of said bearing compartment.

6. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 1, wherein said heat exchanger exchanges heat between a bleed airflow and a fan airflow to render a conditioned airflow that is communicated along said buffer cooled cooling air path.

7. The gas turbine engine as recited in claim 1, wherein said first portion of said conditioned airflow is communicated downstream through said passageway and said second portion is communicated upstream through a second, different passageway.