THE TECHNICAL FIELD TO WHICH THE INVENTION RELATES

This invention relates generally to gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to the water cooling of high and low speed turbine discs and the blades.

THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE TECHNIQUE

In known gas turbine turbofan engines, the thrust to turn the turbine blades is createdusing the energy generated by combining the compressed air from the high speed compressor with the fuel mixture inside the combustor, however, the turbine blades are required to be cooled down because the high temperature of about 1700 degrees Celsius which occurs withincombustor, as the metal alloy turbine blades cannot withstand such high heat. The best known technique is to cool the turbine blades with high speed compressor air using film technique. If we consider the fact that the cooling air required for internal cooling of the turbine blades is the 20% of the air taken from the high-speed compressor (core engine), it is easy to understand how important this amount of air is to obtain power from the turbine. As the 20% of the compressor air (the core engine) is actually used for cooling, the compressor air cannot be fully utilized. Cooling the low speed turbine blades using the film cooling technique is a very stressful and power wasting technique. In this cooling technique, the stress generated when the compressed air of the high speed compressor hits the rotating HPT turbine blade, and the reduction of turbine rotation speed as a result of this cannot be ignored in physical terms. This impact, according to my estimations, causes between 5 to 10% of reduction in the rotation speed of the HPT turbine blades. TECHNICAL PROBLEMS THAT ARE AIMED TO BE SOLVED WITH THE INVENTION

With this invention, the aim is to cool the HPT and LPT turbine blades from the 1700 degrees Celsius heat generated by the burning of the fuel within the combustor, using water cooling systems, instead of air cooling using the 650-850 degrees Celsius air taken from the compressor, With this technique, it is aimed to solve the problems such as the loss of speed of the HPT blades during the cooling process as well as the 20% compressed air used while cooling the HPT blades of the HPC compressor and the stress caused by this air on the HPT. There are two basic physical properties that make water cooling superior to air cooling. The first is that the thermal conductivity of the water is 25 times higher than of the air, and the second feature is that the heat carrying capacity of the water is 4 times higher than the air. It requires four times more heat energy to increase its temperature. Water Cooling Technique for Gas Turbine Engine blades is shown in the following diagrams.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Diagram 1: The cooling scheme of the HPT and LPT turbine disc and blades with the introduction of a water recirculation pump at the entrance of the turbofan engine main shaft by extending it into a wider funnel shape.

Diagram 2: Water Recirculation pump shaft diagram

Diagram 3: Front view diagram of main shaft input

Diagram 4: Water recirculation pump shaft and main shaft connection diagram

Diagram 5: Connection diagram for the water recirculation pump chassis to the engine chassis externally and the R1 bearing to the inner front side of the main shaft internally Diagram 6: Cross-sectional diagram showing the connection of the main shaft parts to the inner shaft

Diagram 7: Diagram showing connection of main shaft and intermediate shaft part to inner shaft and direction of water flow to HPT and LPT discs. Diagram 8: Diagram showing the discharge of water from the shaft through the HPT Discs to the blades and from the blades to the discharge setup

REFERENCE NUMBERS

The descriptions of the numbers in the diagrams are given below:

1: Water recirculation Pump blade

2: Water recirculation pump shaft

3: Water recirculation pump chassis

4: Bearing (Rl, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7)

5: U channel (4 Pieces)

6: Tab (4 quotes)

7: Main shaft,

7- a) Intermediate shaft

7-b) Main and intermediate shaft fixing inner shaft

8: HPT Disc (High Pressure Turbine)

9: LPT Disc (Low Pressure Turbine)

10: HPT Water flow channel

11: LPT Water flow channel

12: HPT blade

13: LPT blade

14: Water Cooling Pipe (Radiator)

15: HPT hot water discharge apparatus

16: LPT hot water discharge apparatus

17: HPT cold water inlet gap

18: LPT cold water inlet gap

19: Engine protection chassis

20: LPC Compressor blade (2 stages) 21: Cold water channel.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to figure 1, for a Turbofan Gas Turbine engine, 4 shaft retaining tabs (6) are fixed horizontally from the inside of the main shaft (7) by inserting into the 4 U channels (5) on the water pump shaft (2). The water recirculation pump (1) passes through the main shaft (7) through the cold water inlet gap (17, 18) to the turbine disc water channel (10,11) and to the LPT and HPT blades. The water in the blades (12, 13) passes from the discharge apparatus (15, 16) to the water cooling pipes (14) which act as radiators and is cooled by the cold air flow sucked by the LPC compressor.

Referring to figure 2, the 4 U channels (5) on one side of the Water Recirculation pump shaft (2) are for fixing to the main shaft (7).

Referring to figure 3, it is the cross-sectional front view of the water circulation pump shaft (2) connecting to the main shaft (7).

Referring to figure 4, the way in which the water circulation pump shaft (2) is fixed to the main shaft (7) is shown.

Referring to figure 5, the water recirculation pump shaft (2), and the inlet portion of the engine main shaft (7) is secured to the four tabs (6) connected to the water recirculation pump (1) chassis (3). The outside of the water recirculation pump housing (3) is fixed to the outside of the engine chassis (19) and the inside of the housing (3) is fixed to the inside of the bearing (Rl) at the inlet of the main shaft (7).

Referring to figure 6, the intermediate shaft (7a) and inner shaft (7b) connections and four water channels that ensure the cold water flow (21) can be seen. Referring to Fig. 7, the main shaft (7), intermediate shaft (7-a) and inner shaft (7-b) connections and the water passage gap (17,18) are shown.

Figure 8 shows a cross-sectional view of the HPT disc (8) and its blade 12, with cold water flowing through the HPT disc (8) into (10) the turbine blade (12), through which the entire blades are joined from the top into the space in the U-shaped circle. Each end of the two ends of the U-ring is secured to the inside of the water-tight sealed bearing (R4, R5) to prevent water leakage. Since there is no weight on the bearings (R4, R5), there cannot be any speed loss of the rotational speed or stress over the HPT disc. Since the water cycle and cooling cycle are the same as the engine speed, the cooling is done using the cool air coming from the blades into the engine chassis, which provides a very good heat transfer, thus, the efficient cooling of the blades and discs are ensured.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION

The technical problems in the cooling process of the known Gas Turbine engines described above can be solved more successfully than the conventional techniques, with the External Gas Turbine water recirculation cooling technique. The invention is a product that can be produced in the industry using a design and manufacturing study in accordance with the invention. There is no complicated process in the manufacturing of the product and impeding the working order.