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Closed Loop Cooling Method And System With Heat Pipes For A Gas Turbine Engine
Abstract: An apparatus and method of cooling a gas turbine engine [10] including a core [44] with a compressor section [22] in which the compressor section [22] includes a closed loop cooling circuit [84] having a pump [86], at least one heat pipe [94] extending from at least one of the stationary vanes [60, 62], a heat exchanger [76] located within the bypass air flow [47], and a coolant conduit [90] passing fluidly coupled to the pump [86] and heat exchanger [76] and passing by the heat pipe [94]. The pump [86] pumps coolant [98, 100, 114] through the coolant conduit [90] to draw heat from the heat pipes [94] into the coolant [98, 100, 114] to form heated coolant [100], the heated coolant [100] then passes through the heat exchanger [76], where the heat is rejected from the coolant [98, 100, 114] to the bypass air [47] to cool the coolant [98, 100, 114] to form cooled coolant [98], which is then returned to the heat pipes [94].
Notices, Deadlines & Correspondence
Patent Information
Applicants
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
Inventors
1. SENNOUN, Mohammed El Hacin
2. BUNKER, Ronald Scott
Specification
1. A method of cooling a gas turbine engine [10] having a compressor [24, 26] with multiple, axially arranged stages [52, 54] of paired rotating blades [56] and stationary vanes [60, 62] located between an outer compressor [24, 26] casing and inner compressor [24, 26] casing, the method comprising: a closed loop cooling of the compressor [24, 26] by drawing heat from at least one of the vanes [60, 62] with a heat pipe [94], drawing heat from at least one heat pipe [94] by routing a liquid coolant [98, 100, 114] by the at least one heat pipe [94] to form a heated liquid coolant [100], and routing the heated liquid coolant [100] through a heat exchanger [76].
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein drawing the heat from at least one vane [60, 62] comprises drawing the heat from the at least one vane [60, 62] with multiple heat pipes [94].
3. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein drawing the heat from at least one vane [60, 62] comprises drawing the heat from multiple vanes [60, 62] with multiple heat pipes [94].
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the routing liquid by the at leas one heat pipe [94] comprises routing a liquid coolant [98, 100, 114] through a manifold surrounding the at least one heat pipe [94].
5. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the drawing the heat from the a least one vane [60, 62] comprises drawing the heat from a variable stator vane [60, 62].
6. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising routing the liquid coolant [98, 100, 114] through an intercooler [88] located within the gas turbine engine [10].
7. The method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the routing the liquid coolant [98, 100, 114] through the intercooler [88] comprises routing the liquid coolant
[98, 100, 114] through a surface cooler located upstream of the compressor [24, 26].
8. The method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the routing the liquid coolant [98, 100, 114] through an intercooler [88] comprises routing the liquid coolant [98, 100, 114] through at least one of inlet guide vanes [55] and outlet guide vanes [57] for the compressor [24, 26].
9. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising passing a cooling fluid [75] through the heat exchanger [76].
10. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the cooling fluid comprises air [75] from a fan section [18] of the gas turbine engine [10].