Additive Spider Frame for Gas Turbine Engine
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional gas turbine engine frames are heavy, complex, and obstruct the core flowpath, reducing efficiency and performance due to their large number of components and extensive vanes or struts.
Innovation Solution
A spider frame design with an integral structure comprising concentric inner and outer rings and radially extended struts, featuring oblong service passages and airfoils, which reduces part count, weight, and flowpath blockage, and utilizes additive manufacturing for construction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional frames are constructed with multiple separate components (rings, vanes, pipes, manifolds), then structural support and component routing are achieved, but weight and part count increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate frame components (rings, vanes, pipes, manifolds) into a single integrated spider frame structure. The spider frame includes an inner ring, outer ring, and multiple struts that collectively provide structural support, bearing assembly mounting, and fluid routing capabilities that previously required separate components. This merging eliminates the need for multiple discrete parts while maintaining all necessary functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The spider frame is designed as a multi-functional structure where the struts simultaneously serve as structural support elements, bearing assembly mounts, and fluid conduits. Service passages are integrated within the struts to route air and oil to bearing assemblies, eliminating the need for separate piping systems. This universal design allows a single component to perform multiple functions that previously required separate parts.
2Reliability
If conventional frames use numerous vanes or struts to provide structural support, then bearing assemblies are supported, but blockage in the core flowpath increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent moves fluid routing functionality from the flowpath dimension to the radial dimension by integrating service passages within the struts. Instead of having vanes or struts extend through the core flowpath and block gas flow, the service passages are positioned radially within the strut structure itself. This dimensional repositioning allows fluid routing without compromising the axial core flowpath efficiency.
3Ease of operation
If conventional frames route pipes and manifolds from outer diameter to inner diameter, then air and oil can be delivered to bearing assemblies, but frame complexity and thickness increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the fluid routing function into the structural strut elements themselves. Service passages are integrated within the struts, eliminating the need for separate pipes and manifolds that would extend from the outer diameter to the inner diameter. This integration reduces frame complexity by combining structural support and fluid routing into a single unified structure.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure is directed to a gas turbine engine defining an axial centerline, a longitudinal direction, a radial direction, and a circumferential direction. The gas turbine engine includes one or more frames in which the frame defines an inner ring and an outer ring generally concentric to the inner ring about the axial centerline. The frame defines a plurality of struts extended outward along the radial direction from the inner ring to the outer ring. One or more struts define one or more service passages extended at least partially along the radial direction within the strut, and wherein the inner ring, the outer ring, and the struts together define an integral structure.