Outlet Guide Vane Cooling Passage With Machined Flow-Disturbing Studs
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The manufacturing of guide vanes with integrated heat exchangers for aircraft dual flow turbomachines is costly and time-consuming due to conventional machining techniques, which require significant material removal and tooling costs.
Innovation Solution
The use of a chamfering cutter to machine the front and back side walls of the guide vane, creating flow disturbing studs as a single piece within the lubricant cooling internal passage, reduces manufacturing costs and time by forming the studs through repeated machining.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional machining techniques with round cutters are used to create flow disturbing studs, then the studs can be manufactured, but the manufacturing cost and time increase significantly due to high material removal volume
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a round cutter to machine the studs directly, the invention inverts the approach by using a chamfering cutter to machine the surrounding material, leaving the stud material intact. This reverses the conventional machining logic and dramatically reduces material removal volume while achieving the same stud geometry
Solution Approach 2:
The invention converts what would normally be considered waste material (the studs that would be removed by conventional machining) into the functional flow-disturbing elements. By machining around rather than away from the stud material, the previously harmful excessive material removal becomes the beneficial stud structure itself
2Manufacturing precision
If Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is used to manufacture the studs, then manufacturing precision can be improved, but tooling cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces expensive, specialized EDM tooling with a simple, inexpensive chamfering cutter that can be easily manufactured and replaced. The chamfering cutter achieves sufficient precision for the application without requiring the high-cost infrastructure of EDM equipment
Solution Approach 2:
The invention substitutes the electrical discharge machining process with conventional mechanical chamfering cutter machining. This replacement eliminates the need for expensive EDM tooling while achieving adequate precision through mechanical means
3Productivity
If ACOC exchangers are removed from the secondary path, then turbomachine efficiency increases due to reduced flow disturbances, but the need for alternative heat exchange solutions arises
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the heat exchanger function with the guide vane structure itself. The guide vane walls are machined to include internal passages containing lubricant, combining the flow-straightening function of the guide vane with the heat exchange function in a single integrated component
Solution Approach 2:
The guide vane is given multiple functions: it straightens the airflow in the secondary path and simultaneously serves as a heat exchanger for cooling lubricant. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate ACOC exchangers in the secondary path
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method facilitates the production of guide vanes with integrated heat exchangers, reducing manufacturing costs and improving efficiency by utilizing a chamfering cutter to create the studs, thereby enhancing heat exchange capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
The use of a chamfering cutter to machine the front and back side walls of the guide vane, creating flow disturbing studs as a single piece within the lubricant cooling internal passage
Implementation Method 2
flow disturbing studs made as a single piece with one of the front side and back side walls passing through said passage... increasing the wet surface, for the purpose of ensuring a better heat exchange
Implementation Method 3
studs for disturbing the lubricant flow and increasing the wet surface
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a guide vane intended to be arranged in all or part of an air flow of an aircraft bypass turbomachine fan, the vane comprising an aerodynamic part equipped with at least one interior lubricant cooling passage delimited in part by an intrados wall and an extrados wall of the vane, there being flow-disturbing lugs, made as one piece with one of the intrados and extrados walls, passing across the passage. According to the invention, in any plane of section passing orthogonally through the lugs, the space defined between these lugs has a geometry defined exclusively by a set of annulus shapes of the same dimensions, partially overlapping one another and each in part delimiting at least two of these lugs.