Multi-Purpose Gas Turbine Seal Support Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gas turbine engines face challenges with seals that become damaged or fail, leading to inadequate sealing, leakage, and unwanted heating of engine components, which requires multiple hardware pieces and increases complexity and space requirements.
Innovation Solution
A multi-purpose seal support with a discourager, seal, and meshing portion integrated into a single component, which secures to the turbine exhaust case assembly, prevents hot air ingestion, maintains a tortuous path for combustion gases, and provides fail-safe meshing in case of rotor failure, simplifying assembly and reducing leakage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple separate hardware pieces are used to provide sealing, flow management, and structural support, then each function can be optimized independently, but the overall device complexity and space requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate hardware components (seal elements, flow management structures, and structural support pieces) into a single integrated seal assembly. This merger maintains all necessary functions while reducing the total number of parts, simplifying assembly, and reducing leakage paths between components.
Solution Approach 2:
The seal assembly is designed as a multi-functional component that simultaneously provides sealing, flow management, and structural support functions. This universal design allows a single component to fulfill multiple roles that previously required separate hardware pieces, thereby reducing complexity while maintaining reliability.
2Reliability
If multiple separate hardware pieces are used to provide sealing and structural support, then each component can be optimized for its specific function, but the assembly space and installation complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separate components into a single integrated seal assembly, reducing the total assembly space required. The combined structure eliminates gaps and interfaces between separate parts, maintaining sealing performance while occupying less overall space in the engine assembly.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional seal arrangements are used, then installation is straightforward, but leakage and inadequate sealing occur when seals become damaged
Solution Approach 1:
The seal assembly incorporates redundant sealing paths and backup sealing mechanisms that are built into the design from the beginning. If the primary seal becomes damaged, the redundant paths prevent leakage, providing beforehand protection against seal failure without complicating the assembly process.
4Device complexity
If a single integrated component is used to provide multiple functions, then assembly and maintenance are simplified, but the component design becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs a single seal assembly that performs multiple functions (sealing, flow management, structural support) through carefully integrated features within one component. While the internal design is complex, the overall system complexity is reduced by eliminating multiple separate parts, and the multi-functional design allows for simplified assembly and maintenance procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
A gas turbine engine assembly includes a first module, a second module rotatable about a center line of the gas turbine engine and fluidly coupled with the first module, and a multi-purpose seal support. The multi-purpose seal support includes an aft end secured to the first module, and a forward end disposed proximate the second module. The forward end has a discourager portion, a seal portion, and a meshing portion.