CN115104594B

CN115104594B - Turbofan engine and aircraft

Info

Publication number: CN115104594B
Application number: CN202110285385.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 柴象海; 史同承; 倪晓琴; 刘传欣; 龚煦
Original assignee: AECC Commercial Aircraft Engine Co Ltd
Current assignee: AECC Commercial Aircraft Engine Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-03-17
Filing date: 2021-03-17
Publication date: 2024-01-16
Anticipated expiration: 2041-03-17
Also published as: CN115104594A

Abstract

The invention provides a turbofan engine and an aircraft. Turbofan engine includes engine body and sets up the bird repellent device on the engine body, and bird repellent device includes: a video acquisition device configured to acquire image information in front of the engine body; a plurality of lasers configured to emit laser light for chopping birds approaching the front end of the engine body; a laser trigger in signal connection with the laser and configured to issue a trigger instruction to the laser to cause the laser to emit or stop emitting laser light; and the controller is in signal connection with the video acquisition device and the laser trigger and is configured to send a controller instruction to the laser trigger according to the image information of the video acquisition device so as to control the laser trigger to send a trigger instruction. The turbofan engine is beneficial to eliminating or reducing damage to the turbofan engine caused by bird strikes.

Description

Turbofan engine and aircraft

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of aeroengines, in particular to a turbofan engine and an aircraft.

Background

Bird strikes are one of the important factors threatening aviation safety, and aircraft takeoff and landing processes are the stages where bird strikes are most likely to occur.

Because the flying speed of the airplane is high, the relative speed of the airplane and birds is very high, and the airplane and birds are often damaged greatly after collision, particularly for a turbofan engine, the birds are often sucked into an air inlet to deform the fan blades of the turbofan engine or block the engine, so that the engine is stopped or even ignited, the damage to the power system of the airplane is often fatal, and the airplane can stall and crash seriously. Stringent requirements are placed on the design and strength of turbofan engines and bird strike tests are performed to ensure safety. The engine should be able to withstand a certain number and quality of bird strikes while still maintaining the required performance. In recent years, according to actual demands, stricter bird strike regulations are being put forth for large-sized civil engines.

Turbofan engines include two broad categories of methods, one passive, which increases the structural strength of the engine that may be subjected to a bird strike, and the other active, which employs anti-bird devices to prevent birds from entering the engine or to cut the birds into small enough pieces prior to entering the engine.

The conventional bird repellent device drives birds through sound. However, acoustic bird repellent is more suitable for airport bird repellent, and aircraft have limited acoustic transmission distances during flight, and birds tend to be sucked into the engine before being driven by the sound.

Another type of bird strike protection is to prevent birds from entering the engine or to cut them into small enough pieces before entering the engine, which can be used when the aircraft is flying, requiring the birds in front of the aircraft to be discovered in advance by the warning device and to trigger the protection device.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a turbofan engine and an airplane, aiming at eliminating or reducing damage of bird strikes to the turbofan engine.

The first aspect of the invention provides a turbofan engine, comprising an engine body and an anti-bird device arranged on the engine body, wherein the anti-bird device comprises:

a video acquisition device configured to acquire image information in front of the engine body;

a plurality of lasers configured to emit laser light for chopping birds approaching the front end of the engine body;

a laser trigger in signal connection with the laser configured to issue a trigger instruction to the laser to cause the laser to emit or stop emitting the laser; and

and the controller is in signal connection with the video acquisition device and the laser trigger and is configured to send a controller instruction to the laser trigger according to the image information of the video acquisition device so as to control the laser trigger to send the trigger instruction.

In some embodiments, the video acquisition device comprises a beyond-the-horizon camera.

The turbofan engine of claim 1 wherein the video capture device is located at a front end of the housing of the engine block.

In some embodiments, the plurality of lasers are arranged at a casing front end of the engine body in a circumferential direction of the engine body.

In some embodiments, the plurality of lasers are configured such that the laser mesh of the laser light emitted by each is capable of cutting birds into pieces of a quality that does not cause damage to the engine.

In some embodiments, the laser light emitted from each of the lasers is directed toward a front end position of the casing spaced more than 90 degrees from itself, and the laser light emitted from each of the lasers is located between the other two lasers in the circumferential direction of the engine body.

In some embodiments, the controller is configured to determine a type, a volume and a relative speed of an object at the front end of the engine body according to the image information acquired by the video acquisition device, so as to judge whether the object can damage the engine body, and send the controller instruction according to a judgment result.

In some embodiments, the laser trigger and controller are disposed inside a front end of a chassis of the engine block and in front of a fan of the engine block.

A second aspect of the invention provides an aircraft comprising a turbofan engine according to the first aspect of the invention.

In some embodiments, the video surveillance scope of the video acquisition device is configured to:

covering a predetermined distance in the axial direction of the engine body, wherein the predetermined distance is the product of the system response time of the controller and the laser trigger and the sum of the estimated maximum speed of birds and the estimated maximum flying speed of the aircraft possibly hit by birds; and/or

In an axial direction perpendicular to the engine block, covers the entire area in front of the engine block.

According to the turbofan engine provided by the invention, birds in front of the engine body can be found in advance through the video acquisition device, and the laser is triggered to act through the controller and the laser trigger, so that the birds are cut into fragments before entering the engine body, and damage of bird strikes to the turbofan engine can be eliminated or reduced. The aircraft provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the turbofan engine provided by the embodiment of the invention, and has the advantages of the turbofan engine. Other features of the present invention and its advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the invention and do not constitute a limitation on the invention. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a schematic view of a turbofan engine according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the laser does not emit laser light.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a turbofan engine according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a laser is emitting laser light.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural view of a turbofan engine according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a rotor of the turbofan engine is not shown.

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural view of an aircraft according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments of the present invention will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which it is apparent that the embodiments described are only some embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments. The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.

The relative arrangement of the components and steps, numerical expressions and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention unless it is specifically stated otherwise. Meanwhile, it should be understood that the sizes of the respective parts shown in the drawings are not drawn in actual scale for convenience of description. Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail, but should be considered part of the specification where appropriate. In all examples shown and discussed herein, any specific values should be construed as merely illustrative, and not a limitation. Thus, other examples of the exemplary embodiments may have different values. It should be noted that: like reference numerals and letters denote like items in the following figures, and thus once an item is defined in one figure, no further discussion thereof is necessary in subsequent figures.

In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the azimuth or positional relationships indicated by the azimuth terms such as "front, rear, upper, lower, left, right", "lateral, vertical, horizontal", and "top, bottom", etc., are generally based on the azimuth or positional relationships shown in the drawings, merely to facilitate description of the present invention and simplify the description, and these azimuth terms do not indicate and imply that the apparatus or elements referred to must have a specific azimuth or be constructed and operated in a specific azimuth, and thus should not be construed as limiting the scope of protection of the present invention; the orientation word "inner and outer" refers to inner and outer relative to the contour of the respective component itself.

As shown in fig. 1 to 3, an embodiment of the present invention discloses a turbofan engine, which includes an engine body 1 and an anti-bird device provided on the engine body 1. The bird prevention device comprises a video acquisition device 3, a laser 2, a laser trigger 4 and a controller 5.

The video capturing apparatus 3 is configured to capture image information in front of the engine body 1. The video acquisition device 3 serves to find birds in front of the turbofan engine as information to start or stop the laser 2 from lasing. The video capturing apparatus 3 is provided at the front end of the casing 11 of the engine body 1, for example. As shown in fig. 1 to 3, the video capture device 3 is located outside the front top of the cabinet 11. The video capture device 3 may be arranged in other locations.

In some embodiments, video capture device 3 comprises, for example, a beyond-the-horizon camera. Birds in front of the turbofan engine can be found as early as possible by the beyond-view-range camera, so that the laser can be started to emit laser in time.

A plurality of lasers 2 are provided at the front end of the housing 11 of the engine body 1, configured to emit laser light for chopping birds approaching the front end of the engine body 1. The plurality of lasers 2 are provided at the front end of the housing 11, for example.

The laser light emitted by the laser 2 needs to have energy that can chop birds. By controlling the output power of the laser 2, the laser can be made to not damage the turbofan engine and aircraft structure. The laser 2 may be, for example, a gas laser, a solid-state laser, a semiconductor laser, a dye laser, a free electron laser, or the like. A pulsed output, higher power laser may be employed to ensure that birds to enter the engine block 1 may be shredded.

The laser trigger 4 is in signal connection with the laser 2 and is configured to issue a trigger instruction to the laser 4 to cause the laser 2 to emit or stop emitting laser light.

The controller 5 is in signal connection with the video acquisition device 3 and the laser trigger 4, and is configured to issue a controller instruction to the laser trigger 4 according to the image information of the video acquisition device 3 to control the laser trigger 4 to issue a trigger instruction.

Wherein the controller 5 instructs the laser trigger 4 to issue a trigger instruction to the laser 2 to make the laser 2 emit laser light when birds that are harmful to the engine body 1 are present in front of the engine body 1, and instructs the laser trigger 4 to issue a turn-off instruction to make the laser 2 stop emitting laser light when birds that are not harmful to the engine body 1 are present in front of the engine body 1 or birds that are not harmful to the engine body 1 are present in front of the engine body 4.

According to the turbofan engine disclosed by the embodiment of the invention, birds in front of the engine body 1 can be found in advance through the video acquisition device 3, and the laser 2 is triggered to act through the controller 5 and the laser trigger 4, so that the birds are cut into 1 pieces before entering the engine body 1, and damage of bird strikes to the turbofan engine is eliminated or reduced.

As shown in fig. 1 to 3, in some embodiments, a plurality of lasers 2 are arranged at the front end of a casing 11 of an engine body 1 in the circumferential direction of the engine body. This configuration facilitates reticulation of the laser light emitted by the plurality of lasers to facilitate prevention of excessive birds or fragments thereof from entering the engine block 1.

Wherein the plurality of lasers 2 are configured such that the laser net of individually emitted laser light is capable of cutting birds into pieces of a quality that does not cause damage to the engine. For example, the number and placement of lasers 2 may be selected based on the ability of the formed laser mesh to cut birds to avionically specified bird sizes, such as weights less than 227 grams or less.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 2, the laser light emitted from each laser 2 is directed toward a front end front position of the housing 11 spaced more than 90 degrees from itself, and the laser light emitted from each laser 2 is located between the other two lasers 2 in the circumferential direction of the engine body 1. This arrangement facilitates the reticulation of the laser light emitted by the plurality of lasers, so as to facilitate the prevention of excessive birds or fragments thereof from entering the engine body 1.

The controller 5 is configured to determine the type, volume and relative speed of the object at the front end of the engine body 1 and the engine body 1 according to the image information acquired by the video acquisition device 3, so as to determine whether the object can cause harm to the engine body 1, and send a controller command according to the determination result. For example, the controller 5 may recognize whether a relatively moving object in front of the engine body 1 is a bird, a bird volume, a flying speed of the bird relative to the engine, or the like, and generate a controller command.

The controller 5 may be implemented, for example, as a general-purpose processor, a programmable logic controller (Programmable Logic Controller, abbreviated as PLC), a digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processor, abbreviated as DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, abbreviated as ASIC), etc. for performing the functions described in the present invention.

In some embodiments, the laser trigger 4 and the controller 5 are disposed inside the front end of the housing 11 of the engine block 1 and in front of the fan 12 of the engine block 1. As shown in fig. 3, the laser trigger 4 and the controller 5 are provided in front of the front-end inner lower fan 12 of the casing 11 of the engine body 1.

As shown in fig. 4, the embodiment of the present invention further provides an aircraft a, including the turbofan engine of the embodiment of the present invention. The aircraft A provided by the embodiment of the invention has the advantages of the turbofan engine provided by the embodiment of the invention.

Wherein the video monitoring range S of the video acquisition device 3 is configured to: covering a predetermined distance in the axial direction of the engine body 1, wherein the predetermined distance is the product of the system response time of the controller 5 and the laser trigger 4 and the sum of the estimated maximum speed of birds and the estimated maximum flying speed of the aircraft which may be hit by birds; and/or cover the entire area in front of the engine block 1 in the axial direction perpendicular to the engine block 1.

The arrangement can enable the video acquisition device 3 to form a video monitoring range S without dead angles in front of the flight direction of the airplane so as to achieve better bird prevention effect.

From the above description, the turbofan engine and the aircraft according to the embodiments of the present invention have at least one of the following advantages:

birds in front of the aircraft can be found, and the birds are cut into fragments which cannot damage the engine through a laser net formed by the laser, so that the engine cannot or can not reduce the damage caused by bird strike.

Effectively prevent that large-scale birds from getting into the engine body, do benefit to the improvement engine reliability.

The fan blade, the air inlet cone, the compressor outlet guide blade and the like in the engine body do not need to consider bird strike, and the design weight is reduced.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only for illustrating the technical solution of the present invention and not for limiting the same; while the invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate that: modifications and equivalents of some of the features of the specific embodiments of the present invention may be made, and they are all included in the scope of the present invention as claimed.

Claims

1. A turbofan engine, includes engine block (1) and set up in bird repellent device on engine block (1), its characterized in that, bird repellent device includes:

a video acquisition device (3) configured to acquire image information in front of the engine body (1);

a plurality of lasers (2) configured to emit laser light for chopping birds approaching the front end of the engine body (1);

a laser trigger (4) in signal connection with the laser (2) and configured to issue a trigger instruction to the laser (4) to cause the laser (2) to emit or stop emitting the laser light; and

and the controller (5) is in signal connection with the video acquisition device (3) and the laser trigger (4) and is configured to send a controller instruction to the laser trigger (4) according to the image information of the video acquisition device (3) so as to control the laser trigger (4) to send the trigger instruction.

2. Turbofan engine according to claim 1, characterized in that the video acquisition device (3) comprises a beyond-the-horizon camera.

3. The turbofan engine according to claim 1, characterized in that the video acquisition device (3) is located at the front end of the casing (11) of the engine block (1).

4. The turbofan engine according to claim 1, characterized in that the plurality of lasers (2) are arranged at a front end of a casing (11) of the engine block (1) in a circumferential direction of the engine block (1).

5. The turbofan engine of claim 4 wherein the plurality of lasers (2) are configured such that the laser mesh of the lasers emitted by each is capable of cutting birds into pieces of a quality that does not cause damage to the engine.

6. A turbofan engine according to claim 4, characterized in that the laser light emitted by each of the lasers (2) is directed toward the front end position of the casing (11) spaced more than 90 degrees from itself, and the laser light emitted by each of the lasers (2) is located between the other two lasers (2) in the circumferential direction of the engine body (1).

7. The turbofan engine according to claim 1, wherein the controller (5) is configured to determine the type, volume and relative speed of an object at the front end of the engine block (1) to the engine block (1) based on the image information acquired by the video acquisition device (3) to determine whether the object can cause damage to the engine block (1), and to issue the controller instruction based on the determination result.

8. The turbofan engine according to claim 1, characterized in that the laser trigger (4) and the controller (5) are arranged inside the front end of the casing (11) of the engine block (1) and in front of the fan (12) of the engine block (1).

9. An aircraft comprising a turbofan engine according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. The aircraft according to claim 9, characterized in that the video surveillance range (S) of the video acquisition device (3) is configured to:

covering a predetermined distance in the axial direction of the engine body (1), the predetermined distance being the product of the system response time of the controller (5) and the laser trigger (4) and the sum of the estimated maximum speed of birds and the estimated maximum flying speed of the aircraft that may be hit by birds; and/or

In an axial direction perpendicular to the engine body (1), covers the entire area in front of the engine body (1).