GB720012A - Improvements in or relating to the cooling of aircraft propulsion plants - Google Patents

Abstract

720,012. Gas turbine plant. BRISTOL AEROPLANE CO., Ltd. April 23, 1952 [April 23, 1951], No. 9442/51. Class 110 (3). [Also in Group XXXIV] A gas turbine plant burning liquid fuel has means for circulating liquid fuel in a circuit in heat exchange relation with parts requiring heating and cooling respectively and means for replenishing the fuel in the circuit with fresh fuel from the fuel storage means to make up for normal losses of fuel from the circuit and to prevent the return of fuel to the storage means. Fuel from a tank 5 is supplied by a booster pump 6 to the main engine fuel pump 9 through a filter 7. Fuel is bled from the conduit between the filter 7 and pump 9 and passed through a non-return valve 10, a heat exchanger 13 and a chamber 11 for separating the air and vapour from the fuel to a further pump 17. The fuel is heated in the heat exchanger 13 by the hot lubricating oil from the engine. The valve 10 closes in the flow direction if the flow exceeds a predetermined amount. The flow of hot fuel from the pump 17 is divided into three paths 19, 20 and 21. One path 19 passes through the heating jacket of the filter before joining the inlet of the heat exchanger 13 at 23. The other two paths 20, 21 pass to two annular distributing chambers 24, 25 disposed around the air intake to the compressor 27. From the chamber 25, the fuel flows through the guide blades 28 to another annular chamber 29 and from thence into the jacket space 30 of a doublewalled intake bullet fairing 31. The fuel flows from the chamber 24 through spaces 32 of the leading edge fairings 33 of the intake spider to the space 30. The combined flow from the space 30 passes through the space 35 of a hollow intake spider arm and the conduit 36 to the point 23. To control the rate of heat transfer throttle valves 37, 38 are provided, these valves may be controlled by manual, thermostatic or ice-detecting means. When thermostatic control is provided, the thermostat may be placed in the heating or cooling part of the engine, depending on which is the more critical. Additional heat exchangers 39, 40 may be employed. These heat exchangers may use hot gas as a heating medium or may bring the fuel into contact with the hot external or internal parts of the engine. In this case, the heat exchanger 13 may be omitted. There is a possibility of the fuel being overheated where additional heat exchangers are used. In this case, some of the hot fuel may be returned to the fuel system through a conduit 41, a throttle valve 42 and a venturi 43 and the valve 10 over-ridden so that it may pass more fuel. The matrix of the heat exchanger 13, the pump 17 and driving motor 18 may be assembled to form a unit which may be mounted on the wall of the lubricating oil storage tank above the oil level. The motor 18 may be a turbine driven by air bled from the compressor. The invention may be applied to a plant with several engines.