| FLORIDA TURBINE TECHNOLOGIES, INC. Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
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| 20120104762 | Large floating vertical axis wind turbine - A large floating vertical axis wind turbine with a floating inner cylinder having rotor blades that rotate together as an assembly, and a floating outer cylinder with a central opening in which the floating inner cylinder rotates for support against tipping. Outriggers with floating devices on the ends extend out from the floating outer cylinder for additional stability. The floating inner cylinder is partially supported by a top bearing on the outer cylinder to carry some of the load from the rotor blades. | 05-03-2012 |
| 20120082563 | Cooed IBR for a micro-turbine - A micro gas turbine engine in which the turbine rotor blades are formed as an integral bladed rotor with cooling air passages formed within the blades and the rotor disk by an EDM process. an adjacent stator vane includes an air riding seal with an air cushion supplied through the vanes to provide cooling, and where the air cushion is then passed into the turbine blades and rotor disk to provide cooling for the turbine blades. With cooling of the turbine blades, higher turbine inlet temperatures for micro gas turbine engines can be produced. | 04-05-2012 |
| 20110305580 | Spar and shell blade with segmented shell - A turbine rotor blade with a spar and shell construction, where the shell has an airfoil shape and is formed of two shell segments with an upper shell half and a lower shell half. The upper shell half is radially supported by a tip of the spar while the lower shell half is radially loaded by an attachment so that its load is not carried by the upper shell half and the tip of the spar in order to reduce overall stress levels. | 12-15-2011 |
| 20110296870 | Apparatus and process for separating CO2 from a flue gas - An apparatus and a process for separating carbon dioxide from a flue gas of a coal burning power plant. The process includes compressing the flue gas to increase the pressure and temperature, and then passing the flue gas through a cryogenic heat exchanger that decreases the temperature even more prior to passing the cooled carbon dioxide through a turbine that decreases the temperature more and forms liquid and solid forms carbon dioxide. A carbon dioxide separator then separates the carbon dioxide from the flue gas, leaving both liquid and solids forms. A screw compressor compresses the solid carbon dioxide to produce only liquid carbon dioxide at a pressure suitable for sequestration. The liquid carbon dioxide is passed through the heat exchanger to cool the flue gas and to separate out any sulfur dioxide and water from the flue gas and to vaporize the liquid carbon dioxide prior to sequestration of the vapor carbon dioxide. | 12-08-2011 |
| 20110164962 | Turbine blade with tip brush seal - A turbine rotor blade with a brush seal formed between the blade tip and an outer shroud to form a seal for a blade outer air seal. The brush seal includes fibers made from a high temperature resistant material that has long wear life such as fibers of alumina-boria-silicate in order to withstand the temperature environment of a turbine rotor blade and to provide long life due to rubbing of the brush fibers on the relatively rotating brush seal surface. | 07-07-2011 |
| 20110020137 | Spar and shell constructed turbine blade - A blade for a rotor of a gas turbine engine is constructed with a spar and shell configuration. The spar is constructed in an integral unit or multi-portions and includes a first wall adjacent to the pressure side and a second wall adjacent to the suction side, a tip portion extending in the spanwise direction and extending beyond the first wall and the second wall and a root portion extending longitudinally, an attachment portion having a central opening for receiving the root portion and a platform portion. The root portion fits into the central opening and is secured therein by a pin extending transversely through the attachment and the root portion. The shell fits over the spar and is supported thereto by a plurality of complementary hooks extending from the spar and shell. The ends of the shell fit into grooves formed on the tip portion and the platform. The shell is made from a high temperature resistant material, such as Molybdenum or Niobium, and is formed from a wire EDM process. | 01-27-2011 |
| 20100326043 | Expander cycle rocket engine nozzle - An expander cycle rocket engine includes a primary nozzle with a heat exchanger formed therein to cool the nozzle and heat up a fluid used to drive a turbo-pump, and a secondary heat exchanger is located within the primary nozzle and includes passages to channel the fluid in order to add additional heat to the fluid used to drive the turbo-pump. The secondary heat exchanger can be a nozzle shaped heat exchanger located within the primary nozzle, and struts that secure the nozzle shaped heat exchanger within the primary nozzle and channel the fluid between nozzles. The concentric arrangement of first and second heat exchangers can transfer more heat from the combustion gases to the fluid that is used to drive the turbo-pump such that higher pressures can be obtained allowing for larger nozzles and much higher thrust than can be obtained with traditional nozzle engines, or provide significantly higher chamber pressures for engines in the prior art thrust class. | 12-30-2010 |
| 20100290917 | Spar and shell blade with segmented shell - A turbine rotor blade with a spar and shell construction, where the shell has an airfoil shape and is formed of two shell segments with an upper shell half and a lower shell half. The upper shell half is radially supported by a tip of the spar while the lower shell half is radially loaded by an attachment so that its load is not carried by the upper shell half and the tip of the spar in order to reduce overall stress levels. | 11-18-2010 |
| 20100284794 | Low pressure turbine rotor disk - A low pressure turbine rotor disk for a small twin spool gas turbine engine in which the rotor disk includes a forward side cavity large enough to allow for the bearing assembly that rotatably supports the rotor disk to fit within the cavity in order to shorten the axial distance between the bearings that support the inner rotor shaft on which the turbine rotor disk is secured. Minimizing the bearings spacing allows for a high critical speed for the inner rotor shaft and therefore allows for the small twin spool gas turbine engine to operate at this small scale. The turbine rotor disk also includes a plurality of axial aligned cooling air holes to allow for cooling air from the bearings to flow out from the aft end of the rotor disk. The inner surface of the cavity is an annular surface that forms a seal with knife edges extending outward from the bearing support plate also located within the cavity. The rotor disk includes an annular groove facing outward and on the rear side of the disk to allow for a tool to be inserted for removing the rotor disk from the shaft. An axial central opening in the rotor disk allows for insertion of the shaft and is formed with a bearing race abutment surface on the forward side and a nut abutment surface of the aft side used to compress the rotor disk assembly on the inner rotor shaft. | 11-11-2010 |
| 20100229560 | Small gas turbine engine with multiple burn zones - A small gas turbine engine for use in an UAV such as a cruise missile, the gas turbine having a combustor forming a primary burn zone and a secondary burn zone, and in which fuel is injected into both the primary and the secondary burn zones by either a rotary cup injector or a plurality of fuel injector nozzles. The secondary burn zone with separate fuel injection allows for the diameter of the engine to be reduced in size but still allow for adequate power and efficiency to be reached for powering the vehicle. Air flow from the compressor is used to cool the combustor walls before being injected into the combustor, and to pass through and cool the guide nozzles and a main bearing located near the hot section of the combustor prior to being introduced into the combustor. | 09-16-2010 |
| 20090232661 | Turbine blade with multiple impingement cooled passages - A turbine blade with an airfoil wall having a serpentine flow cooling circuit formed within the wall that includes within each channels that flow toward the blade tip of the serpentine a series of impingement holes and impingement chambers such that the cooling air flowing through the channels of the serpentine forms a multiple impingement cooling passages through the channels. Each channel includes a series of slanted ribs that define the impingement chambers, and each slanted rib includes an impingement cooling hole to direct impingement cooling air onto the backside surface of the wall exposed to the hot gas flow. The channel of the serpentine that flows toward the blade root contains no metering holes and is substantially unobstructed to the cooling air flow. The rotation of the blade produces a centrifugal force on the airflow passing through the channels with the metering and impingement holes to aid in the flow towards the blade tip. The return channels are unobstructed in order to minimize the pressure loss on the return channel of the serpentine circuit. | 09-17-2009 |
| 20090193657 | Process for forming a shell of a turbine airfoil - The present invention is a vane for us in a gas turbine engine, in which the vane is made of an exotic, high temperature material that is difficult to machine or cast. The vane includes a shell made from either Molybdenum, Niobium, alloys of Molybdenum or Niobium (Columbium), Oxide Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC), or SiC-SiC ceramic matrix composite, and is formed from a wire electric discharge process. The shell is positioned in grooves between the outer and inner shrouds, and includes a central passageway within the spar, and forms a cooling fluid passageway between the spar and the shell. Both the spar and the shell include cooling holes to carry cooling fluid from the central passageway to an outer surface of the vane for cooling. This cooling path eliminates a serpentine pathway, and therefore requires less pressure and less amounts of cooling fluid to cool the vane. | 08-06-2009 |
| 20090169395 | Tungsten shell for a spar and shell turbine vane - The present invention is a vane for us in a gas turbine engine, in which the vane is made of an exotic, high temperature material that is difficult to machine or cast. The vane includes a shell made from Tungsten, and is formed from a wire electric discharge process. The shell is positioned in grooves between the outer and inner shrouds, and includes a central passageway within the spar, and forms a cooling fluid passageway between the spar and the shell. Both the spar and the shell include cooling holes to carry cooling fluid from the central passageway to an outer surface of the vane for cooling. This cooling path eliminates a serpentine pathway, and therefore requires less pressure and less amounts of cooling fluid to cool the vane. | 07-02-2009 |
| 20090074576 | Turbine blade with cooling breakout passages - A turbine airfoil with a plurality of breakout passages located just beneath a thermal barrier coating or just beneath the metal surface of the airfoil. The breakout passages are connected to an internal cooling air passage and allow for film cooling air to flow when a surface over the breakout passage has been chipped or eroded away to provide for additional cooling to the damaged airfoil surface. The breakout passages are formed during the casting process of the airfoil using a plurality of molding pieces. The breakout passages are formed along a direction of the pulling direction of the respective mold piece. This allows for the solidified airfoil to be easily removed from the mold assembly. | 03-19-2009 |
| 20090031732 | Low speed rotor shaft for a small twin spool gas turbine engine - An inner rotor shaft for use in a small twin spool gas turbine engine, the inner rotor shaft having a hollow middle section formed of a smaller diameter hollow section on a compressor end and a larger diameter hollow section on the turbine end of the shaft. Solid shaft end extend from the hollow section to form a forward solid shaft end to secure the fan rotor disk and an aft solid shaft end to secure the turbine rotor disk. A parabolic shaped transition section joins the forward shaft end to the smaller diameter hollow section, and a conical shaped transition section joins the aft shaft end to the larger diameter hollow section. A conical shaped transition piece joins the two hollow sections together to form an inner rotor shaft that can fit within a minimal space between the compressor rotor disk and the annular combustor assembly of the engine. The conical shaped transition section on the turbine end is so shaped in order to fit within a space formed inside the high pressure turbine rotor disk of the engine in order to minimize the axial spacing between the bearings that support the inner rotor shaft and raise the critical speed of the shaft to a safe level above the operating speed of the engine in order to make such a small twin spool gas turbine engine possible. | 02-05-2009 |
| 20080260538 | Spar and shell constructed turbine blade - A blade for a rotor of a gas turbine engine is constructed with a spar and shell configuration. The spar is constructed in an integral unit or multi-portions and includes a first wall adjacent to the pressure side and a second wall adjacent to the suction side, a tip portion extending in the spanwise direction and extending beyond the first wall and the second wall and a root portion extending longitudinally, an attachment portion having a central opening for receiving the foot portion and a platform portion. The root portion fits into the central opening and is secured therein by a pin extending transversely through the attachment and the foot portion. The shell fits over the spar and is supported thereto by a plurality of complementary hooks extending from the spar and, shell. The ends of the shell fit into grooves formed on the tip .portion and the platform, The shell is made from a high temperature resistant material, such as Molybdenum or Niobium, and is formed from a wife EDM process. | 10-23-2008 |
| 20080243457 | Process for determining a remaining life for a part - A process for determining a remaining life of a part, such as an airfoil in a gas turbine engine, comprising the steps of establishing the boundary conditions that act on the part, determining the material properties of the part, creating a 3D finite element model of the part and determining the residual stresses on the part, observing the actual part for at least one crack, and comparing the location of the crack to the residual stresses determined on the model at the crack location. If the residual stress at the crack location passes into the wall of the part beyond a predetermined length, then the part is rejected for further use. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20080219843 | Centrifugal impeller with forward and reverse flow paths - A centrifugal impeller having an inlet and a plurality of outlets the outlets including at least one outlet in a forward direction of the Impeller and at least one outlet in a rearward direction of the impeller. A flow path distance of the outlet in the forward direction can be greater than a flow path distance of the outlet in the rearward direction in order to provide a greater pressure in the outlet having the greater flow path distance. In another embodiment, the flow path volume in the forward direction can be greater than the flow path volume in the rearward direction in order to provide a greater flow volume in the forward direction In another embodiment, the number of flow paths in the forward direction can be greater than the number of flow paths in the rearward direction in order to provide a greater flow volume in the forward direction. The impeller is also used in a gas turbine engine in which the impeller also includes a turbine blade, and the forward directing outlets deliver compressed air to a combustor while the rearward directed outlets bypass the combustor. | 09-11-2008 |
| 20080199320 | Detachable leading edge for airfoils - A replaceable leading edge insert for an: integrally bladed rotor disk in which the insert includes an enlarged base portion that can be inserted into a dovetail shaped slot formed in the rotor disk to secure the insert to the rotor disk against centrifugal loads during the operation of the blade. The blade on the rotor disk is formed without a leading edge and the leading edge insert includes an aft edge of similar shape to the fore edge n the blade such that the insert can be bonded or fastened to the blade along the entire length of the insert from the blade root to the tip. The rotor disk and the insert include a an annular groove formed on the front side in which a retaining ring is inserted to lock the inserts to the rotor disk. The inserts can be made of a different material from the rotor disk and can be formed with a sweep to form a more :aerodynamic and efficient blade. | 08-21-2008 |
