Patents by Inventor Curtis WALTON

Curtis WALTON has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20170107852
    Abstract: A shroud assembly for a gas turbine engine includes a shroud, hanger, and a hanger support mounted adjacent to a plurality of blades. The hanger can have an interior chamber defining a cooling circuit with a particle separator located within the interior chamber. The particle separator can have an inlet for accepting a flow of cooling fluid, such that a the flow of cooling fluid separates into a major flow and a minor flow carrying particles or particulate matter along the minor flow into a particle collector comprising at least a portion of the particle separator. Particles become constrained to the minor flow and pass into the particle collector, while the major flow is separated into the remaining area of the interior chamber to remove the particles from the flow of cooling fluid passing into the interior chamber.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2015
    Publication date: April 20, 2017
    Inventors: Hojjat Nasr, Gregory Michael Laskowski, Curtis Walton Stover, William Collins Vining
  • Publication number: 20170101896
    Abstract: A centrifugal separator for removing particles from a fluid stream includes an angular velocity increaser configured to increase the angular velocity of a fluid stream, a flow splitter configured to split the fluid stream to form a concentrated-particle stream and a reduced-particle stream, and an exit conduit configured to receive the reduced-particle stream. An inducer assembly for a turbine engine includes an inducer with a flow passage having an inducer inlet and an inducer outlet in fluid communication with a turbine section of the engine, and a particle separator, which includes a particle concentrator that receives a compressed stream from a compressor section of the engine and a flow splitter. A turbine engine includes a cooling air flow circuit which supplies a fluid stream to a turbine section of the engine for cooling, a particle separator located within the cooling air flow circuit, and an inducer forming a portion of the cooling air flow circuit in fluid communication with the particle separator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2015
    Publication date: April 13, 2017
    Applicant: GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
    Inventors: Robert Francis MANNING, Timothy Deryck STONE, Jared Peter BUHLER, Victor Hugo Silva CORREIA, Gregory Michael LASKOWSKI, Robert Carl MURRAY, Jonathan Russell RATZLAFF, Robert PROCTOR, John Howard STARKWEATHER, Curtis Walton STOVER
  • Publication number: 20170101932
    Abstract: Gas turbine engine components are provided which utilize an insert to provide cooling air along a cooled surface of an engine component. The insert provides cooling holes or apertures which face the cool side surface of the engine component and direct cooling air onto that cool side surface. The apertures may be formed in arrays and directed at an oblique or a non-orthogonal angle to the surface of the insert and may be at an angle to the surface of the engine component being cooled. An engine component assembly is provided with counterflow impingement cooling, comprising an engine component cooling surface having a cooling fluid flow path on one side and a second component adjacent to the first component. The second component may have a plurality of openings forming an array wherein the openings extend through the second component at a non-orthogonal angle to the surface of the second component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2015
    Publication date: April 13, 2017
    Applicant: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Curtis Walton STOVER, Jonathan Michael RAUSCH, Satoshi ATSUCHI, Gulcharan Singh BRAINCH, Robert David BRIGGS, Ronald Scott BUNKER, Ambarish Jayant KULKARNI, Michael Alan MEADE, Byron Andrew PRITCHARD, Robert PROCTOR
  • Publication number: 20160186605
    Abstract: A shroud assembly for a turbine section of a turbine engine includes a shroud plate in thermal communication with a hot combustion gas flow and a baffle overlying the shroud plate to define a region. One or more shaped cooling features are located along the region such that a cooling fluid flow passing through the region encounters the shaped cooling features to increase the turbulence of the cooling fluid flow.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2015
    Publication date: June 30, 2016
    Inventors: Robert David BRIGGS, Gulcharan Singh BRAINCH, Curtis Walton STOVER
  • Publication number: 20160123186
    Abstract: A shroud assembly for a turbine engine includes a shroud in thermal communication with a hot combustion gas flow and a baffle overlying the shroud to define a space. At least one separator is provided in the space such that a cooling fluid flow passing through the baffle is separated along two different flow paths.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2015
    Publication date: May 5, 2016
    Inventors: Curtis Walton STOVER, Michael Alan MEADE
  • Publication number: 20160040552
    Abstract: A flow transfer apparatus for transferring cooling flow from a primary gas flowpath to a turbine rotor. The apparatus includes a first supply plenum communicating with the primary gas flowpath and first inducers, the first inducers configured to accelerate a first fluid flow from the first supply plenum and discharge it toward the rotor with a tangential velocity; a second supply plenum communicating with the primary gas flowpath and second inducers , the second inducers configured to accelerate a second fluid flow from the second supply plenum towards the rotor with a tangential velocity; and a cooling modulation valve operable to selectively permit or block the second fluid flow from the primary gas flowpath to the second supply plenum. The valve includes a flow control structure disposed in the primary gas flowpath and an actuation structure extending to a location radially outside of a casing defining the primary gas flowpath.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 14, 2014
    Publication date: February 11, 2016
    Inventors: John Joseph RAHAIM, Daniel John FUSINATO, Scott David HUNTER, Joel Francis KIRK, Michael Robert MELZAK, Curtis Walton STOVER
  • Publication number: 20150345331
    Abstract: A shroud assembly for a turbine engine includes a shroud having a front side confronting the blades of a turbine and a back side opposite the front side, a hanger configured to couple the shroud to with casing of the turbine, a cooling conduit extending through the hanger to supply a cooling fluid stream to the back side of the shroud, and a particle separator having a through passage forming part of the cooling conduit and a scavenge conduit branching from the through passage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2015
    Publication date: December 3, 2015
    Inventors: Robert Carl Murray, Gregory Michael Rowley, Corey Bourassa, Byron Andrew Pritchard, Curtis Walton Stover
  • Publication number: 20150345305
    Abstract: A structure for disrupting the flow of a fluid, the structure comprising: (a) a first lateral wall and a second lateral wall spaced apart from one another, yet joined, by a floor and a ceiling; and, (b) a vorticor pin extending incompletely between the first lateral wall and the second lateral wall in a direction parallel to an X-axis, the vorticor pin concurrently rising above and extending away from the floor to a height, in a direction parallel to a Y-axis, to provide a gap between the vorticor pin and the ceiling, the vorticor pin comprising: (i) a front surface extending incompletely between the first lateral wall and the second lateral wall, the front surface extending above the floor and having an arcuate portion that is transverse with respect to a Z-axis, which is perpendicular to the X-axis and the Y-axis, and (ii) a rear surface extending between the first lateral wall and the second lateral wall, the rear surface extending between the front surface and the floor, the rear surface having an inclini
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 14, 2015
    Publication date: December 3, 2015
    Inventors: Jason Randolph Allen, Robert David Briggs, Gulcharan Singh Brainch, Curtis Walton Stover