Patents by Inventor Stuart Coulson

Stuart Coulson 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).

  • Patent number: 11530678
    Abstract: A wicket gate for a hydraulic turbine or pump contains a blade being defined by a pressure surface, an oppositely facing suction surface, a leading edge and a spaced apart trailing edge, a first trunnion, a second trunnion, an air inlet aperture, an air passage and at least one air outlet aperture. The profile of the suctions side surface of the blade along a cross section through a point P1 and a point P2 is concave. Whereas point P1 is located on the suction side surface of the trailing edge where an air outlet aperture is located and point P2 is spaced apart from point P1 by less than 10% of the wicket gate length D and point P2 is located upstream of point P1 on a line perpendicular to the trailing edge starting at point P1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: Voith Patent GmbH
    Inventors: Stuart Coulson, Jason Foust, Jesse Zoll, Steven McHale, Jianbo Jiang, Brandon Harmer
  • Patent number: 11359595
    Abstract: A runner for a hydraulic turbine or pump includes a plurality of blades, each blade being defined by a pressure surface, an oppositely facing suction surface, a leading edge and a spaced apart trailing edge. At least one blade has a device for supplying a flow of oxygen containing gas to the trailing edge of at least one of the blades. The profile of the suction side surface of the blade along a cross section through a point P1 and a point P2 is concave. The point P1 is located on the suction side surface of the trailing edge where an opening is located, the point P2 is spaced apart from the point P1 by less than 3% of the runner outlet diameter D and the point P2 is located upstream of the point P1 on a line perpendicular to the trailing edge starting at the point P1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Voith Patent GmbH
    Inventors: Stuart Coulson, Jason Foust, Jesse Zoll, Steven McHale, Jianbo Jiang, Brandon Harmer
  • Publication number: 20210088022
    Abstract: A wicket gate for a hydraulic turbine or pump contains a blade being defined by a pressure surface, an oppositely facing suction surface, a leading edge and a spaced apart trailing edge, a first trunnion, a second trunnion, an air inlet aperture, an air passage and at least one air outlet aperture. The profile of the suctions side surface of the blade along a cross section through a point P1 and a point P2 is concave. Whereas point P1 is located on the suction side surface of the trailing edge where an air outlet aperture is located and point P2 is spaced apart from point P1 by less than 10% of the wicket gate length D and point P2 is located upstream of point P1 on a line perpendicular to the trailing edge starting at point P1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Publication date: March 25, 2021
    Inventors: Stuart Coulson, Jason Foust, Jesse Zoll, Steven McHale, Jianbo Jiang, Brandon Harmer
  • Patent number: 10954912
    Abstract: A hydraulic machine including a runner of Francis type, a head cover and a lower cover, the runner includes a low and a high pressure side, a crown, a band, and a plurality of blades, the crown having a sealing element to seal the space between the crown and head cover against water from the high-pressure side, whereas the runner has at least one passage to drain high-pressure leakage water passing the sealing element to the low-pressure side, and the passage has an inlet aperture located in a portion of the crown which during operation is exposed to high-pressure leakage water, the passage being located within one of the blades and leads from the inlet aperture to the band, where the passage forms an opening leading to the space between the band and the lower cover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: Voith Patent GmbH
    Inventor: Stuart Coulson
  • Publication number: 20210017948
    Abstract: A runner for a hydraulic turbine or pump includes a plurality of blades, each blade being defined by a pressure surface, an oppositely facing suction surface, a leading edge and a spaced apart trailing edge. At least one blade has a device for supplying a flow of oxygen containing gas to the trailing edge of at least one of the blades. The profile of the suction side surface of the blade along a cross section through a point P1 and a point P2 is concave. The point P1 is located on the suction side surface of the trailing edge where an opening is located, the point P2 is spaced apart from the point P1 by less than 3% of the runner outlet diameter D and the point P2 is located upstream of the point P1 on a line perpendicular to the trailing edge starting at the point P1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Publication date: January 21, 2021
    Inventors: STUART COULSON, JASON FOUST, JESSE ZOLL, STEVEN MCHALE, JIANBO JIANG, BRANDON HARMER
  • Publication number: 20200362811
    Abstract: A hydraulic machine has a runner of the Francis type, a head cover and a lower cover. A crown has a seal that seals the space between the crown and the head cover against water from the high pressure side. The runner is formed with at least one passage that is capable to drain high pressure leakage water passing the seal to the low pressure side. The passage is formed with an inlet aperture located in a portion of the crown which during operation is exposed to high pressure leakage water. The passage is located within one of the blades and leads from the inlet aperture to the band, where the passage forms an opening leading to the space between the band and the lower cover. The head cover is formed with an air inlet to admit air to the chamber between the head cover and the crown.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 9, 2018
    Publication date: November 19, 2020
    Inventors: STUART COULSON, BRANDON HARMER, JESSE ZOLL
  • Publication number: 20200158073
    Abstract: A propeller-type runner for a hydraulic turbine or pump has a hub and a plurality of blades. Up to and including two blades are fixed to the hub using bolts. The remaining blades are welded to the hub. Each bolted blade is adjoined by two welded blades.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2018
    Publication date: May 21, 2020
    Inventors: STUART COULSON, SETH SMITH, WALTER RIEGLER, THOMAS ORT
  • Patent number: 10544774
    Abstract: A runner for a hydraulic turbine or pump has a plurality of blades. Each of the blades is defined by a pressure surface, an oppositely facing suction surface, a leading edge and a spaced-apart trailing edge. At least one of the blades has a device for supplying a flow of oxygen containing gas to the trailing edge of the same blade. The device includes at least two separate gas inlet apertures and at least two separate gas passages, each extending from one of the separate gas inlet apertures to a separate group of orifices in the trailing edge of the same blade. Each of the separate group of orifices has at least one orifice to admit gas out of the corresponding separate gas passage to the passing fluid during the operation of the runner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: Voith Patent GmbH
    Inventors: Manfred Stummer, Stuart Coulson, Jason Foust
  • Publication number: 20190345952
    Abstract: A hydraulic machine including a runner of Francis type, a head cover and a lower cover, the runner includes a low and a high pressure side, a crown, a band, and a plurality of blades, the crown having a sealing element to seal the space between the crown and head cover against water from the high-pressure side, whereas the runner has at least one passage to drain high-pressure leakage water passing the sealing element to the low-pressure side, and the passage has an inlet aperture located in a portion of the crown which during operation is exposed to high-pressure leakage water, the passage being located within one of the blades and leads from the inlet aperture to the band, where the passage forms an opening leading to the space between the band and the lower cover.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 24, 2019
    Publication date: November 14, 2019
    Applicant: Voith Patent GmbH
    Inventor: Stuart Coulson
  • Publication number: 20190345953
    Abstract: A runner of the Francis type including a crown, a plurality of blades, each blade being defined by a pressure surface, a suction surface, an edge adjoining the high pressure side and a spaced apart edge adjoining the low pressure side. The crown includes a seal to seal the space above the crown against water from the high pressure side. The further runner includes at least one passage being capable to drain high pressure leakage water to the low pressure side. The passage includes an inlet aperture located in a portion of the crown which is exposed to high pressure leakage water. The passage is located within a blade and leads from the inlet aperture to the edge of the same blade adjoining to the low pressure side. The passage is shaped to form a continuous opening in the same edge adjoining to the low pressure side.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 24, 2019
    Publication date: November 14, 2019
    Applicant: Voith Patent GmbH
    Inventors: Stuart Coulson, Kenneth Dunbar, Benjamin Kotzman, John Seifarth, Daniel Mc Ginnis
  • Publication number: 20180363465
    Abstract: A runner for a hydraulic turbine or pump has a plurality of blades. Each of the blades is defined by a pressure surface, an oppositely facing suction surface, a leading edge and a spaced-apart trailing edge. At least one of the blades has a device for supplying a flow of oxygen containing gas to the trailing edge of the same blade. The device includes at least two separate gas inlet apertures and at least two separate gas passages, each extending from one of the separate gas inlet apertures to a separate group of orifices in the trailing edge of the same blade. Each of the separate group of orifices has at least one orifice to admit gas out of the corresponding separate gas passage to the passing fluid during the operation of the runner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2015
    Publication date: December 20, 2018
    Inventors: MANFRED STUMMER, STUART COULSON, JASON FOUST
  • Publication number: 20060115357
    Abstract: There is disclosed a runner for a Francis-type hydraulic turbine where each runner blade has a outlet edge comprising a deflected edge portion. The deflected edge portion is located adjacent to the junction or attachment point of the outlet edge to the band of the runner to define a stress reducing tip extension portion of the blade adjacent the band. This tip extension portion reduces stress concentration adjacent where the outlet edge joins the runner band.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2005
    Publication date: June 1, 2006
    Applicant: General Electric Canada
    Inventors: Stuart Coulson, Hung Do
  • Publication number: 20050186068
    Abstract: A hydraulic turbine has a distributor located between the scroll of the turbine and its runner. The distributor has upper and lower stay ring portions with stay vanes extending therebetween. A plurality of movable wicket gates control flow of liquid through the distributor. The lower and upper stay ring portions have built up fish friendly projections adjacent sweep areas defined where the wicket gates sweep across the lower and upper stay ring portions. The projections also extend outwardly of the upper and lower stay ring portions adjacent the sweep areas and act as barriers preventing fish from being trapped between the wicket gates and the stay ring. Each projection has a sill portion projecting outwardly at least coextensive with, and adjacent to, one sweep area and a first apron portion extending from the sill portion to an appropriate one of the upper and lower stay ring portions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2004
    Publication date: August 25, 2005
    Applicant: General Electric Canada Inc.
    Inventors: Stuart Coulson, Teodoro Ottaviano