General Electric Patent Grants

Levered counterweight feathering system

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12180886
A fan assembly for a gas turbine engine includes a fan disk, a trunnion, an actuation device, a fan blade, and a counterweight assembly. The trunnion is mounted to the fan disk. The actuation device is operably coupled to the trunnion. The fan blade is rotatably attached to the fan disk. The counterweight assembly includes a link arm, a lever arm, a hinge, and a counterweight. The link arm is connected to the trunnion, to the actuation device, or to both. The link arm is configured to…

Systems and methods for operating a power generating asset

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12184066
A system and method are provided for operating a power generating asset coupled to an electrical grid. Accordingly, a controller receives an environmental data set indicative of at least one environmental variable projected to affect the power generating asset over a plurality of potential modeling intervals. The controller then determines the variability of the environmental data set and a corresponding modeling-confidence level at each of the potential modeling intervals based on the…

System and method for prognostic analytics of an asset

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12182743
There are provided systems and methods for prognostic analytics of an asset. For example, there is provided a system for monitoring a reliability of a component of an asset. The system includes a processor and a memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause it to perform certain operations. These operations may include receiving input data, which can include performance data relating to the component, configuration data relating to the component, and…

Mixer vanes having a waveform profile

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12181151
A main mixer for an engine. The main mixer includes a plurality of mixer vanes located circumferentially around a mixer body. Each mixer vane includes a waveform profile. The waveform profile detaches or trips a boundary layer of an air flow across the mixer vane such that the waveform profile introduces turbulence into the air flow.

Cable guiding in wind turbine towers

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12180945
The present disclosure relates to towers for wind turbines comprising a top section supporting a nacelle about a yaw axis, wherein the nacelle comprises an electric power component and a power cable for electrically connecting the electric power component to an electrical connection point in a lower section of the tower. The power cable extends downwards from the nacelle to a first height along a substantially central area of the tower, and at a first height the power cable comprises a…

System and method for reducing wind turbine loads caused by rotor imbalance

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12180938
A method for reducing loads acting on a wind turbine includes determining, via a processor, at least one loading condition of the wind turbine resulting from a wind shear condition below a design threshold, determining, via the processor, a rotor speed setpoint of the wind turbine to cause an increase in thrust when the at least one loading condition exceeds a loading threshold; operating the wind turbine based on the rotor speed, and operating a rotor imbalance control module of the…

Systems and methods for operating a wind farm

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12180936
A system and method are provided for operating a wind farm includes determining a wind direction and identifying a turbine cluster, which is a subset of a plurality of wind turbines of the wind farm. The subset includes an upwind turbine and a downwind turbine that is affected by a wake emanating from the upwind turbine. The controller then determines a difference between a freestream maximal cluster power output and a wake-affected cluster power output for the turbine cluster. The…

System and method for actively monitoring an air gap in a wind turbine brake assembly

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12180929
A system and method are configured to monitor changes associated with an air gap in a brake assembly of a wind turbine yaw drive by: (1) receiving one or more sensor signals from one or more sensors that are indicative of changes associated with the air gap; and (2) comparing the changes associated with the air gap to certain thresholds to determine if the air gap is in need of attention. The system includes at least one proximity sensor arranged adjacent to the air gap, to monitor the…

Aero-acoustically dampened bleed valve

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12180897
Aero-acoustically damped bleed valves are disclosed. An example variable bleed valve apparatus comprises a variable bleed valve door to actuate the variable bleed valve apparatus, and a variable bleed valve port including an upstream edge and a downstream edge, the VBV port to define a secondary flowpath, the VBV door to cover the VBV port in a closed position, and a vortex device at the upstream edge of the variable bleed valve port, the vortex device including a vorticity generating…

Variable bleed valve assemblies

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12180890
Example variable bleed valve assemblies for a gas turbine engine are disclosed herein, including a port extending radially outward from a compressor section of the gas turbine engine, the port defining a variable bleed valve cavity, the port to resonate at a resonant frequency based on an operating condition of the gas turbine engine, and an acoustic suppressor positioned on a wall of the port, the acoustic suppressor extending circumferentially along the wall by a length greater than a…

Seal assembly for a turbine engine

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12180840
A turbine engine includes a rotor, a stator having an aft wall, and a seal assembly having a plurality of seal segments disposed between the rotor and the stator. The rotor, the stator, and the seal assembly are arranged together to define a high pressure region and a low pressure region. The turbine engine also includes at least one biasing member engaged with one or more of the plurality of seal segments. The plurality of seal segments include a primary seal segment and a secondary…

Additive manufacturing using solid state optical deflectors

Granted: December 31, 2024
Patent Number: 12179431
An additive manufacturing apparatus comprises a laser beam source emitting a laser beam, a build platform, a powder source depositing a layer of powder onto the build platform, and a scanning assembly disposed along an optical path between the laser beam source and the build platform. The scanning assembly comprises at least one solid state optical deflector that modifies at least one of a size or an impingement location of the laser beam on the layer of powder at a scanning position of…

Methods for wetting filtration media utilized in additive manufacturing processes

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12172115
A method for wetting volatile material positioned on a filter from an additive manufacturing process includes passing a passivation fluid to an interior space of a filtration system including an outer housing, a filtration medium, detecting an amount of passivation fluid passed to the interior space with a volume detection device, determining whether the amount of passivation fluid passed to the interior space is less than a configurable threshold, in response to determining that the…

Wind turbine having eigenfrequency modifier

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12173696
It is provided a wind turbine having a modified eigenfrequency, the wind turbine having a tower including a first tower flange arranged at an upper end portion of a top part of the tower; and, an eigenfrequency modifier including a plurality of weights suspended from the first tower flange by a plurality of rigid supports. It is further provided a method of modifying an eigenfrequency of a wind turbine, the method including modifying the eigenfrequency of the wind turbine by suspending a…

Turbine engine with fan bypass water injection to augment thrust

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12173669
A gas turbine has a core turbine engine, and a fan having a plurality of fan blades. A nacelle surrounds the fan and at least a portion of the core turbine engine. The nacelle defines an inlet arranged upstream of the fan, and a bypass flow passage downstream of the fan defined between the nacelle and the core turbine engine. The gas turbine also includes a bypass flow passage water injection system that includes (a) at least one water injection nozzle assembly arranged to inject water…

Accessory gearbox for a turbine engine

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12173658
A turbine engine that includes an engine core, an inner cowl, an outer cowl and an accessory gearbox. The engine core includes at least a compressor section, a combustion section, and a turbine section in axial flow arrangement. The accessory gearbox is operably coupled to the engine core and includes a first portion and a second portion.

Fuel heater and energy conversion system

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12173654
A system for energy conversion that includes a propulsion system, a fuel circuit, a combustion device, a turbine, and a load device. The fuel circuit is in fluid communication with a fuel tank and a fuel flow control device that separates a flow of fuel into a first portion and a second portion. The combustion device receives a flow of oxidizer and the second portion of fuel to generate combustion gases. The turbine receives the combustion gases from the combustion device via a fluid…

System for readying sub-critical and super-critical steam generator, servicing method of said sub-critical and super-critical steam generator and method of operation of sub-critical and super-critical steam generator

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12173627
A system for readying sub-critical and super-critical steam generator, a servicing method of the sub-critical and the super-critical steam generator and a method of operation of sub-critical and super-critical steam generator is provided. The steam generator includes a first auxiliary heating device disposed on at least one water-steam separator for heating the at least one water-steam separator, and/or a second auxiliary heating device disposed at least on a part of furnace top-end…

Methods and apparatus for passive fan blade tip clearance control

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12173616
Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed for passive fan blade tip clearance control. A fan blade for a gas turbine engine, the fan blade comprising a fan blade body including a tip region at a blade tip of the fan blade body and a blade tip insert disposed within the tip region of the fan blade body, the blade tip insert is formed from a material that passively adjusts a shape of the blade tip insert to maintain a blade tip clearance between the blade tip…

Recoat assemblies for additive manufacturing systems and methods for using the same

Granted: December 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12172370
A method for forming an object includes moving a recoat assembly (200) in a coating direction over a build material, wherein the recoat assembly (200) comprises a first roller (202) and a second roller (204) that is spaced apart from the first roller; rotating the first roller (202) of the recoat assembly in a counter-rotation direction, such that a bottom of the first roller moves in the coating direction; contacting the build material with the first roller of the recoat assembly,…