PANEL FOR HEAT EXCHANGE AND IMPROVED NOISE REDUCTION FOR A TURBOMACHINE

Abstract

A heat exchange and noise reduction panel the panel for an aircraft comprising: an external surface intended to be swept by an airflow and from which fins extend along a first and a second main predetermined direction; cavities forming Helmholtz resonators, linked to the first ends of channels for the passage of air, the second ends of which communicate with said airflow, such that said channels form necks, referred to as Helmholtz resonators, extending substantially along the first direction; and at least one oil flow chamber extending between said external surface and said at least one cavity, and intended to discharge the thermal energy carried by the oil, characterized in that wherein said channels are formed, at least in part, inside said fins.

Claims

1. A heat exchange and noise reduction panel for an aircraft turbine engine the panel comprising: an outer surface which is intended for being swept over by an air flow and from which fins extend in a first predetermined main direction and a second predetermined main direction, which directions are preferably substantially perpendicular, recesses which form Helmholtz resonators and are connected to first ends of air-passage channels, second ends of which communicate with said air flow, such that said channels form necks of said Helmholtz resonators that extend substantially in the first direction of the fins, at least one oil circulation chamber which extends between said outer surface and said recesses and is intended for discharging thermal energy from the oil, a stack consisting of said outer surface, said recesses and said at least one chamber extending substantially in the first direction, wherein said channels are formed at least in part inside said fins.

2. The heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to claim 1, wherein the fins are substantially normal or inclined with respect to the outer surface.

3. The heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to claim 1, wherein said channels open onto walls of the fins to form openings for communicating with a sound source to be attenuated.

4. The heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said channels pass through each fin.

5. The heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to claim 1, wherein the channels have a substantially rectangular, circular or elliptical cross section.

6. The heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to aims claim 1, wherein said panel has a curved general shape and is designed to form a sector of an annular heat exchange and noise reduction casing.

7. The heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to claim 1, wherein the channels have a constant cross section or a general shape which is flared towards said recesses.

8. The heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to claim 1, wherein at least some of said recesses communicate with one another.

9. The heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to claim 1, wherein said channels have longitudinal axes which are substantially perpendicular to said outer surface or inclined with respect to said outer surface.

10. An aircraft turbine engine which comprises at least one heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to claim 1.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0026] The invention will be better understood and other details, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following description given by way of non-limiting example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0027] FIG. 1 is a very schematic perspective view of a heat exchange and noise reduction panel according to the invention,

[0028] FIG. 2 is a perspective cross section along line II-II in FIG. 1,

[0029] FIG. 3 is cross section along line III-III in FIG. 1,

[0030] FIG. 4 is a cross section along line IV-IV in FIG. 1,

[0031] FIG. 5 is a plan view of the panel from FIG. 1,

[0032] FIGS. 6 to 9 are views similar to that of FIG. 4, showing other variants of the invention, and

[0033] FIGS. 10 and 11 are views similar to that of FIG. 5, showing further variants of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] Reference is first made to FIGS. 1 to 5 which show an embodiment of a heat exchange and noise reduction panel 10 according to the invention for a turbine engine of an aircraft.

[0035] In the following description, terms such as “below”, “under”, “on”, “above”, “upper”, “lower”, etc. are to be understood relative to the orientation of the figures. Similarly, dimensions are given on the basis of this orientation of the figures. Therefore, “height” refers to a dimension extending vertically or from the bottom to the top (or vice versa), and “thickness”, “length” and “width”, or even “distance”, are to be understood to mean dimensions measured in a substantially horizontal plane.

[0036] The panel 10 essentially comprises three portions or superposed layers, namely: [0037] an outer portion 12 intended to be exposed to a cooling air flow, such as a secondary air flow of the turbine engine, [0038] an intermediate portion 14 having a chamber 16 for circulating oil to be cooled, and [0039] an inner portion 18 having air recesses 20.

[0040] The portions 12 and 14 form a SACOC surface heat exchanger and the portions 12, 14 and 18 form an acoustic panel having Helmholtz resonators.

[0041] The outer portion 12 comprises an outer surface 22 which is intended to be swept over by the air flow 24 and on which fins 26 are located. The fins 26 extend from the surface 24 in a first main direction, in this case the vertical direction, and in a second main direction, in this case the horizontal direction. The first direction and the second direction are substantially perpendicular. The horizontal direction perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction is defined as being the third direction. Air flows between the fins 26 that are intended in particular for increasing the surface area of the surfaces for exchanging heat with the air. In the example shown, the fins 26 are preferably rectilinear, parallel and independent, i.e. they are not interconnected. Other arrangements are however conceivable, as will be explained below. In the example shown, the outer surface 22 is shown having a shape which is substantially square or rectangular in the area or surface denoted A. Although the surface 22 is shown in the drawings as being planar, said surface could also have a curved shape, in particular if the panel 10 is curved so as to make it easier to mount in an annular housing of the turbine engine, for example. A panel 10 which has a curved general shape is designed to form a sector of an annular heat exchange and noise reduction casing, for example for a turbine engine nacelle.

[0042] The fins 26 extend over substantially the entire length or longitudinal direction of the surface 22 in the second, horizontal direction. The number of fins is defined in a known manner, depending in particular on the exchange conditions to be met.

[0043] The oil circulation chamber 16 extends below the outer surface 22 over substantially the entire extent thereof. Said chamber is connected to an oil inlet and an oil outlet, which are not shown in the drawings. The flow direction and the flow orientation of the oil in the chamber may be the same as that/those of the air on the surface 22 (arrow 28) or may be different therefrom.

[0044] The air recesses 20 in the third portion 18 are located below the oil chamber 16. Said recesses are preferably regularly distributed and substantially identical. Said recesses extend side by side in the same plane which is substantially parallel to the surface 22. Said recesses 20 are connected to lower longitudinal ends of air-passage channels 30, the upper longitudinal ends of which form openings 32 for communicating with the sound source to be attenuated. The assembly formed by the channels 30 and the recesses 20 forms Helmholtz resonators, the channels forming necks and the recesses forming resonant recesses of the resonators. At least some of the recesses 20 can communicate with one another, as is shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

[0045] The invention proposes a panel having a reduced size owing to at least a portion of the channels 30 being formed inside the fins 26. As can be seen in the example shown, the channels 30 are oriented in a substantially rectilinear and vertical manner and comprise lower portions which extend into the oil chamber 16 and upper portions which extend into the fins 26. Moreover, in the particular case shown, the upper ends of the channels 30 open onto walls of the fins, in particular on the tops or upper free ends of the fins 26 and form the aforementioned communication openings 32. In FIG. 2, a plurality of channels 30 pass through each fin 26.

[0046] The channels 30 are preferably distributed in a matrix. Therefore, the channels 30 are distributed in lines and columns in the oil chamber 26. In the example shown, each fin 26 comprises a row of openings 32.

[0047] The panel 10 according to the invention can have the following dimensions, which are optimised for attenuating the acoustic frequencies of a turbine engine, namely frequencies of between 400 and 2,000 Hz, to the greatest extent possible: [0048] the fins 26 have a thickness e (i.e. a dimension in the third direction) of between 0.5 and 2 mm and are spaced apart from one another by a distance a (in the third direction) of between 1 and 5 mm, [0049] the oil chamber 16 has a height c (in the first, vertical direction) of between 1 and 10 mm, [0050] the channels 30 have an average diameter d of between 1 and 2 mm, [0051] the recesses 20 have a height f (in the first, vertical direction) of between 5 and 150 mm, and [0052] the perforation level a of said outer surface is between 5% and 10%. This perforation level is equal to the ratio of the cumulative cross section of the openings 32 (n.π.(d/2).sup.2, n being the number of openings 32 or channels 30) to the area A of the surface of the resonators, which is considered to be substantially equal to that of the outer surface 22. The difference between the surface area of the outer surface and that of the resonators may be negligible. The resonators are separated by walls that reduce the surface area thereof relative to that of the outer surface. At first approximation, however, the two surface areas are equal.

[0053] “Average diameter” is understood to mean the diameter of a channel when said channel is cylindrical, the average of the diameters of a channel when said channel has a non-constant circular cross section and when said channel is flared or frustoconical, for example, and the diameter of a circular cross section that is equivalent to the cross section of the channel when said channel is not circular and is for example rectangular.

[0054] The tuned frequency of a Helmholtz resonator can be estimated using the following formula:

[00001]$\mathrm{Tuned}.Math..Math.\mathrm{frequency}=\frac{C}{2.Math.\pi }.Math.\sqrt{\frac{S}{{\mathrm{Vl}}^{\prime }}}$$\mathrm{where}$$\begin{array}{ccc}C.Math.\text{:}& \mathrm{speed}.Math..Math.\mathrm{of}.Math..Math.\mathrm{the}.Math..Math.\mathrm{sound}& \left(m.Math.\text{/}.Math.s\right)\\ S.Math.\text{:}& \mathrm{cross}.Math..Math.\mathrm{section}.Math..Math.\mathrm{of}.Math..Math.\mathrm{the}.Math..Math.\mathrm{neck}& \left(m^2\right)\\ V.Math.\text{:}& \mathrm{volume}.Math..Math.\mathrm{of}.Math..Math.\mathrm{the}.Math..Math.\mathrm{resonator}& \left(m^3\right)\\ l^{\prime }.Math.\text{:}& \mathrm{corrected}.Math..Math.\mathrm{neck}.Math..Math.\mathrm{length}& \left(m\right).Math..Math.\mathrm{or}.Math..Math.l^{\prime }=l+\delta \end{array}$$\mathrm{where}$$\begin{array}{ccc}l.Math.\text{:}& \mathrm{geometrical}.Math..Math.\mathrm{neck}.Math..Math.\mathrm{length}& \left(m\right)\\ \delta .Math.\text{:}& \mathrm{neck}.Math..Math.\mathrm{correction}& \\ & \{\begin{array}{c}\delta =1.7.Math..Math.r\left(1-0.7.Math.\sqrt{\sigma }\right)\\ \mathrm{for}.Math..Math.\mathrm{juxtaposed}.Math..Math.\mathrm{resonators}\end{array}& \\ r.Math.\text{:}& \mathrm{radius}.Math..Math.\mathrm{of}.Math..Math.\mathrm{an}.Math..Math.\mathrm{opening}& \left(m\right)\\ \sigma .Math.\text{:}& \mathrm{perforation}.Math..Math.\mathrm{level}& \end{array}$

[0055] In this formula, the cross section of the neck S is the aforementioned cross section of an opening 32, the volume of the resonator V is the volume of one recess 20, and the length of the neck I or I′ substantially equates to the sum of the thickness c of the oil chamber 16 and the height b of the fins 26.

[0056] Advantageously: [0057] the fins 26 have a height b (in the first, vertical direction) of between 10 and 25 mm, and [0058] openings 32 in the same row are spaced apart from one another by a distance g (in the second direction) of between 1.57 and 31.42 mm. The spacing between the openings of two adjacent rows equates to the spacing a (in the third direction) between two adjacent fins 26.

[0059] The channels 30 have longitudinal axes which are substantially perpendicular to said outer surface 22 or inclined with respect to said outer surface 22. Said channels have a cylindrical longitudinal general shape having a constant or parallelepiped cross section in the example shown in FIGS. 1 to 5. Said channels could have a different shape and be for example frustoconical or flared towards the recesses 20, as shown in FIG. 6. The channels 30′ in FIG. 6 have an inlet cross section, i.e. a cross section measured at the opening 32 by which the channel 30 opens onto the surface 22, that is smaller than the opposed cross section, referred to as the outlet cross section. The channels 30 have a substantially rectangular, circular or elliptical cross section. This makes it possible in particular to limit the reduction in the width of the frequency band of attenuation generated by the length of the channels 30′, i.e. by the height of the oil chamber 16.

[0060] Moreover, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, air passages 40 could be provided between the resonant recesses 20 in order to optimise heat exchange therebetween, but to the detriment of acoustic performance. This option also makes it possible to overcome problems relating to the expansion of the partitions which define the recesses 20. These air passages can be located in the region of the upper ends of the recesses (FIG. 7) or in the region of the lower ends thereof (FIG. 8).

[0061] FIGS. 8 to 10 show other arrangement variants, the performance of which is slightly less satisfactory by comparison with that of rectilinear, parallel and independent fins. In the variant in FIG. 8, the fins are no longer independent of one another but are instead interconnected in pairs. The upper end of each fin 26′ is connected to the upper end of an adjacent fin 26′ by a bridge of material 42. In the variant in FIG. 9, the fins 26″ are rectilinear but not strictly parallel. In the variant in FIG. 10, the fins 26″ have an undulating (not rectilinear) general shape and are largely parallel in the second extension direction.

[0062] The invention offers a solution to the real need for finding a means for integrating the functions of the air/oil exchanger and the functions of acoustic treatment in the same piece of equipment so that there is no longer any competition between the two requirements in a single installation space.

[0063] Although the invention relates in particular to an aircraft turbine engine in the above description, it also relates to any kind of turbine engine.