US 11,753,995 B1
Hydrogen-exhaust gas heat exchanger of a turbofan engine
Eyitayo James Owoeye, Houston, TX (US); and William Morton, Niskayuna, NY (US)
Assigned to General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US)
Filed by General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US)
Filed on Apr. 27, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/730,570.
Int. Cl. F02C 7/224 (2006.01); F02C 3/22 (2006.01); F02C 7/143 (2006.01); F02C 9/40 (2006.01); F02C 7/18 (2006.01)
CPC F02C 7/224 (2013.01) [F02C 3/22 (2013.01); F02C 7/143 (2013.01); F02C 7/185 (2013.01); F02C 9/40 (2013.01); F05D 2220/323 (2013.01); F05D 2260/211 (2013.01); F05D 2260/213 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A turbofan engine, comprising:
a core turbine engine defining a core air flowpath and having one or more turbines;
a fan positioned upstream of the core turbine engine; and
a hydrogen-exhaust gas heat exchanger in flow communication with an exhaust section of the core air flowpath, the hydrogen-exhaust gas heat exchanger defining a load capacity factor being determined by raising a product to a one-quarter power, the product being determined by multiplying a heat transfer surface area density associated with the hydrogen-exhaust gas heat exchanger by a process conductance parameter that relates an exhaust gas temperature at takeoff, an ambient air temperature at takeoff, a critical temperature of hydrogen, an exhaust gas mass flowrate at takeoff, a mass flowrate factor of hydrogen at critical condition, a fan diameter of the fan, and a number of turbine stages of the one or more turbines, and
wherein the load capacity factor is between 4.37 and 28.65 for the fan diameter of the fan being between 0.5 and 3.5 meters and the heat transfer surface area density being between 500 m2/m3 and 10,000 m2/m3.