Patent ID: 11970970
Assignee: RTX CORPORATION
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC F  B | IPC B  F

Claim 0:
1. A propulsion system for an aircraft comprising;
at least one core engine including a core flow path in communication with a compressor section, combustor section and a turbine section, wherein a high energy exhaust gas flow is produced in the combustor section and expanded through the turbine section to drive the compressor section;
a first bottoming cycle system including a bottoming working fluid flow in thermal communication with the high energy exhaust gas flow generated by the core engine, the first bottoming cycle is configured to recover power from the high energy exhaust gas flow in a first engine operating condition and in a second engine operating condition;
a second bottoming cycle system including the bottoming working fluid flow in thermal communication with the high energy exhaust gas flow, the second bottoming cycle system configured to recover power from the high energy exhaust gas flow in the first engine operating condition and not to recover power in the second engine operating condition;
wherein each of the first bottoming cycle system and second bottoming cycle system includes a bottoming compressor driven by a bottoming turbine;
a first valve assembly controlling bottoming working fluid flow to the bottoming turbine of the first bottoming cycle and the second bottoming cycle;
a second valve assembly configured to control bottoming working fluid flow from the bottoming compressor of the first bottoming cycle and the second bottoming cycle; and
a controller programmed and configured to operate one of the first valve assembly and the second valve assembly to stop bottoming working fluid flow to a corresponding one of the first bottoming cycle system and the second bottoming cycle system in response to an indication that the high energy exhaust gas flow has less thermal energy than desired to operate both of the first bottoming turbine and the second bottoming turbine.