Patent ID: 11905890
Assignee: GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
Field: Engines, pumps, turbines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC F | IPC F

Claim 11:
12. A turbine engine comprising:
a turbine including a drive shaft;
a fan including a fan shaft;
a booster including a booster shaft, a plurality of variable stator vanes, and a plurality of blades coupled to the booster shaft; and
a differential gearbox assembly comprising:
an epicyclic gear assembly coupling the fan shaft to the drive shaft and coupling the booster shaft to the drive shaft through the epicyclic gear assembly, the epicyclic gear assembly including a sun gear, a planet gear constrained by a planet carrier, and a ring gear, the sun gear coupled to the drive shaft and the planet carrier coupled to the fan shaft, and the ring gear coupled to the booster shaft, wherein the sun gear, the planet gear, and the ring gear all rotate about the drive shaft, and the drive shaft provides mechanical power to the fan shaft and to the booster shaft through the epicyclic gear assembly; and

an electric machine assembly comprising an input coupled to the epicyclic gear assembly, the electric machine assembly providing mechanical power to the fan through the epicyclic gear assembly, wherein the electric machine assembly includes an electric motor and an electric generator for generating electric power, the electric motor providing additional mechanical power to the fan shaft during operation of the turbine engine, and at least a portion of the mechanical power from the drive shaft is provided to the electric generator when mechanical power to the fan shaft is reduced such that the electric generator generates electric power from the epicyclic gear assembly, and the plurality of variable stator vanes are actuated to change an incidence angle of the plurality of variable stator vanes to change an air flow to the plurality of blades of the booster such that a speed of the ring gear remains constant while the electric motor provides the additional mechanical power to the fan shaft.