Patent ID: 7730715

Claim:
A fan assembly for a gas turbine, the assembly comprising: one or more fan blades; and a fan frame having a fan exit case rear, a plurality of fan exit guide vanes and an intermediate case having a plurality of struts, wherein each of said plurality of fan exit guide vanes is connected to said intermediate case by a forward joint and an aft joint, wherein, for each of said plurality of fan exit guide vanes, one of said forward joint and said aft joint constrains movement of said fan exit guide vane in a radial and an axial direction with respect to said intermediate case and the other of said forward joint and said aft joint constrains movement of said fan exit guide vane in said radial direction with respect to said intermediate case, and wherein each of said struts has a circumferential width that increases and an axial thickness that decreases as each strut extends towards one of said forward joint and said aft joint.