DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
1.Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over AAPA (applicant admitted prior art) in view of Davis (US2024/0217150) in view of Bell (US12066124).
With respect to claim1 AAPA (see specification para graphs 30-34 establishing that turbine engines and variable bleed valves are known in the art )
AAPA discloses a variable bleed valve assembly for a gas turbine engine, the VBV assembly comprising:
A port extending radially outward from a main flow path of the gas turbine engine; a door positioned at an exit of the port (so as to close the pathway).
AAPA does not disclose an acoustic black hole (ABH) assembly coupled to the door, the ABH assembly including a body and a plurality of plates coupled to an interior surface of the body, the body defining a cavity having a depth, each of the plurality of plates arranged such that the surface areas of the plurality of plates vary along the depth in a radially outward direction of the gas turbine engine.
Davis discloses the use of a door structure to block a flow path in a gas turbine engine which includes an acoustic treatment having resonant cavities (see figure 6).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of the effective filing to combine the teachings of Davis to provide a sound reduction means to a door member of a valve system of a turbine engine. The motivation for doing so would be to reduce the noise associated with the valve structure using known elements which are known to be effective in such an environment.
Bell discloses (see figure 1) the use of different length plates (the wall sections between the cavities can be thought of as being structurally the same as plates) to define different size cavities which have different surface areas thereon in a valve structure to reduce noise.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Bell to use plates having different surface areas with the device of AAPA as modified by Davis to arrive at the ABH structure in conjunction with the VBV as claimed. The motivation for doing so would be to reduce the sound by attenuating a broader bandwidth of sounds.
With respect to claim 2 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein the plurality of plates are arranged such that the surface areas of the plates increase along a depth (see Bell figure 1) in the radially outward direction (positioning as taught by AAPA as modified).
With respect to claim 5 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein the ABH assembly extends circumferentially about a longitudinal axis of the gas turbine (see positioning of the plates and cavities of Bell and the flow direction through the passage of Davis as applied to the teachings of AAPA whereby the pathway away from the main flow for the VBV system is so directed.
With respect to claim 6 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein the interior surface of the body is a fore interior surface, the body further including an aft interior surface and a radially outer surface, the aft interior spaces axially from the for interior surface by a dimension (the surfaces are present as such there is necessarily a dimension).
With respect to claim 7 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein the dimension is constant along the depth of the body (see figure 3 of Bell such consistent dimension is shown).
With respect to claim 8 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein the dimension is variable along the depth of the body (see Bell figures 1 and 2).
With respect to claim 9 AAPA as it regards the division of the plates into such first and second sets which extends from a for and aft position this division would have been an obvious matter as the surfaces have such plates as taught by Bell and the division could be chosen to take place at any given plate to divide the structure and meet the limitations as claimed.
With respect to claim 10 AAPA as modified discloses the invention as claimed except expressly the cross-section as being rectangular, the selection of such a shape based upon the desired properties and flow characteristics would have been an obvious matter.
With respect to claim 11 AAPA as modified further discloses a gas turbine engine comprising:
A compressor section (see again AAPA for gas turbine engine and compressor)
A VBV assembly (taught by AAPA) including:
A VBV door (combination of AAPA and Davis teach a valve with door structure, the door structure being silenced)
A port extending radially outward between the compressor section and the VBV door, the port defining bleed flow path between the compressor section and the VBV door; and
An acoustic black hole assembly coupled with the VBV door (teachings of Davis to sue a silencing means with the door), the ABH assembly including a body and a plurality of plates (as taught by Bell) couples to an interior surface of the body, the body defining a cavity having a depth, the plurality of plates having respective surface areas, the plurality of plates arranged such that the surface areas vary (see various cavity depths of bell and thus by extension the size differences of the plate like dividing structures) in a radially outward direction of the gas turbine engine.
With respect to claim 12 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein the body extends circumferentially about a longitudinal axis of the gas turbine (see Davis).
With respect to claim 13 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein the interior surface of the body is a fore interior surface, the body further including an aft interior surface and a radially outer surface (see again Davis) the aft interior surface spaces axially from the fore interior surface.
With respect to claim 14 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein a first set of the plurality of plates is included is coupled to the fore interior surface and a second set of the plurality of plates is coupled to the aft interior surface (such a designation of the plates would have been obvious ) the plurality of plates corresponding to rings (see shapes of Bell) surrounding the VBV door of the VBV assembly.
With respect to claim 15 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein the ABH assembly includes a plurality of partitions coupled to the VBV door (see partition elements 118 in Davis figure 5 shown on door) the fore interior surface, the aft interior surface and the radially outer surface, the plurality of partitions defining a plurality of ABH cavities (see figure 6 of Davis), the plurality of partitions including a first partition, a second partition and a third partition, the first partition and the second partition spaced circumferentially apart by a first angle, the second and third partitions spaced apart circumferentially by a second angle (the partitions of Davis are shown spaced apart, when applied to a circular door as taught by Bell’s valve member the spacing would result in an angular spacing in a circumferential direction) the first and second partitions defining a first ABH cavity, the second and third partitions defining a second ABH cavity, the first ABH cavity including a first internal value, the second ABH cavity including a second internal volume.
With respect to claims 16 and 17 as it regards the selections of the angles and volumes being one of the same as each other or different from each other, this would have been an obvious smatter to one of ordinary skill in the art to specifically target a given frequency or to target a broader bandwidth of frequencies.
With respect to claim 18 AAPA as modified further discloses an acoustic black hole assembly for a variable bleed valve assembly of a gas turbine engine, comprising:
A body (see Bell element 109) coupled to a door of a VBV assembly, the body defining a cavity having a depth and an internal volume, the body including an opening positioned adjacent to a hole in the door; and
A plurality of plates (being the body portions between the cavities as shown in figure 1 of Bell) coupled to an interior surface of the body, the plurality of plates extending outward from an interior surface, the plurality of plates arranged such that respective surfaces areas of the plurality of plates vary along the depth of the cavity in a radially outward direction of the gas turbine engine (see again teachings of Bell to use different dimensioned plates).
2. Claims 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over AAPA (applicant admitted prior art) in view of Davis (US2024/0217150) in view of Bell (US12066124)as applied to claim 18 and in further view of Masias (US10208880).
With respect to claim 19 AAPA as modified discloses the invention as claimed except expressly wherein the body is a first plug body included in a plurality of plug bodies or the provision of the apertures in the plates.
As plug bodies are a known structure in the art of gas turbine engines, the placement of a silencing means on them would have been an obvious matter to one of ordinary skill in the art. This would be only the application of the plate and disc structures acting as a silencer to another body having available volume which would allow for additional silencing of the flows. One of ordinary skill in the art would be so motivated to apply such a teaching to further enhance the sound reduction.
With regard to the inclusion of the apertures in the plate bodies, Masias discloses the use of such perforated plates within a silencing means (see figures 2a and 3a).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Masias to use plates having apertures therein as part of a silencer with the device ABH device of AAPA as modified to provide additional silencing by causing the sound waves to be broken up by passing through the apertures.
With respect to claim 20 AAPA as modified further discloses wherein the plurality of plates are arranged such that the surface areas of the plurality of plates increases along the depth in the radially outward direction(see teachings of Bell to vary the length in such a progression) and aperture areas of the plurality of plates decrease along the depth in the radially outward direction .
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Miller (US12553403) discloses a gas turbine silencing means; Nath (US12134986) discloses an acoustic damping device; Zheng (US20230228219) discloses a bleed valve assembly; Gallier (US20180283183) discloses a turbine engine component; Fagerlund (US8931591) discloses a simplified modal attenuator; and Chlus (US6802691) discloses a maintainable bleed system.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FORREST M PHILLIPS whose telephone number is (571)272-9020. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday from 9:00-5:00.
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/FORREST M PHILLIPS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837