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 . Claims 1-20 of the claim set received 11/15/2024 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 4, 7, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Benson (US 2005/0213548).
Regarding Claim 1, Benson discloses in Fig. 1, an aircraft propulsion system comprising: a gas turbine engine 102 including a rotational assembly rotatable about an axis, the rotational assembly including a bladed fan rotor 116, the bladed fan rotor including a plurality of fan blades; a nacelle 118 housing the gas turbine engine, the nacelle including an air inlet (the left-most opening/inlet of the nacelle 118), the air inlet forming an inlet flow region, the inlet flow region including a reference section at and upstream of the plurality of fan blades (defined in the annotation below inside the hashed lines), the reference section including a cross-sectional flow area of the inlet flow region (see annotation of the figure below); and
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a controller 104 including a processor connected in signal communication with a non-transitory memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: control the gas turbine engine to operate at or above a target engine speed corresponding to corrected air mass flow rate per unit area through the reference section which is greater than a vortex breakdown threshold for the reference section (read e.g. para. 0021, this is the full authority digital engine controller which controls the power output of the engine which correlates with the rotational speed of the rotational assembly up to a maximum rotational speed of the engine including and above a target rotational engine speed corresponding to corrected air mass flow rate per unit area through the reference section which is greater than a vortex breakdown threshold for the reference section).
Regarding Claim 4, Benson as discussed above discloses wherein the target engine speed is a rotational speed of the rotational assembly.
Regarding Claim 7, Benson discloses wherein the corrected air mass flow rate per unit area is defined through the cross-sectional flow area (the corrected mass flow rate is herein defined as that through the cross-sectional flow area).
Regarding Claim 8, Benson discloses wherein the bladed fan rotor 116 further includes a nose cone (see Fig. 1) having an upstream axial end, and the reference section is between the plurality of fan blades and the upstream axial end (see the annotation of Fig. 1 above).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-20 are allowed.
Claims 2-3 and 5-6 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art of record does not disclose or form a reasonable combination to teach the following in combination with the other claim limitations or limitations of the base and intervening claims -
Regarding Claim 2, “wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to: determine the vortex breakdown threshold for the reference section, using a crosswind velocity (Vx) input, by determining a crosswind Mach number (MNx) of the crosswind velocity (Vx) input, the vortex breakdown threshold is a function of the crosswind Mach number (MNx) and a predetermined ratio of axial inlet velocity to crosswind velocity for vortex breakdown in the reference section (K1), and the vortex breakdown threshold is a first value of the corrected air mass flow rate per unit area within the reference section; and determine the target engine speed for the gas turbine engine corresponding to the vortex breakdown threshold.”
Regarding Claim 5, “wherein: the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to: determine a first engine speed setting for the gas turbine engine corresponding to the vortex breakdown threshold, determine a takeoff thrust demand for the aircraft propulsion system, and determine a second engine speed setting for the gas turbine engine corresponding to the takeoff thrust demand; and control the gas turbine engine to operate at or above the target engine speed set as the greater of the first engine speed setting or the second engine speed setting.”
Regarding Claim 9, “determining a vortex breakdown threshold for the reference section using a crosswind velocity (Vx) input, and the vortex breakdown threshold is a first value of the corrected air mass flow rate per unit area; determining a target engine speed for the gas turbine engine corresponding to the vortex breakdown threshold; and controlling the gas turbine engine to operate at or above the target engine speed.”
Claims 3, 6, and 10-20 are allowable at least by basis on one of the claims discussed above.
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure can be found in the attached Notice of References Cited.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RENE D FORD whose telephone number is (571)272-8140. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Phutthiwat Wongwian can be reached on (571) 270-5426. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/R.D.F/Examiner, Art Unit 3741
/PHUTTHIWAT WONGWIAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3741
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