Inertial separator

Claim 1

In a gas turbine engine compressor inlet, an airflow particle separator having an axis, the inlet having an inner wall and an outer wall of circular cross-section respectively defining an axial annular passageway, said inner wall including an inner wall portion diverging in a downstream direction away from the separator axis, a bypass opening defined in the inner wall immediately upstream of the diverging wall portion, the bypass opening communicating with a bypass conduit which in turn communicates with a collector shroud adapted to dump said particles outboard, the inner and outer walls forming a throat in the area of maximum divergence of the inner wall, the inner wall converging downstream of the throat area towards the axis of the separator, a splitter ring provided in the passageway between the inner wall and the outer wall downstream of the throat to form a core passage and a bypass passage, the bypass passage communicating with said collector shroud whereby the inertia of the particles in the airflow will tend to cause the particles to pass through the bypass opening immediately upstream of the diverging inner wall and the remaining particles in the airflow being deflected through the bypass passage at the splitter ring.