The Boeing Company

United Technologies Corporation

Aerojet Rocketdyne of De, Inc.

Calvin Q Morrison, Jr

Robert J Pederson

Stephen N Schmotolocha

Donald Henry Morris

Raymond Bernard Edelman

Mark David Horn

Glenn L Havskjold

A rotary engine which provides a supplemental phase of compression between a first phase of compression and a second phase of compression.

Rotary engine with exhaust gas supplemental compounding

A ramjet powered device that utilizes a novel swirl generator for rapidly and efficiently atomizing, vaporizing, as necessary, and mixing a fuel into an oxidant. The swirl generator converts an oxidant flow into a turbulent, three-dimensional flowfield into which the fuel is introduced. The swirl generator effects a toroidal outer recirculation zone and an inner central recirculation zone, both of which are configured in a backward-flowing manner that carries heat and combustion byproducts upstream where they are employed to continuously ignite a combustible fuel/oxidizer mixture in adjacent shear layers and stabilizes flame propagation and accelerates combustion throughout the entire combustor. The swirl generator provides smooth combustion with no instabilities and minimum total pressure losses and enables significant reductions in the L/D ratio of the combustor. Other benefits include simplicity, reliability, wide flammability limits and high combustion efficiency and thrust performance.

Compact lightweight ramjet engines incorporating swirl augmented combustion with improved performance

An afterburner apparatus that utilizes a novel swirl generator for rapidly and efficiently atomizing, vaporizing, as necessary, and mixing a fuel and an oxidant. The swirl generator converts an oxidant flow into a turbulent, three-dimensional flowfield into which the fuel is introduced. The swirl generator effects a toroidal outer recirculation zone and a central recirculation zone, which is positioned within the outer recirculation zone. These recirculation zones are configured in a backward-flowing manner that carries heat and combustion byproducts upstream where they are employed to continuously ignite a combustible fuel/oxidizer mixture in adjacent shear layers. The recirculation zones accelerate flame propagation to allow afterburning to be completed in a relatively short length. Inherent with this swirl afterburner concept are design compactness, light weight, lower cost, smooth and efficient combustion, high thrust output, wide flammability limits, continuous operation at stoichiometric fuel/oxidizer mixture ratios, no combustion instabilities, and relatively low pressure losses.

Compact swirl augmented afterburners for gas turbine engines

An improved torch igniter for use in devices such as thrust augmenters, gas turbine engines, ramjets, combined-cycle engines and industrial burners. The torch igniter includes a housing with a combustion chamber. Fuel and oxidizer are delivered into the combustion chamber and ignited by an electronic ignition source, such as a plasma jet igniter or a spark igniter, so that an upstream recirculation zone and a downstream recirculation zone are created. The upstream recirculation zone stabilizes and pilots combustion within the combustion chamber, while the downstream recirculation zone augments the combustion event. Byproducts of the combustion event within the torch igniter provide a high mass flux with high thermal energy and strong ignition source radicals that are discharged through a neck portion of the housing and are thereafter employed to initiate a primary combustion event in a primary combustor.

Torch igniter

A combined-cycle engine having at least one core engine and at least one ramjet engine. The ramjet utilizes a novel swirl generator for rapidly and efficiently atomizing, vaporizing, as necessary, and mixing a fuel into an oxidant. The swirl generator converts an oxidant flow into a turbulent, three-dimensional flowfield into which the fuel is introduced. The swirl generator effects a toroidal outer recirculation zone and an inner central recirculation zone, both of which are configured in a backward-flowing manner that carries heat and combustion byproducts upstream where they are employed to continuously ignite a combustible fuel/oxidizer mixture in adjacent shear layers, which accelerate flame propagation throughout the core flowfield. The swirl generator provides smooth combustion with no instabilities and minimum total pressure losses and enables significant reductions in the L/D ratio of the combustor. Other benefits include simplicity, reliability, wide flammability limits, high combustion efficiency and high specific thrust performance.

Combined cycle engines incorporating swirl augmented combustion for reduced volume and weight and improved performance

An afterburner apparatus that utilizes a novel swirl generator for rapidly and efficiently atomizing, vaporizing, as necessary, and mixing a fuel into an oxidant. The swirl generator converts an oxidant flow into a turbulent, three-dimensional flowfield into which the fuel is introduced. The swirl generator effects a toroidal outer recirculation zone and a central recirculation zone, which is positioned within the outer recirculation zone. These recirculation zones are configured in a backward-flowing manner that carries heat and combustion byproducts upstream where they are employed to continuously ignite a combustible fuel/oxidizer mixture in adjacent shear layers. The recirculation zones accelerate flame propagation to allow afterburning to be completed in a relatively short length. Inherent with this swirl afterburner concept are design compactness, light weight, lower cost, smooth and efficient combustion, high thrust output, wide flammability limits, continuous operation at stoichiometric fuel/oxidizer mixture ratios, no combustion instabilities, and relatively low pressure losses.

An apparatus for providing propulsive power that utilizes a novel swirl generator for rapidly and efficiently atomizing, vaporizing, as necessary, and mixing a fuel into an oxidant. The swirl generator converts an oxidant flow into a turbulent, three-dimensional flowfield into which the fuel is introduced. The swirl generator effects a toroidal outer recirculation zone and a central recirculation zone, which is positioned within the outer recirculation zone. These recirculation zones are configured in a backward-flowing manner that carries heat and combustion byproducts upstream where they are employed to continuously ignite a combustible fuel/oxidizer mixture in adjacent shear layers. The swirl generator is compatible with the throttle range of conventional gas turbine engines, provides smooth combustion with no instabilities and minimum total pressure losses, enables significant reductions the in L/D ratio of the combustor and is readily packaged into various applications. Other benefits include simplicity, reliability, wide flammability limits and high combustion efficiency/thrust performance. This concept is applicable to various propulsion systems such as such as ramjet missiles, combine cycle engines, gas turbine afterburners and energy conversion devices.

Growing community of inventors

Thousand Oaks, CA, United States of America

Calvin Q Morrison, Jr