General Electric Company

Elwin C Bigelow

Anil Gulati

A V-shaped afterburner flameholder for a gas turbine engine has a plurality of rectangular tabs coextensive with and lying in the planes of the flameholder sidewalls. The tabs on opposing sidewalls alternate so as to introduce streamwise and spanwise (transverse) vortices in the flowing gas. The resultant streamwise vortices tend to reduce resonating vortex oscillations (screech) and the need for an acoustic liner to suppress such screech.

Flameholder for gas turbine engine afterburner

An afterburner flameholder for a gas turbine engine having a central diffuser cone, a generally cylindrical outer shell and fuel spray bars between the shell and cone defining an afterburner region is provided, which comprise an annular member with an asymmetric V-shaped cross section. The annular member is adapted to be secured to the engine in the afterburner region with the apex of the V facing upstream in the axial direction toward the fuel spray bars. The annular member has a first and second circular sidewall member each joined at one end forming an apex, the annular member in cross section has unequal length sidewall members. The difference in length between the distal ends of the first and second circular sidewall members is sufficient to cause spanwise vortices shed at the distal ends of the sidewall members to be out of phase when they meet downstream from the flameholder. The different lengths of the distal ends of the sidewall members results in one sidewall member extending further from the apex than the other, situating the distal ends in different planes so that spanwise vortices shed from the asymmetric sidewall members travel different path lengths and are out of phase when they meet downstream.

Growing community of inventors

Scotia, NY, United States of America

Elwin C Bigelow