Rolls-royce Corporation

Frederic Witham

Jonathan Mark Gregory

Steven P Jones

Timothy Minchin

Ian Murray Garry

Stephen Charles Harding

David Steele

David Joel Clarke

Richard Edward Mellor

Stephen Harding

Mark Glover

Steven Ballantyne

Pierre Hilt

James Montgomery

Steven Jones

Mike Caruso

A fuel swirl nozzle for a gas turbine engine comprises, in axial fuel flow sequence, a fuel inlet portion, a fuel stem portion, and a fuel/air swirler portion. The fuel inlet portion is configured to receive a flow of a fuel, with an inlet to the fuel stem portion being fluidly sealed against the fuel inlet portion, and an outlet from the fuel stem portion being fluidly sealed against the fuel/air swirler portion. The fuel/air swirler portion comprises an outer air swirler and an inner air swirler, with the inner air swirler being positioned concentrically within the outer air swirler. The outer air swirler comprises a plurality of first vanes that are arranged in an annular array within an outer air swirler body and is configured to impose a first rotational flow component on an air flow entering the outer air swirler. The inner air swirler has a plurality of second vanes that are arranged in an annular array within an inner air swirler body and are configured to impose a second rotational flow component on an air flow entering the inner air swirler. The fuel stem portion passes radially inwardly through the outer air swirler to a region radially between the outer air swirler and the inner air swirler. The inner air swirler also comprises an annular fuel gallery that is formed on a radially outwardly facing surface such that the flow of fuel enters the fuel gallery before being atomised into the air flow passing through the inner air swirler, and then further atomised into the air flow passing through the outer air swirler.

Combustor apparatus

A combustor assembly for gas turbine engine, combustor assembly including: combustor wall including interior surface and combustor wall opening, wherein interior surface partially defines combustion chamber, wherein combustor wall opening extends between combustion chamber and its exterior; sealing element disposed partially within combustor wall opening and includes air inlet, air outlet and air passageway, wherein air outlet exits into combustion chamber and delivers flow of air received from exterior of combustion chamber via air inlet and air passageway to combustion chamber; and fuel nozzle coupled to sealing element and configured to deliver fuel into combustion chamber, wherein combustor wall further includes first bearing surface and sealing element further includes second bearing surface, wherein first bearing surface is concave and forms part of first spherical surface such that first and second bearing surfaces are configured to move relative to each other about central point of first spherical surface.

Combustor assembly

A combustion chamber () comprising a wall at least partially defining a combustion zone and having a first surface () facing away from the combustion zone and a second surface () facing the combustion zone, the wall having at least one effusion cooling aperture () extending there-through from the first surface to the second surface, the effusion cooling aperture having an inlet in the first surface and an outlet in the second surface, the first surface having a particle separator () at least partially located upstream of the inlet of the effusion cooling aperture, the particle separator projecting away from the first surface and away from the combustion zone.

Combustion chamber with particle separator

A fuel spray nozzle comprises a fuel passage () having at least one inlet and at least one outlet. The outlet is configured for accelerating fuel exiting the fuel passage into a jet. An air swirler () is arranged outboard of the fuel passage and converges to a single outlet chamber () adjacent the fuel passage outlet(s). The air swirler () can be nominally concentrically arranged but have some freedom to move axially or radially or change its angular position. The fuel passage outlets may be arranged symmetrically in an annular configuration. An air passage may be arranged axially within the annular array of fuel passage outlets.

Fuel spray nozzle for a gas turbine engine

A fuel injector provided for gas turbine engine has a nozzle including pilot fuel and mains fuel discharge orifice's for respectively spraying pilot and mains fuel flows into a combustor of the engine. The injector further has a feed arm extending to the nozzle for feeding fuel to the pilot and mains discharge orifices from pilot and mains supplies respectively. The nozzle and the feed arm contain one or more pilot passages for flow of the pilot fuel flow from the pilot supply to the pilot discharge orifice and one or more mains passages for flow of the mains fuel flow from the mains supply to the mains discharge orifice. The nozzle and the feed arm contain a plurality of the pilot passages and/or a plurality of the mains passages. The pilot and the mains passages intertwine repeatedly, and are both smoothly curved as they intertwine around each other.

Fuel injector with interweaved pilot and mains passages

An annular air swirler configured to receive a fuel injector in a central bore. The swirler has one or more annular channels, defined by radially facing channel walls and having an inlet for receiving compressed air and an axially distal outlet. The channel walls converge inwardly towards the outlet and swirl vanes extend between opposing faces of the walls. The swirler turns incoming air to create a vortex at the channel outlet. An annular cooling apparatus associated with the air swirler is arranged axially adjacently downstream of the channel outlet(s), and includes a skirt portion radially spaced from a converging portion of the outermost channel wall defining a converging portion of a bowed coolant channel. A radially outwardly extending wall connects with the outermost channel wall and, with a face of the skirt portion, defines a radially outwardly extending portion of the bowed coolant channel adapted for increased heat exchange.

Growing community of inventors

Bristol, United Kingdom

Frederic Witham