United Technologies Corporation

Aerojet Rocketdyne, Inc.

Aerojet Rocketoyne of De, Inc.

Jim A Clark

James H Shadowen

Thomas L DuBell

Craig W Irwin

Gregg W Jones

Mark J Ricciardo

Reed A Kakuska

Todd M Neill

Jiten R Patel

Charles Whipple, Iv

Barton R Field

A liquid propellant rocket engine includes a combustion chamber that has a throat and a nozzle aft of the throat. The nozzle has a first nozzle section adjacent the throat and a second nozzle section aft of the first nozzle section. The first nozzle section includes active cooling features and the second nozzle section excludes any active cooling features. The first nozzle section is operative via at least the active cooling features to form a condensate that passively cools the second nozzle section.

Liquid propellant rocket engine nozzle with passive condensate cooling

A rocket engine with a manifold is in communication with a combustion chamber. A sense line extends through the propellant manifold and into the combustion chamber. The sense line includes a venturi arranged downstream from the combustion chamber, and at least one aperture fluidly connecting the propellant manifold to a sense-line passageway downstream from the venturi. A method of sensing conditions in a combustion chamber includes exposing an end of a sense line to the combustion chamber, creating a low static pressure in the sense line at a location upstream from the end, introducing a fluid at the location to purge the sense line, and sensing the conditions downstream from the location.

Rocket engine pressure sense line

A rocket engine fluid-flow system includes a pump fluidly interconnecting a fluid source to a combustion chamber. A nozzle is in fluid communication with the combustion chamber and includes coolant tubes fluidly arranged between the pump and the combustion chamber. An orifice has a throat and is fluidly arranged between the pump and the coolant tubes. The orifice has entrance and exit ramps arranged on either side of the throat. The exit ramp has an exit ramp surface with a divergent angle that is less than a right angle. The entrance ramp provides a smooth approach to the orifice throat. In one example, the exit ramp includes an exit ramp surface having a divergent angle of 20-60&#xb0;. The exit ramp radius is less than twice the throat radius in one example.

Reversible flow discharge orifice

A combustion chamber for use in an engine, such as a rocket engine, has an inner wall with a corrugated configuration. The inner wall is formed with a plurality of tubes for carrying a coolant. As a result of the tubular construction, the inner wall has a plurality of spaced apart crowns and a plurality of valleys intermediate with the spaced apart crowns. To enhance the rate of heat flux or transfer in the valleys, a device is installed in each valley to cause local intensification of the turbulence in the hot gas flow in an effective way. The device may take the shape of a chevron or a bump.

Heat transfer enhancement features for a tubular wall combustion chamber

A system for cooling a combustion chamber of an engine, such as a rocket engine, is provided. The system has a plurality of coolant tubes or passages surrounding the combustion chamber, a torroidal coolant-collection manifold for receiving coolant from the coolant tubes or passages and for discharging the coolant through a discharge port, and a plurality of turning vanes within the torroidal manifold for reducing pressure loss and improving pressure uniformity associated with the torroidal coolant-collection manifold.

Enhanced performance torroidal coolant-collection manifold

The effectiveness of a radial inlet air swirler for the fuel nozzle in the combustor of a gas turbine engine is enhanced by reducing the pressure loss associated with compressor discharge air as it enters the combustor cowl. A circumferential uniform feed pressure is created by an aerodynamically contoured projection on the pressure plate supporting the fuel nozzle and a cooperating dynamic swirler scoop at the inlet of the swirler. The increased flow and fuel/air mixing reduces smoke production without adversely affecting combustor or engine performance.

Swirler scoop and bearing plate for combustor

In a gas turbine, a linear stem extends through a diffuser and a combustor cowl into a sleeve that is attached to the swirler in such a way that the sleeve can move relative to the swirler but is supported on the swirler. The stem slides into the sleeve and contains a fuel nozzle that supplies fuel through a sleeve outlet to a swirler inlet.

Fuel nozzle attachment in gas turbine combustors

The radial jets of a fuel nozzle for the combustor of a gas turbine engine are non-axisymmetrically disposed around the tip of the fuel nozzle to distribute the fuel into the swirler unevenly around the circumference to reduce pattern factor.

Combustor seal and support

The orifice of the primary circuit on a dual circuit fuel nozzle for a combustor of a gas turbine engine is eccentrically located at the nozzle tip to inject fuel directly toward the prefilming surface of the air swirler and located in proximity to the igniter to enhance ignition. In another embodiment the fuel nozzles circumferentially spaced around the dome of the combustor include the eccentric orifice of the primary circuit to enhance lean blowout characteristics.

Fuel nozzle with eccentric primary circuit orifice

The fuel nozzles in the combustor of a gas turbine engine are concentrically disposed in two tiers about the circumference of the dome and are arranged in a triangular pattern with the air swirl orientation providing an increased intensity of combustion so as to enable a reduction in combustor size and weight while increasing temperature rise and the overall thrust-to-weight ratio of the engine.

Combustor fuel nozzle arrangement

The diffuser for delivering compressor discharge air to the combustor of a gas turbine engine includes a prediffuser mounted ahead of a dump diffuser which includes step changes in the flow path at its inlet and adjacent the cowl of the combustor in the passageway of the dump diffuser for providing at least two sudden expansions of the diffuser flow.

Stepped diffuser

An annular combustor has a plurality of fuel injectors 14, each supporting a heat shield 30. Each shield has an overlap portion 42 deflecting cooling air passing between the shields, thereby avoiding a curtain of air between the flames of adjacent fuel injectors.

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Jupiter, FL, United States of America

Jim A Clark