Pratt-whitney Canada Corp

Peter John Stuttaford

Aleksandar Kojovic

David Edwin Cowburn

Michael Andrew Fryer

Saeid Oskooei

Bernhard Fischer

Stephen Oliver Oikawa

Jeffrey Scott Acton

A method of combustor cycle air flow adjustment for a gas turbine engine according to the present invention solves the problem of a higher flame temperature in the combustor, thereby affecting the emission levels when a heat-recuperated air flow cycle is used to increase the compressed air temperature. In low emission combustors this impact is severe because emission levels are significantly dependent on the primary combustion zone flame temperature. The method of the present invention includes a step of changing a geometry of an air flow passage and thereby changing distribution of a total air mass flow between an air mass flow for combustion and an air mass flow for cooling in order to ensure that flame temperature in a primary combustion zone of a combustor are maintained substantially the same whether the gas turbine engine is manufactured to operate as a simple air flow cycle engine or as a heat-recuperated air flow cycle engine. In an embodiment of the present invention, the changing of the geometry of the air flow passage by changing the number and size of perforations in an impingement cooling skin so that with minimal changes the impingement cooling skin serves duel purposes both as a cooling device for cooling the combustor wall and as a valve means for combustor cycle air flow adjustment, which makes the method simple and economical.

Method of combustor cycle airflow adjustment

Apparatus for adjusting combustor cycle

A cyclone combustor of the present invention uses a novel pre-mixture injection scheme to optimize performance. The cyclone combustor includes a cylindrical combustor can and three fuel/air premixing tubes entering the combustor can radially, with a tangential offset. The tangential offset is designed to provide an optimized circulation in the combustor can for improvement of liner life span, flame stability and engine turn-down. The ignition and pilot fuel systems are placed to take advantage of the premixing tube entry locations and the tangential direction of the mixture flow momentum in the combustor can. The special combination of the parallel axes of the combustor can and the mixing tubes provides a right angle between an outlet section and the major tube section of each premixing tube. The cyclone combustor of the present invention can meet the requirements for low NO and CO emissions.

Cyclone combustor

The present invention is directed to a combustor/turbine successive dual cooling arrangement in which the combustor has a one-piece hot combustor wall and front and rear cold combustor walls, and cooling air is forced under pressure through perforations in the cold combustor walls and impinges on the annular front and rear sections of the hot combustor wall for the backside cooling of the hot combustor wall. The exhaust combustor backside cooling air is directed to gain access to the hot end of the engine, that is, the turbine section, to cool the turbine components. The combustor/turbine successive dual cooling arrangement according to the present invention enables all the air typically used to cool the hot end of the engine downstream of the combustor, to be used as combustor backside cooling as well, to significantly reduce the amount of air needed for combustor and turbine cooling. Moreover, all the exhaust combustor backside cooling air must be used for turbine cooling and is never ingested into the combustion chamber, thereby avoiding negatively affecting the engine combustion emissions.

Combustor turbine successive dual cooling

A swirled diffusion dump combustor of the present invention includes a cylindrical combustor can and a fuel and air mixer attached to the upstream end of the combustor can. The mixer is generally formed by an annular chamber which is defined between annular outer and inner walls, having an annularly continuous truncated conical crass-section. The upstream end of the annular chamber is closed by a manifold ring which includes an annular fuel passage and two rows of swirled air passages. Thus, the compressor air approaching the mixer from above enters the swirled air passages, and the swirled air flow in the annular chamber shears fuel from the lips of the annular fuel passage to produce a fuel/air mixture. The mixture swirl is accelerated in the annular chamber and passes a downstream annular passage which serves as the region of diffusive mixing, and also as a flame flashback restrictor. The flow then dumps into the combustor can, providing the final level of mixing, where it then burns. The burning fuel/air mixture is stabilized by the swirling flow from the swirled air passages, as well as by the pressure gradient induced re-circulation to the upstream end of the combustor can. The front face of the combustor can is cooled by compressor air flowing through a series of effusion holes and the cylindrical side wall of the combustor can is cooled by air flow through an impingement cooling skin.

Swirled diffusion dump combustor

A combustion system for a power generating gas turbine engine which includes at least a combustion chamber with a annular fuel manifold at one end of the combustion chamber and a passageway having a narrow throat downstream of the fuel manifold whereby air passes around the fuel manifold and mixes with fuel and is diffused through the passageway into the burn zone defined in the combustion chamber in an ultimate location.

Diffuser combustor

A premixer for an industrial type gas turbine engine wherein the premixer includes a diffuser ring assembly made up of annular concentric rings and upstream of the diffuser ring assembly in the airflow path is a corresponding fuel manifold ring assembly, each ring in the manifold ring assembly corresponding to a passageway formed between the diffuser rings, and each manifold ring includes a downstream channel for feeding the fuel to the air as the air passes by the ring.

Growing community of inventors

Toronto, Canada

Peter John Stuttaford