General Electric Company

Robert Gregory Carita

Stephen John Howell

Jennifer Waslo

Frank Anthony Lastrina

Jennifer Caiulo

Irven Charles Ball

A gas turbine engine combustor carburetor includes forward and aft air swirlers. The aft swirler has a septum defining a primary venturi and a plurality of circumferentially spaced aft swirl vanes. The forward swirler has a plurality of circumferentially spaced forward swirl vanes extending forwardly from a flat annular radial flange of the forward swirler, an annular wall extending forwardly from a forward face of the septum and radially bounding an annular recess on the forward face, and the radial flange slidably retained within the annular recess and against the septum by a flat retainer attached to the annular wall of the septum. The flat retainer may be produced by stamping. An anti-rotation tab on the radial flange of the forward swirler extends radially through a corresponding notch in the annular wall.

Gas turbine engine carburetor with flat retainer connecting primary and secondary swirlers

A method of making a dome plate for a gas turbine engine combustor includes forming an annular body and forming a plurality of swirler openings in the annular body. Then, an array of impingement cooling holes and an array of blow-off holes are electrically discharge machined into the annular body adjacent to each swirler opening. For each one of the plurality of swirler openings, the corresponding array of impingement cooling holes and the corresponding array of blow-off holes are machined in a single electrical discharge machining operation. This results in an annular dome plate having radially outer and inner curved corners that define a single radius of curvature. The blow-off holes are located in at least one of the outer and inner curved corners.

Combustor dome plate and method of making the same

A combustor for a gas turbine engine includes outer and inner liners defining a combustion chamber and an igniter mounted to the outer liner. A dome plate is disposed between the outer and inner liners and has a plurality of circumferentially spaced openings formed therein. A fuel-air mixer is disposed in each one of the openings; each fuel-air mixer includes a swirler mounted in the corresponding opening and a fuel nozzle received in the corresponding swirler. Two adjacent ones of the swirlers are low air flow swirlers in general circumferential alignment with the igniter and the rest of the swirlers are higher air flow swirlers. Each one of the fuel nozzles provides a similar amount of fuel so that the two fuel-air mixers having low air flow swirlers produce a local region of increased fuel-to-air ratio in the vicinity of the igniter.

Combustor for gas turbine engines with low air flow swirlers

A dome assembly for a gas turbine engine combustor includes an annular combustor dome with a substantially annular flat dome plate and at least one circular opening in the dome plate. A seal plate flange with a flat aft facing surface has a central ring circumscribed about a centerline axis and extends aftwardly from the seal plate flange. The central ring is disposed through the circular opening in the dome plate and the central ring includes a central bore coaxially aligned with the circular opening. A baffle has a cylindrical tubular mounting portion extending upstream through the central bore and is fixedly joined to the seal plate and a flare portion extending aft from the seal plate flange. A carburetor including an air swirler having an annular exit cone is joined to the baffle with the exit cone disposed within the cylindrical tubular mounting portion of the baffle. An aft end of the central ring is joined to the dome plate by a swage joint. The seal plate flange is preferably flat and has a rounded corner triangular shape with three wings having radially outer arcuate edges with respect to the centerline axis. Legs extend axially aftwardly from the aft facing surface of the seal plate flange wherein each of the legs is located about midway between each two of the three wings and the seal plate flange is joined to the dome plate by second tack welds between the legs and the dome plate.

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Needham, MA, United States of America

Robert Gregory Carita