United Technologies Corporation

Ronald L Robinson

Fred L Honeycutt, Jr

A flap for a jet engine flap-type nozzle is constructed of a plurality of sheet metal louver elements along the length of the flap, each louver element has a forward U-section having a forward flange and a rearward flange with an interconnecting bottom portion, a plate member extends rearwardly from the end of the rearward flange at the open end of the U-section, the plate member extending over the U-section of its adjacent louver element, the plurality of louver elements being connected together by welding the forward flange to the mating rearward flange, a beam plate extending axially along the U-sections and being fixed thereto, the plate members of adjacent louvers being free to move relative to each other; a stiffener is fixed to the sides of the flap formed by the ends of the plate members, permitting the free movement.

Louvered seal flap edge stiffener

An improved combustor for a gas turbine engine is disclosed. Techniques for reducing the level of noxious pollutants emitted by the combustor are developed. In one embodiment, a combination of serpentine geometried, fuel-mixing tubes discharging to the radially outward area of the combustor and an axially oriented, fuel-mixing tube near the center of the combustor are adapted to generate a strong centrifugal force field within the combustor by swirling the fuel/air mixtures flowing therethrough. The force field promotes rapid mixing and combustion within the chamber to reduce both the magnitude of the combustor temperature and the period of exposure of the medium gases to that temperature. The tube at the center of the combustor is adapted to swirl the medium flowing therefrom in a circumferential direction counter to the direction in which the medium from the serpentine geometried tubes is swirled. In accordance with the method taught, the fuel/air ratio in the serpentine mixing tubes is maintained within the range of fifty to seventy-five percent (50-75%) of the stoichiometric fuel/air ratio for the fuel employed and the fuel/air ratio in the axial mixing tube is maintained at a value less than seventy-five percent (75%) of the stoichiometric fuel/air ratio for the fuel employed.

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West Palm Beach, FL, United States of America

Ronald L Robinson