General Electric Company

Sanjay M Correa

Robert Patrick Campbell

Melvin Robert Jackson

Anthony John Dean

Ann Melinda Ritter

Nesim Abuaf

Constantinos Minas

Kenneth W Beebe

Adrian M Beltran

David Robert Schumacher

Jeffery Allan Lovett

Alan S Feitelberg

Stephen Lan-Sun Hung

Richard Edwin Warren, Jr

Mitchell R Cohen

Martin B Cutrone

Myron Clyde Muth

Lance Gordon Peterson

Ross Anthony McLean

Jeffrey Alan Graves

Jeffery Alan Lovett

Gregor Arthur Waldherr

A hybrid combustor, for providing stable high and low levels of operation while minimizing emissions of NOx, CO, and UHCs, includes a casing having a chamber, a catalytic combustor disposed in the chamber, and a non-premixed combustor disposed in the chamber. The hybrid combustor may comprise a fuel nozzle comprising a casing having a chamber, and a body supportable in the chamber to define a passageway between the body and the casing. The passageway has an inlet for receiving a stream of air and an outlet for discharging a stream of fuel and air, and the body includes a tapering downstream portion. Desirably, flow separation of the fuel and air mixture from the body (i.e., recirculation of the fuel and air mixture in the passageway and/or chamber) is inhibited whereby a generally uniform fuel and air mixture is provided.

Hybrid catalytic combustor

A fuel injector is cooled by steam during operation of a combustor. The injector includes a conduit for channeling fuel into the combustor, and a jacket covering the conduit through which steam is channeled for cooling the injector. The steam may be mixed with the fuel, or kept apart from the fuel in the injector by flowing through passageways in the jacket. Cooling can be further improved by expanding the steam through an orifice prior to entry into the injector.

Steam cooled fuel injector for gas turbine

An apparatus for applying heat to a rotatable workpiece is disclosed. A rotating lathe is provided for mounting a workpiece, for example a quartz tube, thereto so as to enable rotation of the workpiece. At least one translatable burner is coupled to a fuel source and an oxygen source for producing a flame. The burner is directed such that flame impinges upon the workpiece mounted on the rotating lathe. A first pulse control valve is coupled to and positioned between the translatable burner and the fuel source. A second pulse control valve is coupled to and positioned between the translatable burners and the oxygen course. The first and second pulse control valves are pulsed at a predetermined frequency to prevent the formation of a steady thermal boundary layer about the workpiece to improve the rate of heat transfer between the flame and the workpiece.

Pulsed fuel-oxygen burner and method for rotatable workpieces

The instant invention is directed in general to combustors for gas turbines and, more specifically, to a hybrid can-annular combustor for axial staging in low NOx Combustion. In a preferred embodiment, the instant invention uses premixing stages at different axial positions to carry out axial staging of the heat release for increased operability, where the combustor has a first premixing means for injecting a fuel-air mixture into a can-type configuration for providing the advantages of a can-type combustor for low-load and/or low-temperature conditions and a second premixing means for injecting a fuel-air mixture into an annular-type configuration for providing the advantages of an annular-type combustor for high load and/or high temperature conditions.

Hybrid can-annular combustor for axial staging in low NOx combustors

A combustor/transition piece for a gas turbine including a double walled structure having a plurality of cooling channels, both axially and, in some cases, circumferential cross-flow passages positioned between the structure's inner member and the outer member to provide cooling air thereto, are formed in the area between the inner member of the combustor and the outer member thereof. The passages preferably extend both axially and circumferentially with respect to the direction of flow through the combustor/transition piece. The axial passages extend completely from one end to the other and the circumferential passages extend around the circumference of the combustor/transition piece. The addition of a circumferential cross-flow passage connecting axial flow coolant passages in double wall turbine components can prevent combustor/transition piece part failure due to axial passage inlet blockage without affecting normal, unblocked cooling. Double wall cooling structures are constructed using two unbonded members. The inner member is machined to form cooling passages. Differential thermal expansion (expansion of the outside diameter of the hot inner wall until contact is established with the inside diameter of the cooler outer wall) keeps the cylinders held tightly together. Double wall cooling structures are also constructed using two members shrink-fitted and then bonded together such as by welding. The inner member is machined to form the cooling passages. The improved thermal contact between the outer and inner members due to the joint reduces the thermally induced stresses in the two members.

Combustor for a gas turbine with cooling structure

A filament reactor for producing diamond using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques. The reactor includes a closed reaction chamber with at least one gas inlet and at least one exhaust port, two substrates disposed in the reaction chamber, and a resistance heating device in the form of a plurality of filaments positioned between the substrates. A preheater unit is located adjacent to the gas inlet for heating the gas mixture entering the reaction chamber. By preheating the gas mixture, the temperature of the substrates and the concentration of the hydrocarbon species fluxes are kept relatively uniform, thus ensuring high quality diamonds of uniform thicknesses. The preheater unit can be a serpentine tube made of a metal having a high thermal conductivity and wrapped with a resistance heating element.

CVD diamond production using preheating

Carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbon burnout in gas turbine combustors is promoted by a combustor liner having a plurality of vortex generating members or ridges formed therein. The liner includes a substrate having an inner surface and a thermal barrier coating disposed on the inner surface. The vortex generating ridges are formed in the thermal barrier coating and extend transverse to the mean direction of flow through the liner. The thermal barrier coating is capped with a catalytic material which enhances carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbon oxidation. The ridges are defined by raised portions of the catalytic material and are of sufficient height to cause mixing between the hot flame products and the cool incompletely-burned flow along the liner wall. Alternatively, the ridges can be defined by forming corrugations in the substrate and disposing a uniform catalytically-active thermal barrier coating over the corrugated substrate.

Catalytically-and aerodynamically-assisted liner for gas turbine

A trim system reduces NO.sub.x output from a cannular gas turbine by trimming fuel flow rates to equalize the fuel-air ratio in each combustor can. The system includes a main valve fluidly connected to the fuel inlet of each can and a trim valve fluidly connected to each fuel inlet in parallel with the main valve. Each trim valve has a flow resistance which is about 30-100 times greater than the flow resistance of each main valve. A controller is provided for controlling the opening of the trim valves in response to the level of NO.sub.x emitted from the gas turbine. The controller receives a signal corresponding to the NO.sub.x emissions from a NO.sub.x sensor and outputs suitable control signals to the trim valves. In one preferred control scheme, the controller sequentially perturbs the fuel flow rate to each can and monitors the resulting changes in NO.sub.x emissions. The controller establishes influence coefficients for each combustor can which are defined as the ratio of the change in NO.sub.x output to the change in fuel flow rate to that can. Baseline fuel flow adjustments are then made in the direction of negative influence coefficients. This is continued until NO.sub.x emissions are minimized.

Retrofittable trim system for fuel-air optimization in cannular gas

A supersonic combustion ramjet having a supersonic combustor. The supersonic combustor has a backward-facing step formed in a wall thereof and a forward-facing ramp formed in the wall downstream from the step. Hydrogen fuel is injected into the air flow by axially-directed fuel injectors disposed in the step and/or normally-directed fuel injectors disposed in the ramp. The ramp is inclined toward the center of the combustor so that fuel from the fuel injectors is turned into the main flow. The ensures rapid mixing which enables combustion to be completed within a distance on the order of one foot.

Apparatus for supersonic combustion in a restricted length

A method for reducing the NO.sub.x produced by the engine of a supersonic aircraft. A reducing agent is injected into the combustor or the exhaust region of the engine. The reducing agent can be either hydrogen azide or hydrazine in an aqeuous form. For injection into the combustor, injection will be perpendicular to the main air flow through the engine and into a downstream portion of the combustor. Injection is carried out whenever NO.sub.x reduction is needed. By injecting the reducing agent into the downstream portion of the combustor or into the exhaust region, the reduction reaction is decoupled from the combustion process so that engine performance is not impaired.

Method for low nitrogen oxide combustion in supersonic transports

A fuel with or without fuel bound nitrogen (FBN) is burned in a high pressure machine (20 atm) comprising fuel and air compressors, combustor and turbine at an ER of about 2-3 and temperature below the threshold for creating thermal NO.sub.x. Prompt and FBN NO.sub.x are avoided due to the rich mixture, having a dearth of O and OH, producing CO and H.sub.2 and little CH. The turbine cools the products to reduce their temperature. The cooled products are mixed with the remaining air and burned at a temperature below the thermal NO.sub.x threshold temperature at an ER of about 0.6. Commercial stand alone machines can be used for the rich and for the lean combustors wherein air and fuel are supplied to the rich combustor and only air and the cooled combustion products of the rich machine are supplied to the lean combustor.

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Schenectady, NY, United States of America

Sanjay M Correa