General Electric Company

Steven Marakovits

Allen Michael Danis

Paul R Angel

Michael Anthony Benjamin

Narendra Digamber Joshi

Pradeep Naik

Steven Clayton Vise

Clayton Stuart Cooper

Timothy James Held

Joseph Zelina

Sibtosh Pal

Sripathi Mohan

James Michael Caldwell

Mark Anthony Mueller

Daniel Dale Brown

Steven George Goebel

Richard Edwin Warren, Jr

Mina Dimov

Edward Joseph Stiftar

Kelley A Foresman

A gas turbine engine includes a steam generating system, and a combustion section having a first combustor and a second combustor in fluid communication with a secondary combustion zone of the first combustor. The second combustor is operable to receive compressor bleed air and fuel, along with steam from the steam generating system. During a non-idle operating state and a power-augmentation operating state, when the steam system is operable, steam is provided to the second combustor and then to the secondary combustion zone of the first combustor. When the steam generating system is inoperable, the fuel and bleed air are provided to the second combustor and combusted, and combustion products are provided to the first combustor. When the steam generating system is partially operable, the steam, the bleed air, and the fuel are provided to the second combustor, and combustion products are provided to the first combustor.

Gas turbine engine having a combustion section with steam provided to second combustor plenum

A gas turbine engine combustor includes an annulus with one or more circular rows of burners and a means for providing a number of equiangular spaced apart flame temperature nonuniformities around the annulus during engine operation. The number of the flame temperature nonuniformities being equal to a circumferential acoustic mode to be attenuated in the combustor (i.e three, five, or seven). Fuel lines and/or water lines in supply communication with the burners and metering orifices in a portion of the fuel lines and/or the water lines may be used to produce the flame temperature nonuniformities. The annulus of the burners may have an equal number of equiangular spaced apart first and second arcuate segments of the burners and a means for operating the burners in the first segments and operating the burners in the second segments at different first and second flame temperatures respectively.

Gas turbine engine combustor circumferential acoustic reduction using flame temperature nonuniformities

A gas turbine engine steam injector includes an annular steam injection manifold aftwardly bounded by an aft manifold wall having steam injection holes disposed therethrough and located axially aft and radially inwardly of a diffuser outlet. An outer baffle wall around manifold has a curved convex surface which may generally conform to a streamline emanating from outlet. Holes may be circumferentially evenly distributed and non-uniformly sized around the aft manifold wall. Hollow struts extend between radially outer and inner bands of a diffuser and a steam supply header in steam supply communication with a fluid passage of at least one of the struts having a passage outlet open to steam cavity within cavity casing located inwardly of inner band. Openings are disposed in an aft cavity wall between cavity and the injector. Passages may be in only a non-uniformly distributed portion of the struts adjacent to each other.

Gas turbine engine steam injection manifold

A method enables a gas turbine engine multi-domed combustor including an outer liner and an inner liner that define a combustion chamber therebetween to be assembled. The method comprises coupling a first dome including a heat shield that includes an annular endbody that extends a first distance axially from the heat shield to the combustor outer liner, and coupling a second dome including a heat shield that includes an annular endbody that extends a second distance axially from the heat shield to the first dome, such that the second dome is radially aligned with respect to the first dome, and wherein the second dome second distance is less than the first dome first distance.

Methods and apparatus for operating gas turbine engines

An apparatus for premixing fuel and air prior to combustion in a gas turbine engine, including: a linear mixing duct having a circular cross-section defined by a wall; a centerbody located along a central axis of the mixing duct and extending substantially the full length of the mixing duct, the centerbody having a plurality of orifices therein to inject fuel into the mixing duct with an axial velocity component; a fuel supply in flow communication with the centerbody orifices; an outer annular swirler located adjacent an upstream end of the mixing duct and including a plurality of circumferentially spaced vanes oriented so as to swirl air flowing therethrough in a first direction; an inner annular swirler located adjacent the mixing duct upstream end and including a plurality of circumferentially spaced vanes, the vanes having an outer radial portion having a leading edge and a trailing edge oriented so as to swirl air flowing therethrough in a second direction opposite the first swirl direction by the outer annular swirler vanes and an inner radial portion with a leading edge and a trailing edge oriented so as to provide a boundary layer of air substantially along the centerbody; and, a hub separating the inner and outer annular swirlers to permit independent rotation of an air stream therethrough. The outer annular swirler may also include vanes having an inner radial portion with a leading edge and a trailing edge oriented so as to swirl the air flow therethrough and an outer radial portion having a leading edge and a trailing edge oriented so as to provide a boundary layer of air substantially along the mixing duct wall. High pressure air is injected from a compressor into the mixing duct through the inner and outer annular swirlers and fuel is injected into the mixing duct so that the high pressure air and the fuel is uniformly mixed therein, whereby minimal formation of pollutants is produced when the fuel/air mixture is exhausted out the downstream end of the mixing duct into a combustor and ignited.

Air fuel mixer for gas turbine combustor

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Mason, OH, United States of America

Steven Marakovits