Angled Rail Combustor Panels for Leakage Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
In gas turbine combustors, the gaps between panels allow hot air from the combustion chamber to ingress, causing increased thermal stresses and potential damage due to leakage, despite impingement and convective cooling methods.
Innovation Solution
The combustor panels are designed with angled rails that minimize the gap between adjacent panels, using acute angles to position the panels closer together, thereby reducing the width of the circumferentially extending gap and minimizing ingested gas flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If panels are positioned close together to minimize gaps, then hot air leakage is reduced, but thermal expansion and movement of panels are restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The combustor wall is divided into multiple axially adjacent panels with circumferentially extending gaps between them. Each panel is independently mounted to the combustor shell, allowing individual thermal expansion while maintaining overall gap minimization through the angled rail configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The panels are designed with dynamic mounting capabilities that allow movement and thermal expansion. The angled rails provide a mounting structure that accommodates panel movement while maintaining minimal gap width, enabling the system to adapt to thermal conditions.
2Temperature
If impingement cooling air is directed toward panel undersides, then panel cooling is improved, but air leakage through gaps increases thermal stresses
Solution Approach 1:
The angled rails are configured to prevent hot air ingestion from the combustion chamber into the gap region before it can reach the panel undersides. This preliminary blocking action prevents the harmful mixing of hot and cool air streams that would create thermal stresses.
Solution Approach 2:
The angled rails act as intermediary structures that separate the impingement cooling air flow from the hot combustion air. They create a physical barrier that maintains the integrity of the cooling air stream while allowing minimal gap width.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If gap width between panels is reduced, then hot air ingestion is minimized, but manufacturing and assembly precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The rail configuration parameter (angled rather than perpendicular) is changed to achieve minimal gap width. This geometric parameter change allows the system to achieve tight gap control without requiring extremely tight manufacturing tolerances on individual panel dimensions.
Solution Approach 2:
The angled rail configuration creates an asymmetric mounting structure that naturally guides panel positioning. The acute angles provide self-aligning features that reduce the need for high-precision manufacturing and assembly while maintaining minimal gap width.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration reduces leakage and thermal stresses by minimizing the gap between panels, enhancing the effectiveness of the purge mechanism and preventing impingement flow, while allowing for thermal expansion and movement of panels.
Implementation Method 1
The first rail and the second rail are proximal to each other and define a circumferentially extending gap there between, and at least one of the first angle or the second angle is an acute angle
Implementation Method 2
This configuration reduces leakage and thermal stresses by minimizing the gap between panels, enhancing the effectiveness of the purge mechanism and preventing impingement flow, while allowing for thermal expansion and movement of panels
Implementation Method 3
Impingement cooling may be a process of directing relatively cool air from a location exterior to the combustor toward a back or underside of the panels
Implementation Method 4
Convective cooling may be achieved by air that is trapped between the panels and a shell of the combustor
Data Source
AI summary
A combustor of a gas turbine engine including a combustor shell having an interior surface defining a combustion chamber, a first panel mounted to the interior surface at a first position, the first panel having a first surface and a first rail extending from the first surface toward the combustor shell, the first rail configured at a first angle relative to the first surface, and a second panel mounted to the interior surface at a second position axially adjacent to the first panel, the second panel having a second surface and a second rail extending from the second surface toward the combustor shell, the second rail configured at a second angle relative to the second surface. The first and second rails are proximal to each other and define a circumferential gap there between and at least one of the first or second angles is an acute angle.