Combustor Liner Lug Assembly for Buckling-Resistant Fastening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional combustor assemblies in gas turbine engines face challenges in resisting mechanical buckling during load cases such as compressor surge events and flame-out events, while maintaining good performance characteristics.
Innovation Solution
A combustor assembly design featuring a combustor liner with integral lugs and fasteners that extend into a cavity, allowing the combustor head and cowl to be fastened to the liner, with a majority of the fastener volume located within an external profile, reducing aerodynamic wakes and enhancing structural integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional combustor assemblies use welded construction with hoop-continuous liners and support arms, then structural strength is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing flexibility deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The combustor assembly is divided into discrete components (combustor head, combustor liner, cowl) that are fastened together rather than welded as a single hoop-continuous structure. This segmentation enables manufacturing flexibility while maintaining structural integrity through distributed fastening points.
Solution Approach 2:
The combustor head and cowl are merged into an integral head structure that is fastened to the combustor liner as a unified assembly, reducing the number of separate fastening operations while maintaining structural strength through the combined configuration.
2Ease of operation
If fasteners extend outside the combustor external profile, then ease of assembly is improved, but aerodynamic performance deteriorates due to increased wakes
Solution Approach 1:
The fasteners are nested within the combustor assembly structure, with their heads positioned within the external profile defined by the combustor head and cowl. This nesting conceals the fasteners within the aerodynamic envelope, minimizing wake generation while maintaining assembly accessibility through strategic positioning.
Solution Approach 2:
The fastener configuration utilizes the third dimension by positioning fastener heads within the radial depth of the combustor assembly rather than extending axially outward. This dimensional repositioning keeps fasteners within the external profile while maintaining sufficient access for assembly operations.
3Ease of manufacture
If combustor liner and cowl are fastened separately to the head structure, then manufacturing flexibility is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The combustor head and cowl are merged into an integral head structure that is fastened to the combustor liner as a unified assembly. This merging reduces the number of separate fastening operations and assembly steps while maintaining the manufacturing flexibility of having distinct components that can be manufactured separately and then assembled.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a combustor assembly (106) for a gas turbine engine (10). The combustor assembly (106) comprises a combustor liner (59), a combustor head (43), a cowl (47) and a fastener (70, 70'). The combustor liner (59) and the cowl (47) define a cavity (49). The combustor liner (59) has an integral lug (80, 80') that extends into the cavity (49) from a wall (41, 42) of the combustor liner (59). The fastener (70, 70') extends into the combustor liner lug (80, 80') to fasten the combustor head (43) to the combustor liner (59).