Gas Turbine Fuel Control System for Boiling Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fuel delivery systems for gas turbine engines face challenges in managing fuel properties, particularly temperature and pressure, to maintain efficient combustion and avoid undesirable state changes such as boiling, which can affect engine efficiency and stability.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a fuel control system that utilizes sensors to monitor fuel temperature, pressure, and density, and adjusts these parameters by bypassing a thermal management system or modifying heat transfer to maintain the fuel in a desired state, such as a supercritical state, to prevent boiling and ensure stable delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If fuel temperature is increased to improve flow characteristics, then fuel delivery is improved, but fuel may undergo undesirable state changes such as boiling
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts fuel temperature and pressure parameters to maintain the fuel in a desired state. By controlling temperature to stay below the boiling point while maintaining sufficient flow characteristics, and adjusting pressure to prevent phase change, the system resolves the contradiction between improving fuel delivery and preventing undesirable state changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses sensors to continuously monitor fuel temperature, pressure, and density, and adjusts the thermal management system accordingly. This feedback control ensures that fuel remains in a stable state while maintaining optimal delivery characteristics, preventing boiling and other undesirable state changes.
2Productivity
If fuel pressure is increased to maintain supercritical state, then combustion efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The thermal management system serves multiple functions: it controls fuel temperature, manages pressure, and maintains the fuel in a desired state. By consolidating these functions into a single system with coordinated control, the patent reduces overall system complexity while achieving the desired combustion efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses coordinated adjustments of temperature and pressure parameters to achieve and maintain supercritical state. By optimizing both parameters together rather than increasing pressure alone, the system achieves combustion efficiency while managing system complexity through integrated control.
3Stability of the object's composition
If thermal management system is used to control fuel temperature, then fuel delivery stability is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The thermal management system operates periodically rather than continuously, adjusting heating or cooling only when fuel temperature deviates from the desired range. This periodic operation maintains fuel delivery stability while significantly reducing energy consumption compared to continuous operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the fuel's own thermal properties and the engine's existing thermal environment to manage fuel temperature. By leveraging natural thermal processes and the engine's waste heat where appropriate, the system reduces the need for active thermal management, thereby lowering energy consumption while maintaining stability.
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 solution enables precise control of fuel properties, improving combustion efficiency, maintaining stable fuel delivery, and enhancing engine controllability by preventing undesirable state changes in the fuel.
Implementation Method 1
a thermal management system and configured to transfer heat to or from the fuel
Implementation Method 2
determining a density of the fuel at the sensor(s)
Data Source
AI summary
A gas turbine engine fuel supply system can include a fuel delivery system, a thermal management system, a fuel manifold, and one or more sensors that identify one or more fuel parameters. A fuel control system can be controlled to adjust one or more parameters of the fuel based on data received from the sensors.