Fuel Injection System for Gas Turbine Steady State Transitions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gas turbine engines require an improved fuel schedule to ensure successful transitions between steady states, particularly between inactive and higher power states, while managing differing flow pressures in primary and secondary fuel lines to maintain efficient combustion.
Innovation Solution
A fuel injection system with a primary and secondary fuel line, a dual passage injector, a flow divider valve, and a control system that operates in two delta pressure conditions to adjust fuel delivery modes during transitions, ensuring sufficient fuel supply and avoiding insufficient fuel line filling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single fuel delivery mode is used for all transition conditions, then the system is simpler to operate, but successful transition between all steady states cannot be ensured
Solution Approach 1:
The fuel delivery system dynamically switches between first and second fuel delivery modes based on the engine's operational state. The control system automatically selects the appropriate mode during transitions between steady states, eliminating the need for manual intervention while ensuring reliable transition under all conditions.
2Manufacturing precision
If individual fuel injector valves are used for each fuel line, then fuel delivery precision is improved, but device complexity and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple fuel delivery functions into a single dual passage injector that receives fuel from both the primary and secondary fuel lines. This merging of functions maintains precise fuel delivery control while eliminating the need for individual fuel injector valves, thereby reducing system complexity and cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The dual passage injector serves multiple functions: it receives fuel from two different fuel lines operating under different delivery modes and injects the combined fuel into the combustor. This multi-functional component replaces what would traditionally require multiple separate injectors, reducing overall system complexity.
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
The system enables successful transitions between steady states by managing fuel pressure differences, eliminating the need for individual fuel injector valves, reducing complexity and costs, and ensuring efficient operation by avoiding insufficient fuel line filling during steady or increasing power modes.
Implementation Method 1
The flow divider valve is a pressure modulator having more than one position and is used to alter a fuel pressure in the secondary fuel line
Implementation Method 2
The atomizer may provide fuel to the combustor in a form sufficiently atomized for gas turbine transition between steady states in all conditions
Implementation Method 3
The fuel is pressurized by a fuel pump, and injected into the combustor of the gas turbine engine via a fuel line
Implementation Method 4
This pressurized air is mixed with fuel in the combustor. The fuel-air mixture is then ignited, generating hot combustion gases that flow downstream to the turbine
Data Source
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AI summary
A fuel injection system (70) for a gas turbine engine (20) can be used to ensure successful transition in all conditions, while avoiding the possibility of steady state, or increasing power mode, operations with an insufficiently filled secondary fuel line (78). This may be accomplished by altering a pressure in a secondary fuel line (78). The present disclosure allows for the elimination of individual fuel injector valves, which may reduce the total complexity and number of parts of the fuel injection system.