Inlet Splitter Bypass for Pressure Gain Combustor Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Rotating detonation combustors in gas turbine engines experience a pressure gain, which prevents cooling air from being forced into the turbine system due to adverse pressure gradients, leading to inadequate cooling of turbine components.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating an inlet splitter with a combustion passageway and a bypass passageway in the rotating detonation combustor, where the bypass passageway is designed to increase the pressure of the cooling air stream, allowing it to bypass the combustion chamber and reach the turbine system, thereby overcoming the high pressure discharged from the combustor.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If a pressure gain combustor is used, then fuel efficiency is improved, but turbine cooling becomes inadequate
Solution Approach 1:
The inlet splitter divides the compressor discharge flow into separate combustion stream and cooling stream pathways, allowing independent pressure management for each function
Solution Approach 2:
The bypass airfoils are shaped to increase static pressure in the cooling air stream more than in the combustion stream, creating sufficient pressure gradient to overcome the pressure gain across the combustor and enable cooling air flow to the turbine
2Reliability
If cooling air is taken from the compressor, then turbine cooling is improved, but pressure gradient is adversely affected
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the inlet splitter are designed with different aerodynamic properties - the bypass airfoils have specific shapes optimized to increase static pressure locally in the cooling air pathway, while the combustion airfoils maintain pressure for the combustion stream
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses fluid dynamic principles where the bypass airfoil geometry creates pressure increases in the cooling air stream through controlled flow expansion and diffusion, enabling the cooling air to overcome the adverse pressure gradient from the pressure gain combustor
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
Ensures effective cooling of turbine components by maintaining a pressure gradient that allows cooling air to reach the turbine system, even with a pressure gain across the combustor, thus preventing overheating and ensuring engine efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
A rotating detonation combustor may be arranged around a reference axis of the gas turbine engine. The rotating detonation combustor may include a combustion chamber and an inlet splitter. The inlet splitter may be fluidly coupled to the compressor to receive compressed air from the compressor and to the combustion chamber. The rotating detonation combustor may be configured to mix fuel with the compressed air in the combustion chamber, ignite the mixed fuel and the compressed air in the combustion chamber, and to discharge products of the combustion reaction between the mixed fuel and the compressed air at a discharge pressure greater than an inlet pressure of the compressed air received from the compressor.
Implementation Method 2
The static vanes and rotating blades may be formed to include cooling air passageways shaped to carry cooling air therethrough to lower the temperature of the associated static vanes and rotating blades.
Data Source
AI summary
A gas turbine engine including a compressor, a pressure-gain combustor, and a turbine is disclosed. The compressor compresses air drawn into the engine and delivers high pressure air to the pressure-gain combustor. In the pressure-gain combustor, fuel is mixed with the high pressure air and is ignited. Products of the combustion reaction in the pressure-gain combustor are directed into the turbine at a pressure greater than that of the air discharged by the compressor. In the turbine, work is extracted by actively cooled turbine blades to drive the compressor and, sometimes, an output shaft. In illustrated designs, some compressed air from the compressor is diverted around combustion in the combustor to provide active cooling for the turbine blades.