Lobed Trailing Edge Burner Injection System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current gas turbine burners face challenges in achieving high efficiency while minimizing NOx emissions and life cycle costs, particularly when operating at high turbine inlet temperatures or burning high reactivity fuels, due to issues with fuel distribution and mixing quality in secondary combustion chambers.
Innovation Solution
The design of a burner with a lobed trailing edge and inline fuel injection system that eliminates the need for high-pressure carrier air, allowing for efficient fuel-air mixing and vortex generation, reducing pressure drop and enabling operation at higher inlet temperatures with fuels like MBtu.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If high-pressure carrier air is used to inject fuel into vortices, then fuel penetration and mixing quality improve, but pressure losses increase and device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the vortex generation function and fuel injection function into a single integrated device. The streamlined body with lobed trailing edge generates vortices while simultaneously injecting fuel through nozzles located at the trailing edge, eliminating the need for separate vortex generators and high-pressure carrier air systems. This merging reduces pressure losses while maintaining effective fuel penetration and mixing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and eliminates the high-pressure carrier air system from the conventional design. By using low-pressure carrier air and integrating the injection function into the streamlined body, the system removes the need for complex high-pressure air supply infrastructure while achieving comparable or superior fuel distribution through the lobed geometry and inline injection.
2Manufacturing precision
If high-pressure carrier air system is used, then fuel injection effectiveness improves, but device complexity and cooling requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the vortex generation and fuel injection functions into a single streamlined body with lobed trailing edge. The lobes generate vortices that enhance fuel-air mixing while the inline nozzles at the trailing edge inject fuel directly into the flow. This integration eliminates separate vortex generators, high-pressure carrier air systems, and complex control mechanisms, significantly simplifying the overall injection system.
3Manufacturing precision
If residence time in mixing zone is increased to improve mixing quality, then fuel-air mixing improves, but risk of auto-ignition and flashback increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a streamlined body with lobed trailing edge that generates controlled vortices through its curved geometry. The lobes create rotational flow structures that enhance fuel-air mixing through intense shear and turbulent diffusion. The specific lobe angles and geometry are designed to achieve rapid mixing within a short residence time, preventing auto-ignition while ensuring complete mixing before combustion.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the flow parameters by generating strong vortices through the lobed geometry, which increases mixing intensity and reduces the required residence time. The inline fuel injection at the trailing edge also changes the injection parameters, allowing fuel to be injected directly into the vortex cores where mixing is most effective. This parameter optimization achieves high mixing quality with minimal residence time, preventing flashback.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple separate devices are used for vortex generation and fuel injection, then functional flexibility improves, but pressure losses and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates flow conditioning, vortex generation, and fuel injection into a single streamlined body with lobed trailing edge. The lobes perform flow conditioning and vortex generation while the integrated nozzles perform fuel injection, all within one device. This merging eliminates the pressure losses associated with multiple separate devices and their interconnections, while maintaining the functional flexibility needed for effective combustion control.
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 design increases gas turbine efficiency, reduces pressure losses, and allows for the use of low-pressure carrier air, enabling safe operation with highly reactive fuels while maintaining low NOx emissions and avoiding flashback.
Implementation Method 1
Lobes can be shaped to produce appropriate flow structures. Intense shear of the vortices helps in rapid mixing
Implementation Method 2
The lobe angles should be chosen in such a way that flow separation is avoided
Implementation Method 3
Intense shear of the vortices helps in rapid mixing and avoidance of low velocity pockets
Implementation Method 4
The momentum flux of the fuel is adjusted relative to the momentum flux of the main flow so as to penetrate in to the vortices
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure relates to a burner (1) for a combustion chamber of a gas turbine, with an injection device (7) for the introduction of at least one gaseous and/or liquid fuel into the burner (1), wherein the injection device (7) has at least one body (22) which is arranged in the burner (1) with at least one nozzle (15) for introducing the at least one fuel into the burner (1), the at least one body being configured as a streamlined body (22) which has a streamlined cross-sectional profile (48) and which extends with a longitudinal direction (49) perpendicularly or at an inclination to a main flow direction (14) prevailing in the burner (1), the at least one nozzle (15) having its outlet orifice at or in a trailing edge (24) of the streamlined body (22), and wherein, with reference to a central plane (35) of the streamlined body (22) the trailing edge (24) is provided with at least two lobes (28, 29) in opposite transverse directions (30, 31).