Multi-Height Rail Heat Shield for Turbine Combustor Leakage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current turbine engine combustors face inefficiencies in air cooling and leakage prevention, leading to reduced performance and thrust efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a multi-walled combustor structure with a heat shield and shell configuration, featuring cooling cavities and quench apertures that direct air for impingement and effusion cooling, and a unique rail and panel arrangement that reduces radial leakage by ensuring proper engagement between the heat shield and shell, enhancing sealing and air retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If a conventional single-height rail configuration is used in the heat shield, then the structure is simpler, but air leakage occurs between the heat shield and shell reducing cooling efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The heat shield is divided into multiple panels with multi-height rails instead of a single continuous structure. Each panel can be independently configured with varying rail heights to optimize sealing at different locations while maintaining manufacturing simplicity. This segmentation allows targeted complexity only where needed for leakage prevention.
Solution Approach 2:
The rail heights are varied locally across different sections of the heat shield rather than using a uniform height throughout. This local variation in rail height creates optimized sealing interfaces at specific locations where leakage occurs, while other areas maintain simpler configurations, balancing sealing effectiveness with structural simplicity.
2Temperature
If cooling air flow is increased to improve cooling efficiency, then heat shield cooling improves, but thrust efficiency decreases due to excessive air consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The invention converts the potentially harmful effect of air leakage (which wastes cooling air and reduces thrust efficiency) into a beneficial sealed system. By preventing leakage between the heat shield and shell, the same amount of cooling air becomes more effective, providing adequate heat shield cooling without the penalty of excessive air consumption that would reduce thrust efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the sealing parameter (rail height configuration) to optimize air retention, thereby improving the effectiveness of the cooling air flow. This allows the system to achieve better cooling efficiency with the same air flow rate, or equivalently, reduces the required air flow rate for the same cooling effect, preserving thrust efficiency.
3Manufacturing precision
If uniform rail heights are used across the heat shield, then manufacturing is simpler, but proper engagement with the shell cannot be ensured at all locations
Solution Approach 1:
The heat shield is segmented into multiple panels that can be manufactured separately with standardized components. This segmentation allows each panel to be manufactured with consistent precision using the same processes, while the overall assembly achieves variable rail heights through configuration rather than complex manufacturing, balancing engagement precision with ease of manufacture.
Solution Approach 2:
The multi-height rail configuration uses universal manufacturing processes and standardized components that can be applied across all panels. The same basic manufacturing techniques produce rails of different heights, maintaining ease of manufacture while achieving the precision engagement needed at various locations through the multi-height design.
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 configuration improves cooling efficiency and reduces air leakage, leading to increased thrust and performance by maintaining a stable air flow within the combustion chamber, thereby enhancing the overall efficiency of the turbine engine.
Implementation Method 1
Cooling cavities extend radially between the heat shield and the shell. These cooling cavities fluidly couple impingement apertures in the shell with effusion apertures in the heat shield.
Implementation Method 2
Cooling cavities extend radially between the heat shield and the shell. These cooling cavities fluidly couple impingement apertures in the shell with effusion apertures in the heat shield.
Implementation Method 3
Each of the combustor walls also includes a plurality of quench apertures that direct air from a plenum into the combustion chamber.
Data Source
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AI summary
An assembly is provided for a turbine engine. This turbine engine assembly includes a combustor wall, which includes a shell and a heat shield. The heat shield includes a base and a plurality of panel rails. The panel rails are connected to the base and extend vertically to the shell. The panel rails include first and second rails. A vertical height of the first rail at a first location is less than a vertical height of the second rail at a second location.