Variable Volume Combustor Center Hub Fuel Staging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current micro-mixer combustor designs for gas turbine engines face challenges in achieving high temperature efficiency while minimizing nitrogen oxide emissions and dynamics-related issues, often requiring complex staging and calibration to avoid operating conditions that lead to increased emissions and reduced efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A variable volume combustor design featuring a center fuel hub with multiple micro-mixer fuel nozzles and a linear actuator to adjust the fuel nozzle positions, allowing for optimized fuel staging and emission control without altering system pressure drop, thereby improving combustion dynamics and emissions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the temperature of the hot combustion gas stream is increased to improve operational efficiency and output, then gas turbine efficiency increases, but nitrogen oxide emissions increase
Solution Approach 1:
The fuel delivery system is segmented into multiple independent supply circuits (first supply circuit, second supply circuit, etc.) that can deliver fuel to different micro-mixer fuel nozzles at different times and rates. This segmentation enables staged combustion where fuel is introduced in multiple phases, allowing the combustor to operate at high temperatures for efficiency while controlling nitrogen oxide formation through progressive fuel addition rather than single-stage combustion
Solution Approach 2:
The combustor employs dynamic fuel staging control where the fuel delivery system can actively adjust the timing and quantity of fuel delivered to different nozzles based on operating conditions. This dynamic control allows optimization of combustion temperature profiles to maintain high efficiency operation while preventing excessive nitrogen oxide formation through real-time adjustment of fuel-air mixing ratios
2Object-generated harmful factors
If fuel staging is implemented to prevent dynamics field formation and reduce emissions, then emissions and dynamics improve, but calibration time increases and operation occurs at less than optimum levels
Solution Approach 1:
The system utilizes variable parameters in the fuel delivery process, including adjustable fuel flow rates, timing sequences, and distribution patterns across multiple supply circuits. These parameter changes enable flexible adaptation to different operating conditions without requiring extensive recalibration, as the system can dynamically adjust parameters to maintain optimal combustion characteristics across varying load and ambient conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The multi-circuit fuel delivery system serves multiple functions simultaneously: it controls emissions, manages combustion dynamics, enables flexible operation across various load conditions, and provides inherent adaptability to different ambient conditions. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate calibration procedures for different operating modes, as the same staged fuel delivery mechanism addresses multiple objectives across the entire operability range
3Productivity
If micro-mixer fuel nozzles are used to improve combustion performance and mixing, then combustion efficiency improves, but operability window is limited by dynamics and emissions concerns
Solution Approach 1:
The fuel delivery system is divided into multiple independent supply circuits that can operate semi-independently to serve different micro-mixer fuel nozzles. This segmentation allows the system to maintain stable combustion in each zone while adapting to varying operating conditions, effectively expanding the operability window beyond what single-stage combustion could achieve
Solution Approach 2:
The staged fuel delivery system provides dynamic adaptability across a wide range of operating conditions. By controlling the timing and quantity of fuel delivered to different nozzles through multiple supply circuits, the system can maintain optimal combustion characteristics whether operating at high load, low load, or varying ambient conditions, thereby significantly expanding the practical operability window
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 design enables efficient combustion at higher temperatures with reduced nitrogen oxide emissions and dynamics, while maintaining system simplicity and cost-effectiveness by actively tuning reaction residence times and acoustic behavior.
Implementation Method 1
The fuel injection system may include a center hub for providing the flow of fuel therethrough. The center hub may include a first supply circuit for a first micro-mixer fuel nozzle and a second supply circuit for a second micro-mixer fuel nozzle.
Implementation Method 2
One method of providing such good mixing is through the use of a combustor with a number of micro-mixer fuel nozzles. Generally described, a micro-mixer fuel nozzle mixes small volumes of the fuel and the air in a number of micro-mixer tubes within a plenum before combustion.
Implementation Method 3
A variable volume combustor design featuring a center fuel hub with multiple micro-mixer fuel nozzles and a linear actuator to adjust the fuel nozzle positions
Implementation Method 4
Operational efficiency and the overall output of a gas turbine engine generally increases as the temperature of the hot combustion gas stream increases
Data Source
AI summary
The present application and the resultant patent provide a combustor for use with a gas turbine engine. The combustor may include a number of micro-mixer fuel nozzles and a fuel injection system for providing a flow of fuel to the micro-mixer fuel nozzles. The fuel injection system may include a center hub for providing the flow of fuel therethrough. The center hub may include a first supply circuit for a first micro-mixer fuel nozzle and a second supply circuit for a second micro-mixer fuel nozzle.