Air-shielded fuel injection assembly to facilitate reduced NOx emissions in a combustor system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10288291-B2
Application number	US-201414461069-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 15, 2014
Priority date	Aug 15, 2014
Publication date	May 14, 2019
Grant date	May 14, 2019

Abstract

An air-shielded fuel injection assembly for use in a combustion chamber of a turbine assembly. The air-shielded fuel injection assembly generally includes a fuel manifold including a plurality of fuel injection ports and an air manifold including a plurality of air injection ports. Each of the plurality of fuel injection ports is configured to introduce a fuel column into an annular cavity of a mixer assembly. Each of the plurality of air injection ports is configured to introduce an air curtain about an associated fuel injection column to minimize recirculation upstream of the fuel injection column and increase penetration of the fuel injection column into the cavity. Also disclosed are a mixer assembly and a turbine assembly including the air-shielded fuel injection assembly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An air-shielded fuel injection assembly for use in a combustion chamber of a turbine, the assembly comprising:
a fuel manifold including a plurality of fuel injection ports, each fuel injection port configured to inject a fuel radially outward into an annular cavity of a mixer assembly to introduce a fuel injection column extending radially outward into the annular cavity; and
an air manifold including a plurality of air injection ports, each air injection port formed upstream of an associated fuel injection port and wherein each air injection port is separated from the associated fuel injection port by a distance, each air injection port configured to inject a flow of air radially outward into the annular cavity of the mixer assembly and upstream of the plurality of fuel injection ports, to introduce an upstream air curtain extending radially outward into the annular cavity and upstream of an associated fuel injection column, to minimize recirculation of the fuel injection column and an upstream swirl crossflow and increase penetration of the fuel injection column into the annular cavity.

2. The air-shielded fuel injection assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the air-shielded fuel injection assembly is tunable to adjust fuel-air mixing in the assembly to achieve low NO x emissions.

3. The air-shielded fuel injection assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the fuel manifold is in fluid communication with a source of fuel and the air manifold is in fluid communication with a source of air.

4. The air-shielded fuel injection assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of air injection ports has a contoured configuration to inject the upstream curtain of air relative to an associated fuel injection column.

5. The air-shielded fuel injection assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of air injection ports has a substantially rectangular configuration.

6. The air-shielded fuel injection assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a center of each air injection port is aligned with a center of the associated fuel injection port along a vector forming a flow angle of a fuel trajectory in the fuel injection column introduced by the fuel injection port.

7. A mixer assembly for use in a combustion chamber of a turbine engine, the assembly comprising:
a mixer including a main housing and defining an annular cavity;
an air-shielded fuel injection assembly in fluid communication with the annular cavity, the air-shielded fuel injection assembly comprising:
a plurality of fuel injection ports, each fuel injection port configured to inject a fuel radially outward into the annular cavity to introduce a fuel column extending radially outward into the annular cavity; and
a plurality of air injection ports, each air injection port formed upstream of an associated fuel injection port and wherein each air injection port is separated from the associated fuel injection port by a distance, each air injection port configured to inject a flow of air radially outward into the annular cavity and upstream of the plurality of fuel injection ports, to introduce an upstream air curtain extending radially outward into the annular cavity and upstream of an associated fuel injection column, and

a swirler positioned upstream from the air-shielded fuel injection assembly and having a plurality of vanes for swirling air traveling through the swirler.

8. The mixer assembly as claimed in claim 7 , wherein at least one of the plurality of fuel injection ports or the plurality of air injection ports is tunable to adjust fuel-air mixing in the assembly to achieve low NO x emissions.

9. The mixer assembly as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the fuel manifold is in fluid communication with a source of fuel and the air manifold is in fluid communication with a source of air.

10. The mixer assembly as claimed in claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of air injection ports has a contoured configuration to inject an upstream curtain of air relative to an associated fuel injection column.

11. The mixer assembly as claimed in claim 7 , wherein a center of each air injection port is aligned with a center of the associated fuel injection port along a vector forming a flow angle of the fuel trajectory in the fuel injection column introduced by the fuel injection port.

12. A turbine engine assembly comprising:
a compressor section;
a combustor section; and
a turbine section, wherein the compressor section, the combustor section and the turbine section are configured in a downstream axial flow relationship, the combustor section comprising:
a combustion chamber; and
a mixer assembly disposed in the combustion chamber, the mixer assembly comprising:
a mixer including a main housing and defining an annular cavity;
an air-shielded fuel injection assembly in fluid communication with the annular cavity, the air-shielded fuel injection assembly comprising:
a plurality of fuel injection ports, each fuel injection port configured to inject a fuel radially outward into the annular cavity to introduce a fuel column extending radially outward into the annular cavity; and
a plurality of air injection ports, each air injection port formed upstream of an associated fuel injection port and wherein each air injection port is separated from the associated fuel injection port by a distance, each air injection port configured to inject a flow of air radially outward into the annular cavity of the mixer assembly and upstream of the plurality of fuel injection ports, to introduce an upstream air curtain extending radially outward into the annular cavity and upstream of an associated fuel injection column introduced by an associated fuel injection port of the plurality of fuel injection ports; and

a swirler positioned upstream from the air-shielded fuel injection assembly and having a plurality of vanes for swirling air traveling through the swirler and provide an upstream swirl crossflow.

13. The assembly as claimed in claim 12 , wherein each of the plurality of air injection ports has a contoured configuration to inject an upstream curtain of air wrapping at least partially about an associated fuel injection column.

14. The assembly as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the assembly comprises a gas turbine engine.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Monahan Sarah Marie
• Haynes Joel Meier
• Joshi Narendra Digamber
• Walker David James
• Lim Junwoo
• Venkatesan Krishna Kumar

Classifications

• F05D2240/36

  Fuel vaporizer · CPC title

• F23D2206/10

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F23D2900/11002

  Liquid fuel burners with more than one nozzle · CPC title

• F23R3/286 Primary

  having fuel-air premixing devices (F23R3/30 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F05D2240/35

  Combustors or associated equipment · CPC title