Fuel-air premixer for a gas turbine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10352567-B2
Application number	US-201514879793-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 9, 2015
Priority date	Oct 9, 2015
Publication date	Jul 16, 2019
Grant date	Jul 16, 2019

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a fuel-air premixer for a turbine system. The fuel-air premixer includes a swirler and a centerbody. The swirler is configured to direct a flow of air through the premixer, and the centerbody is configured to inject fuel into the flow of air. Additionally, the centerbody includes an airfoil shape that reduces and/or substantially eliminates recirculation pockets to prevent autoignition and/or flame holding in a combustion chamber. Accordingly, the turbine system may produce fewer NOx emissions.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fuel-air premixer for a gas turbine, comprising:
a dual counter-rotating swirler having an upstream side and a downstream side opposite the upstream side, the dual counter-rotating swirler configured to receive a flow of compressed air at the upstream side and direct the flow of compressed air in a downstream direction to the downstream side, the dual counter-rotating swirler comprising a first rotor and a second rotor, wherein the first rotor is annularly disposed around the second rotor and includes first blades configured to rotate the first rotor in a first direction by the flow of compressed air and the second rotor being disposed about a shaft and including second blades configured to rotate the second rotor in a second direction opposite the first direction by the flow of compressed air, and the dual counter-rotating swirler being configured to create a turbulent flow of air in the downstream direction; and
a centerbody coupled to the dual counter-rotating swirler at the downstream side of the dual counter-rotating swirler via the shaft, wherein the centerbody extends from the dual counter-rotating swirler in the downstream direction and comprises a leading edge at an upstream side of the centerbody configured to receive the turbulent flow of air from the dual counter-rotating swirler and a trailing edge at a downstream side of the centerbody opposite the upstream side, wherein a diameter of the centerbody increases and then decreases when moving from the leading edge to the trailing edge, the centerbody further comprising first fuel orifices on a surface of the centerbody, the first fuel orifices being configured to inject fuel into the turbulent flow of air to create a fuel-air mixture, and the centerbody comprises an airfoil shape.

2. The fuel-air premixer of claim 1 , wherein the first fuel orifices comprise a teardrop shape.

3. The fuel-air premixer of claim 1 , wherein the first fuel orifices are positioned closer to the leading edge than the trailing edge.

4. The fuel-air premixier of claim 1 , wherein the first fuel orifices are positioned at a largest diameter of the airfoil shape.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Wang Liangyu
• Dean Anthony John
• Mcmanus Keith Robert
• Singh Kapil Kumar
• Li Suhui
• Kapilavai Sravan Kumar Dheeraj
• Thariyan Mathew Paul
• Graham Owen

Classifications

• F05D2260/14

  Preswirling · CPC title

• F23R3/30

  comprising fuel prevapourising devices · CPC title

• F23D11/383

  with swirl means · CPC title

• F02C3/04

  having a turbine driving a compressor (power transmission arrangements F02C7/36; control of working fluid flow F02C9/16) · CPC title

• F23D2900/14021

  Premixing burners with swirling or vortices creating means for fuel or air · CPC title