Multi-swirler fuel/air mixer with centralized fuel injection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10415832-B2
Application number	US-201615339463-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2016
Priority date	Nov 11, 2013
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

A gas turbine combustor assembly has a fuel/air mixer assembly with a plurality of fuel/air mixer elements. Each fuel/air mixer element defines an air flow passage therethrough. A fuel injector is coupled to the fuel/air mixer assembly. The fuel injector has a tip portion with a plurality of fuel outlets arranged to direct fuel into the air flow passages of the air/fuel mixer elements. Each of the fuel/air mixer elements has at least one outlet arranged to supply fuel to the element.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A gas turbine combustor assembly, comprising:
a fuel/air mixer assembly comprising a plurality of fuel/air mixer elements including a center fuel/air mixer element and multiple peripheral fuel/air mixer elements arranged around the center fuel/air mixer element, each of the peripheral fuel/air mixer elements comprising a housing having a sidewall defining an air flow passage and an air swirler residing in the air flow passage, the sidewall of the housing comprising a fuel port opening to the air flow passage at a location axially downstream of the air swirler; and
a fuel injector coupled to the fuel/air mixer assembly, the fuel injector having a tip portion comprising a single unitary structure at the furthest distal end of the fuel injector, the tip portion having a plurality of fuel outlets including an axially oriented center fuel outlet and multiple radially oriented peripheral fuel outlets arranged around the center fuel outlet, the center fuel outlet arranged to inject fuel directly into the center fuel/air mixer element, each of the peripheral fuel outlets arranged to inject fuel directly into a respective fuel port of each of the peripheral fuel/air mixer elements, the center fuel outlet configured to produce a first spray pattern, and the peripheral fuel outlets configured to produce a second spray pattern that is different from the first spray pattern.

2. The gas turbine combustor assembly of claim 1 , wherein the fuel injector is separably coupled to the fuel/air mixer assembly.

3. The gas turbine combustor assembly of claim 1 , wherein the air swirler of at least one of the multiple peripheral fuel/air mixer elements comprises an axial fan.

4. The gas turbine combustor assembly of claim 1 , wherein the fuel injector comprises a plurality of fuel feeds, each fuel feed configured to supply a flow of fuel to one or more of the plurality of fuel outlets, and wherein the center fuel outlet and one or more of the peripheral fuel outlets are configured to receive fuel from separate fuel feeds.

5. The gas turbine combustor assembly of claim 1 , wherein the center fuel outlet comprises an air-blast injector and at least one of the peripheral fuel outlets comprises an atomizing injector.

6. The gas turbine combustor assembly of claim 5 , wherein the fuel injector comprises an axial fan air swirler.

7. The gas turbine combustor assembly of claim 1 , wherein the center fuel/air mixer element comprises a plurality of cooling air passages distributed along a portion of the sidewall.

8. The gas turbine combustor assembly of claim 1 , wherein the center fuel/air mixer element comprises a flame holder for supporting a standing flame that ignites mixed fuel/air output from one or more of the plurality of fuel/air mixer elements.

9. The gas turbine combustor assembly of claim 1 , wherein the housing of at least one of the multiple peripheral fuel/air mixer elements comprises a Venturi structure having a converging portion and a diverging portion, and wherein the fuel port opening is located axially upstream of the diverging portion of the housing.

10. The gas turbine combustor assembly of claim 1 , wherein the multiple peripheral fuel/air mixer elements reside in a symmetrical arrangement around the center fuel/air mixer element.

11. A method, comprising:
receiving fuel at a fuel injector tip portion of a gas turbine combustor injector, the tip portion comprising a single unitary structure and having a plurality of fuel outlets including an axially oriented center fuel outlet and multiple radially oriented peripheral fuel outlets arranged around the center fuel outlet, the center fuel outlet configured to produce a first spray pattern, and the peripheral fuel outlets configured to produce a second spray pattern that is different from the first spray pattern;
injecting the fuel from the plurality of fuel outlets of the tip portion into a plurality of fuel/air mixer elements, where fuel in the first spray pattern produced by the center fuel outlet is injected axially into a center fuel/air mixer element and fuel in the second spray pattern produced by the peripheral fuel outlets is injected radially into multiple peripheral fuel/air mixer elements arranged around the center fuel/air mixer element, each of the peripheral fuel/air mixer elements comprising a housing containing an air swirler and a fuel port residing axially downstream of the air swirler that receives fuel directly from a respective one of the peripheral fuel outlets;
receiving a flow of air with at least one of the multiple peripheral fuel/air mixer elements;
directing the flow of air across the air swirler of at least one of the multiple peripheral fuel/air mixer elements as fuel is received through the fuel injector port; and
mixing the air and fuel within the housing.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein injecting the fuel from the injector tip portion into the plurality of fuel/air mixer elements, comprises directing the fuel from the injector tip portion residing at a center location into the multiple peripheral fuel/air mixer elements arranged around the center location.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein receiving fuel at the fuel injector tip portion of the gas turbine combustor injector comprises receiving fuel through a first fuel feed fluidically coupled to a first subset of fuel outlets and a second fuel feed fluidically coupled to a second subset of fuel outlets that is different from the first subset, the first subset including the center fuel outlet and the second subset including one or more of the second fuel outlets, and
wherein injecting the fuel from the injector tip portion into a plurality of fuel/air mixer elements comprises directing fuel into a subset of the plurality of fuel/air mixer elements using the first fuel feed while preventing fuel flow through the second fuel feed into a second subset of outlets.

14. A device, comprising:
a fuel/air mixer assembly comprising a plurality of fuel/air mixer elements including a center fuel/air mixer element and multiple peripheral fuel/air mixer elements arranged around the center fuel/air mixer element, each of the peripheral fuel/air mixer elements comprising a housing having a sidewall defining an air flow passage, the sidewall of the housing comprising a fuel port opening to the air flow passage; and
a fuel injector separably coupled to the fuel/air mixer assembly, the fuel injector having a tip portion comprising a single unitary structure at the furthest distal end of the fuel injector, the tip portion having a plurality of fuel outlets including an axially oriented center fuel outlet and multiple radially oriented peripheral fuel outlets arranged around the center fuel outlet, the center fuel outlet arranged to inject fuel directly into the center fuel/air mixer element, each of the peripheral fuel outlets arranged to inject fuel directly into a respective fuel port of each of the peripheral fuel/air mixer elements, the center fuel outlet configured to produce a first spray pattern, and one or more of the peripheral fuel outlets configured to produce a second spray pattern that is different from the first spray pattern.

15. The device of claim 14 , wherein the fuel injector comprises a plurality of fuel feeds, each fuel feed configured to supply a flow of fuel to one or more of the plurality of fuel outlets, and wherein the center fuel outlet and one or more of the peripheral fuel outlets are configured to receive fuel from separate fuel feeds.

16. The device of claim 14 , wherein the center fuel outlet comprises an air-blast injector and at lea

Assignees

• Woodward Inc

Inventors

• Lee Fei Philip

Classifications

• F23R3/14 Primary

  by using swirl vanes · CPC title

• F23R3/286 Primary

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

• Y02T50/675

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02T50/60

  Efficient propulsion technologies, e.g. for aircraft · CPC title