UC Irvine

A need exists to develop and demonstrate a low pollutant emission gas turbine combustor design that uses liquid fuel for propulsion applications. The present work addresses this need by developing and demonstrating design guidelines for a liquid fueled, lean burn, gas turbine combustor injector. This injector is designed to accommodate all the combustion air, and includes a fuel and air mixing section with an internal venturi contour that contains an aerodynamic swirler, and an atomizer. The atomizer is a plain jet, airblast type with eight ports that spray radially into a high-velocity cross-stream of combustion air. Reacting test results show that the fuel and air are sufficiently well mixed to create a uniform distributed reaction which is (1) of finite length, and (2) free from pulsation or other combustion-induced instabilities. Emissions data at elevated pressure and temperature establish that this injector has low pollution emissions, and high combustion efficiency. © 1998 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V.