Aircraft power plant with interburner
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorEtienne Plamondon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of operating an aircraft power plant having an interburner fluidly connected between a combustion engine and a turbine, includes: operating the combustion engine at an air-fuel ratio corresponding to a nominal air-fuel ratio to generate combustion gases; receiving the combustion gases generated by the combustion engine into the interburner; increasing a temperature of the combustion gases generated by a combustion chamber of the combustion engine by lowering the air-fuel ratio to an ignition air-fuel ratio lower than the nominal air-fuel ratio; injecting fuel into the interburner to cause ignition of a mixture of the combustion gases and the fuel received into the interburner; and after ignition of the interburner, increasing the air-fuel ratio above the ignition air-fuel ratio.
Claims19
A method of operating an aircraft power plant having an interburner fluidly connected between a combustion engine and a turbine, comprising:
- operating the combustion engine at an air-fuel ratio corresponding to a nominal air-fuel ratio to generate combustion gases at a nominal temperature;
- receiving the combustion gases generated by the combustion engine into the interburner;
- increasing a temperature of the combustion gases generated by a combustion chamber of the combustion engine from the nominal temperature to an ignition temperature by lowering the air-fuel ratio to an ignition air-fuel ratio lower than the nominal air-fuel ratio;
- injecting a fuel into the interburner and igniting a mixture of the combustion gases and the fuel received into the interburner with the combustion gases being at the ignition temperature;
- and
- after the ignition of the mixture of the combustion gases and the fuel received into the interburner, increasing the air-fuel ratio above the ignition air-fuel ratio.
A method of igniting an interburner of an aircraft power plant without an igniter, the interburner fluidly connected between a combustion engine and a turbine of the aircraft power plant, comprising:
- Injecting combustion gases generated by the combustion engine operated at a first air-fuel ratio into the interburner, the combustion gases being at a nominal temperature;
- Causing an increase in a temperature of the combustion gases exiting the combustion engine and received into the interburner from the nominal temperature to an ignition temperature by operating the combustion engine at a second air-fuel ratio being lower than the first air-fuel ratio;
- and
- injecting a fuel into the interburner and igniting a mixture of the fuel and the combustion gases with the combustion gases being at the ignition temperature.
An aircraft power plant, comprising:
- a combustion engine;
- a turbine;
- an interburner having an interburner inlet fluidly connected to an exhaust of the combustion engine and an interburner outlet fluidly connected to a turbine inlet of the turbine;
- a fuel injector fluidly connected to the interburner;
- and
- a controller operatively connected to the combustion engine and to the fuel injector, the controller configured to:
- operate the combustion engine at an air-fuel ratio corresponding to a nominal air-fuel ratio to generate combustion gases;
- in response to receiving of a command, lower the air-fuel ratio of the combustion engine to increase a temperature of the combustion gases exiting a combustion chamber of the combustion engine and received within the interburner, including receiving a signal from a power lever of the aircraft power plant, the signal indicative that a power requirement of the aircraft power plant is above a power threshold of the aircraft power plant when the interburner is turned off;
- inject a fuel into the interburner to cause ignition of a mixture of the combustion gases and the fuel received into the interburner;
- and
- after ignition of the mixture of the combustion gases and the fuel received into the interburner, increase the air-fuel ratio.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.