Positional control of fuel injection into gas turbine combustors

A system comprising:

• a combustor for a gas turbine defining a main axis extending in an upstream-downstream direction, the combustor including a combustor dome bounding an upstream portion of the combustor, wherein a plurality of injector openings are defined through the combustor dome;
• a plurality of injectors, each defining a respective spray axis aligned with one of the plurality of injector openings for issuing a spray into the combustor along the respective spray axis;
• at least one actuator operatively connected to at least a subset of the plurality of injectors for movement of the subset relative combustor dome to adjust a relative position of the respective spray axes of the subset relative to the main axis, wherein the at least one actuator is a plurality of individual actuators, each operatively connected to move at least one respective injector of the plurality of injectors;
• and
• a controller operatively connected to the at least one actuator, wherein the at least one actuator and the controller are configured to actuate the plurality of injectors in banks of injectors, wherein the controller is configured to actuate the plurality of actuators to move each of the injectors in the plurality of injectors identically to one another based on phase of engine operation, and/or the controller is configured to actuate the plurality of actuators to move each of the injectors in the plurality of injectors identically to one another for correcting for adverse combustion conditions.

A system comprising:

• a combustor for a gas turbine defining a main axis extending in an upstream-downstream direction, the combustor including a combustor dome bounding an upstream portion of the combustor, wherein a plurality of injector openings are defined through the combustor dome;
• a plurality of injectors, each injector of the plurality of injectors defining a respective spray axis aligned with one injector opening of the plurality of injector openings for issuing a spray into the combustor along the respective spray axis;
• at least one actuator operatively connected to at least a subset of the plurality of injectors for movement of the subset relative to the combustor dome to adjust a relative position of the respective spray axis of each injector in the subset relative to the main axis, wherein the at least one actuator is a plurality of individual actuators, wherein each individual actuator of the plurality of individual actuators is operatively connected to move at least one respective injector of the plurality of injectors;
• and
• a controller operatively connected to the at least one actuator, wherein the at least one actuator and the controller are configured to actuate the plurality of injectors in banks of injectors, wherein the controller is configured to actuate the plurality of actuators to compensate for a faulty one of the injectors, and wherein injectors circumferentially neighboring the faulty injector are moved and actuators circumferentially remote from the faulty one of the injectors are moved less than the injectors circumferentially neighboring the faulty injector.