Combustors and methods of mitigating thermoacoustic instabilities in a gas flow
AssigneeROLLS-ROYCE plc
InventorDavid Steele
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Abstract
There is provided a heat engine 10 comprising a combustor 120 and a controller 290. The combustor 120 includes a fuel injection port 128 and a pilot 130. The controller 290 is configured to mitigate thermoacoustic instabilities in a gas flow A, B within the heat engine 10 by selectively energising 320 the pilot 130 to ignite fuel discharged from the fuel injection port 128. There is also provided a method 300 of mitigating thermoacoustic instabilities in a gas flow A, B within a heat engine 10 comprising a combustor 120 including a fuel injection port 128 and a pilot 130. The method 300 comprises selectively energising 320 the pilot 130 to ignite fuel discharged by the fuel injection port 128.
Claims11
A method of mitigating thermoacoustic instabilities in a gas flow within a heat engine comprising a combustor including a fuel injection port and a pilot ignition device, the method comprising:
- operating the heat engine;
- monitoring a parameter relating to the heat engine during operation of the heat engine;
- determining that the parameter indicates thermoacoustic instabilities;
- discontinuously energising the pilot ignition device, in response to determining that the parameter indicates thermoacoustic instabilities, to ignite fuel discharged by the fuel injection port, wherein the pilot ignition device comprises a pair of electrodes, and
- blowing off a series of separate flames resulting from the discontinuous energisation of the pilot ignition device across at least a part of an operating map of the heat engine.
A heat engine comprising a combustor and a controller, the controller configured to monitor a parameter relating to the heat engine during operation of the heat engine, the parameter indicative of thermoacoustic instabilities, wherein:
- the combustor includes a plurality of fuel injection ports and a plurality of pilot ignition devices that are distributed on vanes of a vane structure;
- at least one pilot ignition device of the plurality of pilot ignition devices comprises a pair of electrodes;
- and
- the controller is configured to mitigate thermoacoustic instabilities, based the monitored parameter, in a gas flow within the heat engine by discontinuously energising the plurality of pilot ignition devices to ignite fuel discharged from the plurality of fuel injection ports such that a flame resulting from discontinuously energising the plurality of pilot ignition devices to ignite fuel discharged from the plurality of fuel injection ports is blown-off across at least a part of an operating map of the heat engine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.