Staged combustor having aerodynamically separated combustion zones

Abstract

A combustion chamber of the type employing staged combustion principles is disclosed. Effective control of undesirable pollutants is sought over a wide range of operating power levels. A specific objective is to separate staged combustion zones without the penetration of structural apparatus into the chamber. Single site fuel injection is desired. Primary fuel premixing tubes (34) and secondary fuel premixing tubes (38) terminate at the front wall (32) of the combustion chamber (30). The primary fuel premixing tubes have highly angled discharge swirlers at the downstream ends thereof. The highly angled swirlers (66) cause the fuel/air mixture emanating therefrom to burn in close proximity to the front wall. The secondary fuel premixing tubes have lowly angled discharge swirlers, or no swirlers at all, so as to cause the effluent therefrom to penetrate the region at which primary combustion is taking place without significantly influencing the fuel/air ratio at the primary combustion site (P).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.