Can-annular combustor with staged and tangential fuel-air nozzles for use on gas turbine engines

A can-annular combustor for a gas turbine used in ground based power generation, land or sea based vehicles or aircraft engine applications, comprising:

• a plurality of circumferentially spaced cans enclosed between two cylindrical liners, the cans define separate combustion zones and each can is a can liner, the can liner has an upstream end, including a front wall, and a downstream end, the combustion zone is a can volume of the can liner, the can volume extends in a longitudinal direction from the front wall of the upstream end of the can liner to the downstream end of the can liner, a plurality of dilution holes through the front wall to apply compressor discharge air into the can volume in the longitudinal direction of the can volume, a first set of tangentially pointing and circumferentially spaced first nozzles between the upstream and downstream ends of the can liner to inject one of an air component and a fuel-air component into the can volume in tangentially circumferential directions relative to the longitudinal direction of the can volume, and a second set of tangentially pointing and circumferentially spaced second nozzles between the first nozzles and the upstream end of the can liner to inject a fuel component into the can volume in tangentially circumferential directions relative to the longitudinal direction of the can volume between the plurality of dilution holes through the front wall of the upstream end of the can liner and the first nozzles.