Gas turbine with Coulombic thermal protection
AssigneeClearsign Combustion Corporation
InventorRobert E. Breidenthal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A gas turbine is configured to operate with a high temperature combustion gas stream. The gas turbine may include a combustor that provides a combustion gas stream including charged particles and at least one turbine stage including at least one high temperature surface that may be driven with a voltage selected to repel the charged particles. The at least one high temperature surface may output a film-cooling layer including cool air, the film-cooling layer being stabilized by Coulombic forces between the voltage and the charged particles.
Claims37
A gas turbine, comprising:
- a combustor configured to output a combustion gas stream;
- a turbine including at least one turbine stage configured to receive the combustion gas stream;
- one or more high temperature surfaces in the combustor, the turbine, or the combustor and the turbine;
- a voltage source operatively coupled to at least one of the high temperature surfaces, and configured to at least intermittently apply a voltage having a polarity to the high temperature surface;
- and
- one or more sources of charged particles, configured to add charged particles to the combustion gas stream before the combustion gas stream reaches the high temperature surface, the charged particles having a first sign;
- wherein the first sign has the same polarity as the polarity of the voltage to which at least one of the high temperature surfaces is driven.
A method for operating a gas turbine, comprising:
- outputting a combustion gas stream from a combustor to a turbine, the combustion gas stream including charged particles having a first charge;
- applying to at least one high temperature surface of the combustor or the turbine a first voltage selected to repel the charged particles having the first charge;
- and
- operating one or more sources of charged particles to add the charged particles to the combustion gas stream.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.