Patent ID: 6289676
Filing Date: 2001-09-18
Classification: B05B,F23C,F23D

Abstract:
A fuel injector for use in a combustor of a gas turbine engine, whereby the combustor includes a combustor wall defining a combustion chamber surrounded by pressurized air, the injector comprising an injector tip adapted to protrude, when in use, through the combustor wall into the chamber, the injector tip having an injector body extending along an injector tip axis, a primary fuel nozzle formed in the injector tip concentrically of the injector tip axis and communicating with a primary fuel chamber formed as a cone upstream of the fuel nozzle and coaxial therewith, a first annular fuel channel defined in the injector body upstream of the primary fuel chamber concentric with the injector tip axis and communicating with the primary fuel chamber, a second annular fuel channel defined in the injector body upstream of the first annular fuel channel, passages communicating the second annular fuel channel downstream to the first annular fuel channel, and an inlet conduit defined in the injector body to communicate the fuel under pressure tangentially into the second fuel channel so as to provide a swirl to the fuel in the second fuel channel, and then to the first annular fuel channel tangentially thereof in order to provide a swirl to the fuel flow in the second annular fuel channel, the first annular fuel channel, the primary fuel chamber, and thus to the injector tip, thereby atomizing the fuel as it exits the primary fuel nozzle.