Patent ID: 7451600

Claim:
A combustor for a gas turbine engine comprising: combustor walls including inner and outer cylindrical liners spaced apart and circumscribing an upstream annular dome portion, the combustor walls defining at least a portion of a combustion chamber therewithin; a plurality of fuel nozzles for injecting a fuel mixture into the combustion chamber, said fuel nozzles aligned with corresponding fuel nozzle openings defined in said dome portion; and a plurality of cooling apertures defined through said dome portion for delivering pressurized cooling air surrounding said combustor into said combustion chamber, said cooling apertures including first cooling holes and second cooling holes, said second cooling holes defining concentric circular configurations surrounding each of said fuel nozzle openings and are angled in the dome portion substantially tangentially relative to an associated one of said fuel nozzle openings, said first cooling holes being disposed in regions defined between adjacent concentric circular configurations of said second cooling holes and located proximate to the outer cylindrical liner, said first cooling holes extending substantially perpendicularly through the dome portion.