Patent ID: 7302334

Claim:
A method of measuring and recording operational boundaries for a gas turbine engine, the operational boundaries utilized by a controller associated with the gas turbine engine, the method comprising: determining a first burner dome to be adjusted in said gas turbine engine for a first burner mode; upwardly adjusting a ring flame temperature at said first burner dome in said gas turbine engine so as to determine a maximum ring flame temperature operational boundary for said first burner dome upon determination of one or more of: lean blowout conditions, exceeded predefined liner and dome metal temperature limits, combustion dynamic pressures, and emissions limits, with the determined maximum ring flame temperature operational boundary representing a maximum ring flame temperature to be permitted by the controller; recording into memory a plurality of parameters from a plurality of sensors coupled to said gas turbine engine operating at said determined maximum ring flame temperature operational boundary; downwardly adjusting said ring flame temperature at said first burner dome in said gas turbine engine so as to determine a minimum ring flame temperature operational boundary for said first burner dome upon determination of one or more of: lean blowout conditions, exceeded predefined liner and dome metal temperature limits, combustion dynamic pressures, and emissions limits, the determined minimum ring flame temperature operational boundary representing a minimum ring flame temperature to be permitted by the controller; recording into memory a plurality of parameters from said plurality of sensors coupled to the gas turbine engine operating at said determined minimum ring flame temperature operational boundary; subtracting a minimum ring flame temperature corresponding to said minimum ring flame temperature operational boundary from a maximum ring flame temperature corresponding to said maximum ring flame temperature operational boundary to determine a temperature window size; defining a nominal ring flame temperature by calculation from the minimum and maximum ring flame temperatures when said temperature window size is greater than a predetermined minimum window size, the nominal ring flame temperature representing a specified normal ring flame temperature under normal operating conditions; adjusting the ring flame temperature in said first burner dome to said nominal ring flame temperature; and recording into memory a plurality of parameters from said sensors coupled to the gas turbine engine operating at said nominal ring flame temperature.