Power plants – Combustion products used as motive fluid – With exhaust treatment
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-28
2004-03-30
Koczo, Michael (Department: 3748)
Power plants
Combustion products used as motive fluid
With exhaust treatment
C165S164000, C165SDIG003
Reexamination Certificate
active
06711889
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to a gas turbine engine capable of having compact dimensions, light weight, and improved fuel efficiency as well as providing operational stability.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, a typical conventional gas turbine engine
9
generally comprises a compressor section
91
, a combustor section
92
, and a turbine section
93
, wherein an engine core turbine rotor
95
having a shaft
950
is positioned inside a casing
94
, as shown in FIG.
1
. An annular space is thereby formed between the shaft
950
and the casing
94
which substantially encloses a conventional annular combustor
96
within.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, air is compressed after passing through compressor stator blades
941
and compressor rotor blades
981
to become highly pressurized gas due to centrifugal force and diffusion effect. Compressed air then enters the annular combustor
96
to be mixed with fuel for combustion which produces highly pressurized gas stream that is also high in temperature; the gas stream is then forced out through a plurality of engine core turbine rotor blades
951
which drive the shaft
950
and the compressor rotor blades
981
into rotation. Subsequently, the gas stream passes through a plurality of turbine rotor blades
971
which drives a turbine rotor
97
into rotation to produce shaft power.
Nevertheless, an extra annular space is required inside the casing
94
to accommodate the annular combustor
96
of the aforementioned conventional gas turbine engine
9
which not only makes compact engine designs difficult but also causes heat in the combustor to dissipate without performing any mechanical work.
After air is compressed as it enters the compressor section
91
, it is fed directly into the annular combustor
96
to be combusted with fuel without any preheating. Due to the lack of preheating the air prior to combustion, extra fuel is needed inside the annular combustor
96
, which decreases fuel efficiency of the conventional gas turbine engine
9
.
Furthermore, as shown in
FIG. 1
, the compressor rotor blades are formed on a compressor rotor
98
positioned in the front of the gas turbine engine
9
while the engine core turbine rotor
95
and the turbine rotor
97
are positioned in the rear. Any uneven vibration transmitted through the axis of the shaft
950
can cause unstable engine operation; especially when high operating temperature within the turbine section
93
tends to shorten the operation life of different mechanical parts such as a bearing.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved gas turbine engine capable of having improved operational stability while at the same time having the advantages of compact design, light weight, and enhanced fuel efficiency to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a gas turbine engine which employs a recuperator to improve on fuel consumption by using the recuperator as an energy-saving heat exchanger.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a gas turbine engine wherein a compressor rotor is concentrically positioned back-to-back with a turbine rotor on a single shaft to increase operational stability of the rotors.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a gas turbine engine wherein a can-type combustor is used for alleviating heat-dissipation issues to improve efficiency of the combustion.
The present invention achieves the above-mentioned objects by providing a gas turbine engine comprising: a casing, a recuperator functioning as a heat exchanger, a combustor, and a turbine engine rotor comprising a coaxial compressor rotor and a turbine rotor; wherein, the casing has an approximately cylindrical shape having a circular shoulder portion which extrudes outwardly and forms a casing opening to a first end and a bottom plate sealing a second end of the casing on the opposite side. The recuperator functions as a heat exchanger and includes two spaced-apart divider walls which extend spirally inwards from an inner perimeter of the casing towards an inner chamber inside the casing. A combustor is installable within the chamber having a main exhaust opening formed towards the first opening and a plurality of air holes. Since the entire design of the combustor is approximately a can-type shape, the spatial requirement associated with the engine thus can be significantly reduced, and eliminates the heat-dissipation issues, greatly increases fuel efficiency during engine operation.
The heat exchanger further comprises a top plate spacing a gap with the shoulder portion of the casing, the two spaced-apart divider walls sealing both ends with the top plate and the bottom plate and forming spirally a compressed air passageway and a turbine exhaust gas passageway adjacent to each other throughout the heat exchanger. The compressed air passageway of the heat exchanger connects the inner chamber with the gap, and the turbine exhaust gas passageway connects the main exhaust opening of the combustor with an exhaust vent formed on the bottom plate. Because the compressed air passageway and the turbine exhaust gas passageway are spirally formed adjacent to each other, air coming through the compressed air passageway is preheated along the way by the exhaust gas vented through the turbine exhaust gas passageway. Thus, the improved fuel efficiency of a gas turbine engine according to the present invention is achieved simply by combusting less fuel with higher-temperature compressed air.
Another aforementioned object of the present invention is to improve on the operational stability of a gas turbine engine by having the compressor rotor and the turbine rotor formed back-to-back on a single shaft concentrically; wherein, compressor rotor blades are perimetrically formed onto the compressor rotor directly behind the main exhaust opening. Thus, the operational stability of the gas turbine engine according to the present invention is improved by having a significantly shorter shaft than that of a conventional gas turbine engine. Another advantage of having a back-to-back rotor arrangement is that the operation life of the shaft bearing is prolonged because it is positioned farther away from the combustor than that of a conventional gas turbine engine.
Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1702264 (1929-02-01), Lorenzen
patent: 2895296 (1959-07-01), Hryniszak
patent: 2925714 (1960-02-01), Cook
patent: 3507115 (1970-04-01), Wisoka
patent: 4506502 (1985-03-01), Shapiro
patent: 5685156 (1997-11-01), Willis et al.
patent: 5855112 (1999-01-01), Bannai et al.
patent: 164294 (1921-05-01), None
Chang Chia-Yang
Hsiung Tao-Pang
Kuo Chii-Rong
Shih Hsin-Yi
Wang Ta-Wei
Bacon & Thomas PLLC
Industrial Technology Research Institute
Koczo Michael
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