Gas Turbine Combustion: Alternative Fuels and Emissions

Abstract

The primary purpose of this introductory chapter is to discuss the main requirements of gas turbine combustors and to describe, in general terms, the various types and configurations of combustors employed in aircraft and industrial engines. The principal geometric and aerodynamic features that are common to most types of gas turbine combustors are briefly reviewed, with special attention being given to fuel preparation and liner-wall cooling to reflect the important role these topics continue to play in combustor development. Reference is made to most of the key issues involved in combustor design and development, but the descriptive material is necessarily brief because these and other important aspects of combustor performance are described more fully in subsequent chapters. Bearing in mind the pressures and exigencies of wartime Britain and Germany, and the lack of knowledge and experience available to the designer, it is perhaps hardly surprising that the first generation of gas turbine combustors were characterized by wide variations in size, geometry, and the mode of fuel injection. With the passage of time and the post-war lifting of information exchange, some commonalities in design philosophy began to emerge. By around 1950, most of the basic features of conventional gas turbine combustors, as we know them today, were firmly established.