Patent Grant
6931855
This invention is directed generally to turbine engines, and more particularly to attachment systems for coupling liners to a carrier of a turbine engine combustor.
Gas turbine combustors generally may be formed from annular combustors or can combustors. Annular combustors include a combustor chamber that is formed from a plurality of removable liners. The removable liners are exposed to extreme heat during operation, which often causes distortions and failure in liners. Thus, the liners are replaced at regular intervals to prevent such failure from occurring during operation.
The liners are often removably coupled to a carrier, which forms the support structure of the combustor, using either spring clips or bolted configurations. Spring clips couple liners to each other and to the carrier of a combustor. However, spring clips often suffer from relaxation and creep after being exposed to high temperatures commonly found in a combustor chamber, which can result in loss of clamp force in the clips. As a result, spring clips and liners can be liberated during operation of a combustor and cause substantial damage to a turbine engine. To prevent damage, spring clips often must be replaced frequently.
Combustor liners may be coupled to a carrier using either a hot side bolted method or a cold side bolted method. The hot side bolted method involves bolting liners to a carrier by inserting bolts through orifices in the liners from the hot side of the combustor, that is, the inner aspects of the combustor where combustion occurs. Liners installed in this manner may be removed by personnel entering the inner aspects of the combustor through a manhole or other device and loosing the bolts attaching the liners to a carrier. While liners attached to a carrier in this manner may be removed easily, this method of attachment has disadvantages and risks. For instance, should the bolts loosen during operation, the bolts pose a threat of becoming disengaged from the carrier and traveling downstream into turbine blade assemblies. In addition, the bolts are exposed to hot gases in the combustor chamber and consequently must be cooled and made from expensive alloys. Air supplied from the compressor of the turbine combustor is often used to cool the bolts; however, use of compressor supplied air increases nitrous oxide emissions and degrades turbine combustor performance.
The cold side bolted method involves using bolts installed from the cold side of the combustor, that is, the outside surface of the combustor. The bolts are passed through the carrier and are received by the liners. Installing bolts in this method alleviates the possibility of bolts loosening and traveling downstream and alleviates the need to cool the bolts. If a cold side coupled bolt were to loosen and become detached from the liner, the bolt would fall outside of the combustion cavity and, therefore, pose no threat of harm to the turbine assemblies. However, a significant disadvantage of the cold side bolted method is the amount of time needed to access the bolts to remove and replace the liners. The bolts may not be accessed from the inner aspects of the turbine combustor. Instead, the bolts typically may only be accessed after an engine casing has been lifted, which may take hours or weeks.
Thus, a need exists for a more efficient system and method for releasably attaching combustor liners to carriers.
This invention relates to a system for attaching liners to a carrier for creating an inner surface of a combustor of a turbine engine. The combustor may be, but is not limited to, an annular combustor. The system utilizes both hot side and cold side connectors while substantially eliminating the amount of time typically associated with removing cold side connectors. An exemplary annular combustor may be formed from at least two carriers, which may be an inner carrier and an outer carrier. The inner and outer carriers may form a combustor cavity having a generally toroidal shape. Inner liners may be attached to the inner carrier to form an inner liner surface, and outer liners may be attached to the outer carrier to form an outer liner surface. The inner carrier and its associated inner liners may be configured to fit inside a cavity defined by the outer liner surface formed by the outer liners to complete an annular combustor cavity.
The inner and the outer carriers may each have one or more liner receiving locations to which the liners may be attached. For clarity and brevity, the invention will be described with respect to inner carrier; however, the following description applies equally to the outer carrier. The inner carrier may have one or more access ports providing one or more openings through the inner carrier. In at least one embodiment, the inner carrier may include a plurality of access ports. Access panels may also be provided for closing the access ports. A single access port may be covered by a single liner or collectively covered by multiple liners.
The inner liners may be coupled to the inner carrier using one or more connectors, which may include, but are not limited to, threaded bolts. One or more inner liners may be coupled to the inner carrier using one or more connectors capable of being actuated, for example, using at least one tool engaging the connector, outside the combustor cavity. The outside portions of the combustor cavity may be referred to as the cold side of the annular combustor. Thus, one or more inner liners may be coupled to the inner carrier using one or more connectors on the cold side of the annular combustor.
One or more of the inner liners may also be coupled to the inner carrier using one or more connectors capable of being actuated, for example, using at least one tool engaging the connector, inside the combustor cavity. The inside portions of the combustor cavity may be referred to as the hot side of the combustor. Thus, one or more connectors may be used to attach one or more liners to the inner carrier using connectors on the hot side of the carrier.
In at least one embodiment, preferably all inner liners, except for one liner, may be coupled to the inner carrier using connectors actuated on the cold side of the carrier. When access ports are provided, the cold side actuating can be performed by accessing the cold side connectors through the access ports from the combustor cavity, that is, the hot side. The remaining one inner liner may be coupled to the inner carrier using one or more connectors actuated on the hot side of the carrier.
By coupling the inner liners to the inner carrier in this manner, the number of connectors susceptible to loosening and passing downstream into a turbine blade assembly are substantially reduced. In addition, by coupling the inner liners to the carrier in this manner, the inner liners may be removed and replaced from within the combustor cavity. Thus, removal of the inner liners coupled to the inner carrier using connectors actuated on the cold side of the combustor does not necessitate removal of an engine casing and other related engine components shrouding the cold side to decouple the connectors. Rather, the cold side connectors may be tightened or loosened, or both, by accessing the connectors from the hot side through one or more access ports in the inner carrier.
In at least one method having features according to the invention, inner liners may be coupled to the inner carrier by first coupling the inner liners to the carrier using connectors actuated on the cold side of the annular combustor. The inner liners may be attached to the inner carrier by placing a first inner liner proximate to the inner carrier. The first liner may be attached to the inner carrier using one or more connectors coupled to the cold side of the liner, which may be actuated using at least one tool engaging the connector on a cold side surface of the liner. The connector may be actuated by accessing the inner carrier from the hot side through one or more access ports. The process may be repeated as many times as necessary.
In at least one embodiment, after nearly all of the inner liners are coupled to the inner carrier using cold side connectors, one or more liners may be coupled to the inner carrier using one or more connectors coupled to the inner carrier using connectors actuated on the hot side of the combustor. In a preferred embodiment, a single inner liner is coupled to the inner carrier using connectors actuated on the hot side of the combustor. The connectors coupled on the hot side of the liner may be actuated using one or more tools capable of engaging the connector inside the combustor cavity.
The inner liners attached to the inner carrier is this manner may be removed by first removing one or more inner liners coupled to the inner carrier using connectors actuated on the hot side of the liner. An inner liner attached to an inner carrier may be removed by loosening the connectors using a tool to engage the connector inside the combustor cavity. Once these hot side connectors have been loosened, the associated one or more inner liners may be removed. Adjacent inner liners may then be removed by loosening one or more connectors. If the adjacent inner liners are coupled to the inner carrier using one or connectors coupled to the inner carrier on the cold side of the liners, then an adjacent inner liner may be removed by first moving an access panel to open an access port. The cold side coupled connectors may then be accessed from the combustor cavity through the access port and loosened using one or more tools to engage and actuate the connector on the cold side of the annular combustor, which may also be in a chamber formed between the cold side surface of the inner liner and engine components surrounding the inner carrier. Once the connectors attaching the adjacent inner liner have been loosened, the adjacent inner liner may be removed. This process may be repeated as many times as necessary to successively remove adjacent inner liners. These and other embodiments are described in more detail below.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the presently disclosed invention and, together with the description, disclose the principles of the invention.
This invention is directed to attachment system 10 for attaching liners 12 to a carrier 14 to form surfaces 16 of a combustor, such as an annular combustor 18 of a turbine engine 20, illustrated herein as an example. Turbine engine 20 may be any turbine engine having a combustor. Annular combustor 18 may be configured to receive a mixture of fuel and compressed air and to ignite the mixture. Annular combustor 18 may also be configured to pass hot combustion gases to a turbine blade assembly 19. Annular combustor 18 may be formed from a generally toroidal shaped combustor cavity 22, which may be formed from one or more inner liners 24 and one or more outer liners 26. Inner and outer liners 24 and 26 may have numerous configurations. However, in at least one embodiment, inner and outer liners 24 and 26 may be formed from a metallic or ceramic material, and each may be configured to have a generally square or rectangular outer shape.
Inner liners 24 may be coupled to an inner carrier 28, and outer liners 26 may coupled to an outer carrier 30. Outer carrier 30 may be configured to support outer liners 26 to form collectively an outer surface 15 of combustor cavity 22. Inner carrier 28 may be configured to support one or more inner liners 24 to form collectively an inner surface 16 of combustor cavity 22.
Inner carrier 28 may be formed from a generally solid structure, as shown in FIG. 3. Inner carrier 28 may include one or more access ports 32. In at least one embodiment, inner carrier 28 may include one or more access panels 34 each configured to close a respective access port 32. Access panels 34 may be releasably coupled to inner carrier 28. In at least one embodiment, access panels 34 may be positioned in inner carrier 28 so that when a single inner liner 24 is detached from the inner carrier 28, the access panel may be moved to open access port 32. Likewise, outer carrier 30 may be formed in the same configurations described for inner carrier 28 in this paragraph.
Each of inner and outer carriers 28 and 30 may have about half as many access ports 32 as the number of inner and outer liners 24 and 26 that may be coupled to the respective inner and outer carriers. For instance, inner carrier 28 or outer carrier 30, or both, each may be configured to receive 30 liners and the inner carrier may have about 15 access ports 32 that may be positioned so that every other liner receiving location 46 includes an access port 32. Each liner receiving location 46 may have any configuration capable of receiving a liner 12. In at least one embodiment, as shown in
In another embodiment, inner carrier 28 or outer carrier 30, or both, may each have a plurality of access ports 32 positioned in each liner receiving location 46, except for two liner receiving locations 46 that may not include access ports 32. In yet another embodiment, inner carrier 28 or outer carrier 30, or both, may each include a plurality of access ports 32 positioned in each liner receiving location 46, except for one liner receiving location 46 that may not include access ports 32. In still another embodiment, inner carrier 28 or outer carrier 30, or both, may each include one or more of access ports 32 positioned in each liner receiving location 46. Thus, the number of access ports 32 that are positioned in inner carrier 24 or outer carrier 30, or both, may vary between a number equal to a number greater than the number of liner receiving locations 46 on the carriers and a number equal to about half of or fewer than the number of liner receiving locations 46 on the carriers. The number of access ports 32 may even be greater than four times the number of liner receiving locations 46.
Referring to
In at least one embodiment, inner and outer liners 24 and 26 may be attached to inner and outer carriers 28 and 30 using one or more hot side connectors 43 and cold side connectors 44. Cold side connectors 44 refers to the location of the actuation portion of the connector 44 relative to the associated liner on the cold side, that is, the side of the liner opposite the combustor cavity or other relatively high temperature environment. Similarly, hot side connector 43 refers to the position of the actuating portion of the connector 43 relative to the associated liner on the hot side, that is, the side of the liner facing the combustion cavity or otherwise exposed to a relatively high temperature environment. As used herein, a cold side coupled liner is attached to the carrier by a cold side connector 44 while a hot side coupled liner is secured to the carrier with a hot side connector 43.
Connectors 43 and 44 may be any releasable connector capable of attaching inner and outer liners 24 and 26 to inner and outer carriers 28 and 30. At least the hot side connectors 43 should be capable of withstanding the heat generated by combustion of a fuel and air mixture in combustor cavity 22. In at least one embodiment, cold side connectors 44 may be a threaded connector, such as a bolt, and a bolting rail 45 for receiving the threaded connector. Bolting rail 45 may include a lip 47 capable of being rotated to attach to a portion of a liner 24 to a carrier 28. Bolting rail 45 may be coupled to carrier 28 so that the bolting rail can move relative to the carrier 28, but not removed completely from the carrier.
For clarity and brevity, the following description describes inner carrier 28; however, this description can apply equally to outer carrier 30. In at least one embodiment, inner carrier 28 may have one or more liner receiving locations 46 and preferably may include a plurality of liner receiving locations 46. Inner liners 24 may be attached to inner carrier 28 using one or more cold side connectors 44, each capable of being actuated using at least one tool 48 engaging connector 44 outside combustor cavity 22. Actuation refers to engagement of the connector that effects its coupled and decoupling, such as torquing a bolt head on a nut or manipulating a clip release. Tool 48 may be a wrench, a socket, a pair of pliers or other device for actuating connector 44 to attach inner liner 24 to or release the inner liner from inner carrier 28. Tool 48 may also be a hand or power tool, such as, but not limited to a hydraulic or pneumatic wrenching device.
By engaging cold side connector 44 outside combustor cavity 22, tool 48 may engage connector 44 in inner carrier chamber 36 formed between outer surface 38 of inner liner 24 and engine components (not shown). In one embodiment, inner liner 24 may be preferably coupled to inner carrier 28 by inserting one or more threaded bolts 44 through orifices 50 in the inner carrier and coupling the bolts to the inner liner. Bolts 44 may be tightened against outer surface 38 of inner liner 24 to attach the inner liner to inner carrier 28.
One or more inner liners 24 may be coupled to inner carrier 28 using one or more hot side connectors 43 capable of being actuated using at least one tool 48 engaging the connector inside combustor cavity 22, which is the hot side. In at least one embodiment, an hot side coupled inner liner 25 is preferably attached to inner carrier 28 using a hot side connector 43, such as one or more threaded bolts 43 inserted through orifices 51 in the inner liner from the combustor side and coupled to the inner carrier. Bolts 44 may be tightened so that heads of the bolts bear against inner surface 16 of inner liner 24.
In at least one embodiment, a plurality of inner liners 24 may be attached to inner carrier 28 by attaching cold side connectors 44 on the cold side of annular combustor 18 and attaching a single inner liner 24 to inner carrier 28 using a hot side connector 43 coupled to the hot side of annular combustor 18. By attaching inner liners 24 to inner carrier in this manner, the number of connectors exposed to the hot side of annular combustor 18 in cavity 22 to attach inner liners 24 to inner carrier 28 is minimized. At the same time, this embodiment may also enjoy the time savings realized during repair and maintenance processes by allowing inner liners 24 to be removed from within cavity 22 in annular combustor 18. Thus, an engine casing and other related components are not required to be removed for access to the cold side connectors, as is typically the case for conventional cold bolted liner systems. Rather, cold side connectors may be accessed through an adjacent access port 32.
In particular, in at least one embodiment, a plurality of inner liners 24 may be coupled to inner carrier 28 by using cold side connectors 44 coupled on the cold side of the inner liners, thereby enabling the cold side connectors 44 to be actuated with a tool 48 engaging the cold side connectors 44 outside of combustor cavity 22. Preferably all inner liners 24, except for one inner liner, may be coupled to inner carrier 28 using one or more cold side connectors 44 by actuating the cold side connectors 44 outside of combustor cavity 22. If inner liners 24 are being installed in an existing annular turbine 18, such as during routine maintenance, the cold side connectors 44 may be tightened by accessing the connectors on an adjacent liner through an access port 32. If, however, the inner liners 24 are being installed on an inner carrier during a manufacturing process of a new annular combustor 18 of a turbine engine 20, connectors 44 may or may not be accessed through access port 32. The remaining single inner liner 24 may be coupled to inner carrier 28 using a hot side connector 43 that may be actuated by tool 48 inside combustor cavity 22 on the hot side of annular combustor 18. Thus, in this particular embodiment, only a single inner liner 24 may be coupled to inner carrier 28 with a connection exposed to the hot side of annular combustor 18.
However, this invention is not limited to this embodiment. Instead, a portion of a total number of inner liners 24 may be attached to inner carrier 28 using cold side connectors and a portion of the total number of inner liners 24 may be attached to the inner carrier using hot side connectors.
Inner liners 24 may be removed from inner carrier 28 by removing an inner liner 24 attached to the inner carrier using a hot side connector. Once at least one inner liner 24 has been removed, inner liners 24 that are coupled to an inner carrier 28 adjacent to the inner liner may be removed. If the adjacent inner liners 24 are attached to inner carrier 28 using a cold side connector, the inner liner may be removed by moving access panel 34 to open access port 32.
Once opened, one or more tools 48 may be inserted through access port 32 into inner carrier chamber 36 to release one or more cold side connectors attaching inner liner 24 to inner carrier 28. In one embodiment, a wrench 48 may be passed through access port 32 and used to loosen a plurality of cold side bolts 44 used to attach inner liner 24 to inner carrier 28. Once all of the cold side connectors have been loosened using tool 48, inner liner 24 may then be removed from inner carrier 28. This process may be repeated as many times as necessary to remove all of the inner liners 24 from inner carrier 28. The inner liners may or may not be replaced.
The foregoing is provided for purposes of illustrating, explaining, and describing embodiments of this invention. Modifications and adaptations to these embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art and may be made without departing form the scope or spirit of this invention.
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