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SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERS, INC.

485 Lexington Avenue, New York 17, N. Y.

The Annular
Combustion Chamber
With Centrifugal Fuel Injection
;F1

H. C. Maskey and F. X. Marsh

Continental Aviation and Engineering Corp.

SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERS

Automotive Engineering Congress
Detroit, Mich. 444C
Jan. 8-12, 1962 coo?
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The Annular
Combustion Chamber
With Centrifugal Fuel Injection

H. C. Maskey and F. X. Marsh

Continental Aviation and Engineering Corp.

FOR MOST GAS turbine engine layouts, the annular combus-
tion chamber shows itself as the one best combustion system
arrangement. It can usually be shown to be the lightest, least
expensive to manufacture,. and most efficient combustion
system arrangement in terms of utilization of the engine vol-
ume assigned to it. Further, annular chambers operate at a
lower pressure drop than do alternate systems, while produc-
ing at least as high a combustion efficiency.
Yet, the great majority of all gas turbine engines built
thus far have used the familiar can combustor or a minor va-
riant such as the can-annular. To some degree the develop-
ment of the annular combustor has been hindered by the high
capital outlay and operating expense required for an air sup-
ply that duplicates the total engine through-flow. However,
one of the principal technical factors that has delayed the
widespread use of annular chambers has been the combustor
outlet temperature distribution. In principle the fuel should
be injected uniformly around the circumference of the com-
bustor, but in practice, it is injected through a comparative-
ly few, widely spaced nozzles. As a consequence it has been
difficult to achieve a sufficiently uniform circumferential
and radial outlet temperature profile and to maintain this
profile with time. This temperature variation is, of course,
reflected in the combustor walls as hot spots, which shorten
combustor life, and as cold spots, which promote the growth
of deposits.
The annular combustion system that is the subject of this
paper meets the fuel injection problem by using a centrifu-
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gal fuel injection device that distributes fuel uniformly DESCRIPTION

around the combustor circumference.
The use of whirling discs or their equivalents for the at-
omization and dispersal of both liquids and solids is not new.
The common garden sprinkler does just this, and numerous
other examples of the use of centrifugal force in this manner
can be found in the chemical and food processing industries.
Furthermore, at least one domestic oil burner has used the
whirling disc for fuel atomization for many years.
However, it appears that the successful application of the
centrifugal fuel injection principle to gas turbine engines
is due largely to the efforts of the Societe Turbomeca in
France. Since 1946 all the small gas turbine engines of their
design have used this principle, and the 4000 engines of their
manufacture now in service attest to the soundness of the de-
sign. In this country the 4000 gas turbine engines built by
Continental Aviation & Engineering Corp., which stem from
the designs of the Societe Turbomeca, have used the same
annular chamber with centrifugal fuel injection.
To illustrate the detailed design features of the annular
combustor with centrifugal fuel injection, the J69-T-25 tur-
bojet engine will be used. This engine (Fig. 1) is in service
in substantial quantities as the main propulsion engine of the
U.S. Air Force T-37B jet trainer.
The engine has a single-sided, single-stage centrifugal
compressor, the straight-through flow annular combustor with
Centrifugal fuel injection, and a single-stage axial flow tur-
bine section. Maximum engine diameter is 22.3 in. Rating
is 1025 lb of thrust under sea-level static conditions.
To show the combustion and fuel injection system in great-
er detail, Fig. 2 gives an enlarged view of a cross-section of
the combustion area.
Aix discharged from the centrifugal compressor rotor pass-
es through two diffuser stages, the first radial, the second
axial. Compressor discharge air from the axial diffuser stage
divides into three streams. Two of these streams go to make

Fig. 1 - Continental J69-T-25 turbo-

jet engine

AXIAL
RADIAL DIFFUSER
SECONDARY
DIFFUSER
AIRFLOW

CENTRIFUGAL
COMPRESSOR

INNER COMBUSTION
CHAMBER SHELL
ANNULAR COMBUSTION
CHAMBER OUTER SHELL
Fig. 2 - J69-T-25 combustion chamber
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up the primary combustion air flow and together account for
about one-quarter of the total engine through-flow. The third
stream, which accounts for the remaining three-quarters of
the through- flow, is the secondary combustor air flow required
to dilute and reduce the temperature of the primary com-
bustion products to the required inlet temperature.
The first part of the compressor discharge air flow to sep-
arate from the main flow is the forward portion of the pri-
mary air flow-about half of the total primary air flow. This
air turns 90 deg inward, flows down between the compressor
cover and the swirl plate, and then turns aft axially to issue
through a series of louvers in the swirl plate.
The balance of the primary air flow is injected axially
forward into the primary combustion zone through a pattern
of round holes in the forward face of the primary air shell.
The flow path of the air up to this point has been along the
inner wall of the turbine housing; then it turns 90 deg in-
ward and goes through the hollow turbine inlet nozzle vanes;.
finally it turns another 90 deg axially forward through the
primary air shell forward face.
The centrifugal fuel injector injects fuel between the two
opposing primary air streams. Once the fuel is injected, com-
bustion proceeds and is completed by the time the primary
air flow has turned from a radial outward to an axially aft
direction. The balance of the air flows through the second-
ary air tubes, where it mixes with the primary combustion
products and reduces their temperature to the desired turbine
inlet temperature.
Fig. 3 shows an enlarged view of the fuel injector itself.
The detail flow of fuel within the injector will be traced,
using Fig. 3 Fuel under a moderate pressure, sufficient only
to provide reasonable pressure drops for metering purposes,
is introduced through an orifice into the hollow central shaft
Fig. 3 - J69-T-25 fuel injection
arrangement
of the fuel injector. Centrifugal force causes The fuel to
spread out in a thin layer on the inner wall of the central
shaft and flow aft toward the injector proper. Inside the in-
jector the fuel flows .outward on the forward wall of the in-
jector and then enters a series of radial holes drilled through
the periphery of the injector. In passing through the radial
holes, the fuel acquires the tangential velocity of the inject-
or periphery and of course is thrown off with this velocity.
The velocity of the fuel as it is thrown off the injector is
equivalent to an injection pressure well in excess of 2000 psi.
Fuel atomization is thus achieved directly by velocity with-
out the intervening step of a pressure increase. Since the in-
jector is an integral part of the compressor-turbine shaft,
fuel atomization is a function of engine speed only and is
unaffected by fuel flow rate.
The actual fuel flow conditions inside the injector are
not amenable to direct observation, but from the observed
effect of changes in the internal geometry, it has been in-
ferred that the depth of the fuel film anywhere in the inject-
or does not exceed 0.030 in. even at maximum fuel flow
rates. This is as much as to say that the interior of the in-
jector is practically empty. Similarly the injector holes do
not flow full of fuel at any time during engine operation. If
it is assumed that the injector does flow full, then it can be
shown that the injector holes are capable of flowing 2000 or
more times the rate of maximum engine fuel flow.
Experience has shown that the hole-to-hole distribution
of the fuel is determined entirely by the geometry and pre-
cision of manufacture of the internal surfaces of the fuel in-
jector and is quite independent of the actual shape, size and
number of the holes. Concentricity of the injector internal
surfaces with the axis of rotation is of prime importance in
PRIMARY
AIRFLOW
CENTRIFUGAL
FUEL
INJECTOR
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—raltuRV
Fig. 4 - T72 -T-2 fuel feed and in-
jection arrangement
this respect.
The injector hole sizes range from 0.080-0.125 in. and
the number of holes from 9-18, both factors increasing with
engine size. In any given engine, the holes are as large and
as numerous as possible, consistent with other mechanical
design considerations. In any case the objective is to ensure
that nothing about the hole size, number, spacing, or inter-
ior surface finish is a determining factor in either hole-to-
hole fuel distribution for fuel atomization.
Observation of the hole fuel discharge appearance in full-
scale engines equipped with viewing windows shows that the
fuel issues from the holes in a thin hollow tube. Variations
in fuel flow rate merely affect the thickness of the tube. Cal-
culations indicate thickness of the tube wall to be less than
0.003 in. at any time and ascertain the mechanism for cre-
ating and maintaining the tube to be a vortex flow into the
hole.
Thus the fuel is injected into the combustor in a very thin
sheet and at a high velocity relative to the combustion air.
These are ideal conditions for achieving fine, uniform fuel
atomization.
In the centrifugal fuel injector where inertial forces are
so high, it would be reasonable to expect that fuel viscosity
effects would be small. Engine tests bear this out in that no
detectable change in combustor operation can be noted with
fuels ranging from liquid propane and butane through gaso-
line, kerosene, the JP series up to JP-5, diesel oil, and motor
oil of SAE 30 viscosity. While the mechanism of injection
must be somewhat different, the same combustor and inject-
or that are satisfactory for liquid fuels will also run well with
gaseous propane.
While no tests with fuels of higher viscosity than those
mentioned above have been made, it is interesting to specu-
late that the centrifugal injector should be ideal for very
CENTRIFUGAL -GAS GENERATOR
STATIONARY FUEL SHAFT 3
FUEL FEED INJECTOR
if MANIFOLD
II
FUEL FLOW PATH
heavy fuels such as crudes and residuals. Thus a true multi-
fuel capability with no combustor or injector change should
be more readily attained with the centrifugal injector than
with nozzles of fixed flow area.
The central fuel feed tube into the fuel inject(); as is
shown in Fig. 3, is the simplest way of accomplishing the
fuel feed function. In the T-72-2, a 500 hp free turbine
turboshaft engine under development by Continental, it was
not possible to use central feed. The T-72 uses a concen-
tric shaft arrangement in which free turbine power output is
transmitted to the forward end of the engine through a shaft
concentric with, but turning independently of, the gas gen-
erator shaft. Fig. 4 shows the fuel feed scheme used. Fuel
under a pressure just high enough to overcome combustor
pressure is injected from a stationary manifold nested inside
an open, rotating injector. Once inside the rotating injec-
tor, viscous forces bring the fuel up to injector peripheral
velocity, and the fuel is then injected into the combustion
chamber. Results obtained with this arrangement have been
equally satisfactory as those with the closed fuel injector.
OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS
The centrigufal fuel injection principle permits operation
at high combustion intensities without the attendant smoke,
combustor wall hot spots, or deposits produced by high in-
tensities. To use a somewhat old-fashioned but still useful
way of rating combustion intensity, the J69-T-25 operates
at an intensity of 6.1 x 10 6 Btu/cu ft/hr/atm. The J69-T-
29, a higher thrust model in the J69 series used in a high al-
titude target missile, operates at 7.2 x 10 6 Btu.
These intensities are achieved at combustor pressure drops
that average 3/1/2 to 4% for turbojet engines. For turbo-
shaft engines, where combustor pressure drop has a far great-
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er effect on engine performance, combustion intensities of 98% to over 100% in the true tradition of such combustion
5.0 x 10 6 Btu are used with a corresponding pressure drop of efficiency determination.
2 1/2%. Combustion chamber wall deposits have never been a
Combustor outlet temperature profiles at maximum outlet problem with the annular chamber and centrifugal injection.
temperature varies not more than + 25 F from the desired Fig. 6 shows a chamber , fter 1850 hr of operation in JP-4
profile in the radial direction, and the circumferential tern- aviation fuel. One possible explanation lies in the extreme-
peraturevariation is not more than + 75 F from the mean out- ly fine fuel atomization produced by the centrigufal clinger,
let temperature. Fig. 5 shows the results of a typical tem- which ensures that no liquid fuel ever reaches the chamber
perature gradient survey for the J69-T-25. The variation in wall.
temperature along a radial station is tailored into the com- The annular combustion chamber with centrifugal fuel
bustion chamber, with the lowest temperatures at the blade injection has shown itself to be a simple, efficient, and re-
base and tip so as to gain maximum life on the blade and liable combustion system with important cost and weight ad-
stationary engine structure. The inner third of the blade is vantages. Its versatility and ready adaptability to a wide
run at a higher temperature because the stresses here are con- range of fuels ensures its continuing use in future gas turbine
siderably lower than they are at the blade base. engines.
Combustion efficiencies, as determined by full-scale en-
gine temperature surveys and cycle heat balances, range from

14
CIRCUMFERENTIAL GRADIENT AT MAXIMUM SPEED. 21;700 RPM RADIAL GRADIENT

7 13

.
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....
:: A-----n11
Argiii . .
m,
A
- '4,7,...
'
i
11
12
AVERAGE TURBINE
OUTLET TEMPERATURE
U
RADIAL STATION FROM TURBINE BLADE BASE
ER o INNER 1 0 OUTER MIDDLE

q INNER MIDDLE A OUTER

10
90 150 210 270 330
CIRCUMFERENTIAL STATION - DEGREES
30 IN ER INNER OUTER OUTER
MIDDLE MIDDLE
RADIAL STATION FROM TURBINE BLADE BASE

Fig. 5 - J69-T-25 turbine outlet

temperature Fig. 6 - J69-T-25 combustion chamber after 1850 hr

Paper subject to revision. The Society is not responsible lished in Technical Progress Series, Advances in Engineer-
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