Selection of a Suitable Combustion System for a Small Gas Turbine Engine

Abstract

Experimental studies on a straight and a reverse flow annular combustion chamber to select a suitable combustion  system for a small gas turbine engine are presented. One straight flow annular combustor with simplex fuel injector and three sector models of the reverse flow annular combustor with simplex, airblast and vapouriser type of fuel injectors were fabricated and tested, retaining the same maximum outer casing diameter. The paper presents the basic design procedure, the three types of fuel injection system and the performance comparison of these models. An attempt has been made to develop a correlation to compare the performance of the models. It has been concluded that with the available data, for small gas turbine engines, reverse flow annular combustor with vapouriser is the best from overall considerations.