The Vorbix Burner—A New Approach to Gas Turbine Combustors

Abstract

The vorbix burner (acronym for Vortex Burning and Mixing) represents a new approach to a practical gas turbine combustor design. The concept exploits the Rayleigh instability of swirling flows to enhance the mixing and combustion rates. The combination of a two-stage fuel system with a piloted combustor leads to a unique high rate technique for fuel prevaporization within the combustor proper. This paper presents the fundamental concepts in the definition of the vorbix combustor and the results of exploratory tests conducted on can (tubular) and annular vorbix combustors. The results indicate that this type of combustor has unique performance characteristics that include excellent stability and high combustion efficiency over wide excursions in operating fuel air ratios in addition to substantially reduced emission levels during high power operation.