US2817952A - Combustion products generators - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 31, 1957 M. E.-MILLER COMBUSTION PRODUCTS GENERATORS Filed 001;. 3, 1955 I rwenior:

United States Patent COMBUSTION PRODUCTS GENERATORS Monroe E. Miller, Washington, D. C.

Application October 3, 1955, Serial No. 537,956

2 Claims. (Cl. 6039.7)

This invention relates to combustion products generators, and aims to provide a novel and useful generator of that type consisting of two or more units in a series, whereby the burning or explosive action in each unit will aid in preparing the next unit of the series for such action therein.

Another object of the invention is to use the pressure of combustion in each generator unit of a series as directly as possible'for supplying the next unit of the series with air.

A further object is to provide a novel combustion prod ucts generator unit to be used with others in a series, whereby they will aid each other in providing a supply of air without the need for using a pump, fan, or other device having a moving part.

A still further object is the provision of a generator of the kind indicated which is simple in construction, and efficient in operation, and which has other advantages as pointed out hereinafter. V

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a medium section of two of the improved generator units of a series, same parts being shown in full;

Fig. 2 is a diagram looking at the discharge ends of a number of the generator units arranged in an annular series; and

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, with two generator units arranged in a pair.

A series of combustion products generator units are used, and as shown in Fig. 1, each unit comprises a pipe or other fluid conductor 1 of suitable material, form and size, which provides a combustion chamber. This chamber has one end open to provide an outlet 2 for the discharge of the products of combustion, and at its other end the chamber has a continuously open air inlet 3 of considerably smaller size than the outlet 2.

A fuel nozzle 4 extends into the air inlet 3 of each chamber for delivering liquid fuel into the chamber, and said nozzle is supplied with fuel through a branch of the supply pipe 5, a suitable control valve 6 being provided for regulating the flow of fuel through the nozzle, in order to increase and decrease the consumption of fuel. The valves 6 are operated simultaneously by suitable means 7, and a check valve 8 is provided for each nozzle 4, especially when needed to prevent the fuel from receding from the nozzle.

In order to cause air to enter each chamber through its air inlet, a pipe or other conduit 9 of suitable crosssectional area is provided which has the receiving end 10 and the discharge end 11. The discharge end of the conduit is beyond the inlet 3, and is so arranged that when fluid is discharged from the conduit it impels the fluid in the chamber to move away from said inlet and toward the outlet, thus causing air to flow in through the inlet 3. The discharge end 11 of the conduit, in serving as an ejector nozzle, may be at any suitable location in or with respect to the chamber 1, but it should extend 2,817,952 Patented Dec. 31, 1957 away from the air inlet 3 or should otherwise be so an ranged as to produce the desired pressure effect needed in the chamber. As shown, the discharge end 11 is concentric within the chamber between the inlet and outlet, but other arrangements can be used as may be found best under diflerent conditions.

The conduit 9 of each chamber provides simple means for enabling air to be supplied, since the receiving end 10 is arranged to receive fluid under pressure from the preceding chamber of the series. This is done by having the receiving end of the conduit extend toward, and arranged at a short distance from, the air inlet 3 of the preceding chamber of the series so when combustion of fuel occurs therein, a small part of the burning or exploding mixture discharges out through the air inlet, and is directed into the receiving end of the conduit 9, thus to force fluid through the conduit under pressure.

Each conduit 9, as shown in Fig. 1, is provided with a control valve 12, and these valves can be operated by suitable means 13, thus to regulate, if desired, the flow of fluid. The control valves 12 need not be used excepting when desired, in lieu of the fuel valves 6.

Each chamber 1 has a spark plug or other suitable ignition means 14 so arranged as to ignite the mixture of air and fuel passing into the chamber. The ignition means can be energized continuously during the operation of the generator, or may be energized intermittently by any well known means available. When intermittently energized spark plugs are used,-it is possible to use well-known fuel injectors for introducing the fuel charges into the respective chambers while, or after, air flows into the chambers, and before the respective spark plugs are energized.

The chambers 1 can be arranged in any suitable way according'to the purpose for which they are used. Fig. 2 shows them in an annular arrangement for driving a turbines wheel of a power plant. In using a number of combustion chambers for a turbine wheel of large diameter, the wheel can receive more cooling effect than a small wheel for a single jet as proposed heretofore.

In operation, the generator is primed in any suitable way, such as by forcing fuel from the nozzles 4, and igniting it by an ignition means 14. The explosion in the corresponding chamber results in some of the fluid passing out through the air inlet 3 and into the conduit 9 of the next chamber of the series. This produces a discharge of fluid from the end 11 of the conduit, and thereby impels fluid in the second chamber of the series to flow from its air inlet toward the outlet, in order to cause air to enter, the receiving end 10 of the conduit being spaced from the air inlet for this purpose. Air flowing through the air inlet of the second chamber past the fuel nozzle results in fuel mixing with the air, and this mixture is ignited by the ignition means 14 of the chamber. The action is then repeated in the second and third chambers, and so on, as described for the first and second chambers. Excepting the check valves 8 which open and close automatically, and the fuel control valves, which do not move when adjusted to a predetermined position, the generator has no moving parts. All the action is accomplished by the motion of exploding and expanding fluids.

With the discharge ends of the conduits 9 near enough to the air inlets 3, flames or sparks in entering a chamber, into which a mixture of air and fuel enters, will ignite the mixture, and the ignition means 14 is not needed.

When the fluid in a chamber flows past the discharge end 11 of a conduit 9, due to combustion of the fuel charge in the chamber, there can be some change of pressure in the conduit, but the expansive eflect and the motion of the fluid oppose each other at the end 11 of the conduit. Since the velocity of the fluid in a combustion chamber increases as it moves to the outlet 2, due to the expansive action of combustion, the pressure etfectin entering the end 11 of the conduit 9 will depend on the location of said end of the conduit nearer to or farther from the air inlet. A point can be found which is best under normal operating conditions. It is obvious that a suitable check valve can beused in each conduit 9 in order to prevent reverse flow of fluid therein, as well known in the art.

The invention as claimed hereinafter can also be used for, gaseous fuel, or for pulverized solid fuel, by using means available in the art for introducing such fuel into the combustion chambers so as to mix with the air entering the chambers.

Fig. 3 shows a pair of chambers 21'having theair inlets 2,2, and fluid conduits 23 having the discharge ends- 24 as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, but with the receiving ends 25 of the conduits so arranged that each registers with the air inlet ofthe other chamber. This form of generator is suitable for jet propulsion, for boilers and furnaces, blow torches, and for other purposes.

Any number of pairs of chambers can be used for a power plant, instead of having four, six, eight ormore chambers in one continuous series, and the ignition means can be of any suitable arrangement accordingly. With two or more combustion chambers arranged in a row,

each chamber can drive 'a separate turbine wheel, and

such wheels can be mounted on a common shaft. This is of advantage since it enables the turbine wheels to be efiectively cooled, and consequently they will not deteriorate as when all of the heat of a generator is applied to the same blades or other portions of one. turbine wheel.

There is an important advantage in the use of intermittent explosions successively in a plurality of combustion chambers, since the proportion of air-cooledsurfaces of the chambers varies directly with the number of cham- 4 bers used, and thus by using a sutficient number of chambers, it is possible to avoid the excessive heating of the metal or other material of which the chambers and other parts are composed.

I claim as my invention:

1. A combustion products generator comprising a plurality of combustion chambers each having an air inlet and a combustion products outlet, and conduits connecting the chambers in a continuous, series, each conduit having one end arranged to receive fluid discharged out from one particular chamber through its air inlet, and to allow air, to flow into said inlet and into said particular chamber, the other end of said conduit extending to the next successive chamber of the series and being directed away from the air inlet of said successive chamber and so arranged that presssure fluid in the conduit is discharged with an ejector action from the conduit and moves the fluid in saidnext successive chamber away from its inlet, whereby air flows in through said inlet and into said next successive chamber.

2. A combustion products generator according to claim 1, wherein the first mentioned end of each conduit is outside of, and is spaced from the air inlet of, said particular chamber, in order that air can flow into said inlet and into said particular chamber.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 617,753, Pontois Jan. 17, 1899 1,163,333 Galbraith et al. Dec. 7, 1915 1,801,007 Jezler' Apr. 14, 1931 2,628,471 Dunbar Feb. 17, 1953 2,684,571 Wright July 27, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS,

345,486 France Oct. 17, 1904 515,635 Germany Jan. 8, 1931

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