The aircraft Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) is required to provide power to start the main engines, conditioned air and power when there are no facilities available and, most importantly, emergency power during flight operation. Given the primary purpose of providing backup power, APUs have historically been designed to be extremely reliable while minimizing weight and fabrication cost. Since APUs are operated at airports especially during taxi operations, the emissions from the APUs contribute to local air quality. There is clearly significant regulatory and public interest in reducing emissions from all sources at airports, including from APUs. As such, there is a need to develop technologies that reduce criteria pollutants, namely oxides of nitrogen (NOx), unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), carbon monoxide (CO) and smoke (SN) from aircraft APUs.
Honeywell has developed a Low-Emissions (Low-E) combustion system technology for the 131-9 and HGT750 family of APUs to provide significant reduction in pollutants for narrow-body aircraft application. This article focuses on the combustor technology and processes that have been successfully utilized in this endeavor, with an emphasis on abating NOx.
This paper describes the 131-9/HGT750 APU, the requirements and challenges for small gas turbine engines, and the selected strategy of Rich-Quench-Lean (RQL) combustion. Analytical and experimental results are presented for the current generation of APU combustion systems as well as the Low-E system. The implementation of RQL aerodynamics is well understood within the aero-gas turbine engine industry, but the application of RQL technology in a configuration with tangential liquid fuel injection which is also required to meet altitude ignition at 41,000 ft is the novelty of this development. The Low-E combustion system has demonstrated more than 25% reduction in NOx (dependent on the cycle of operation) vs. the conventional 131-9 combustion system while meeting significant margins in other criteria pollutants. In addition, the Low-E combustion system achieved these successes as a “drop-in” configuration within the existing envelope, and without significantly impacting combustor/turbine durability, combustor pressure drop, or lean stability.
Modern gas turbine combustors are made of high temperature alloys, employ effusion cooling and are protected by a Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC). Standard material characterization tests such as creep, oxidation and low cycle fatigue are indicators of a material’s potential performance but they neither fully represent the combustor geometric/material system nor fully represent the thermal fatigue conditions a combustor is subjected to during engine operation. Combustor rig tests and/or engine cyclic endurance tests to determine the suitability of new material systems for combustors are time consuming and costly. Therefore, a simple test method for screening material systems under representative combustor conditions is needed. This experimental system was recently developed at Honeywell Aerospace to characterize various gas turbine combustor damage mechanisms and assess state-of-the-art and developmental materials. A configured specimen is fabricated using materials and processes similarly to actual combustor hardware, including sheet metal forming, welding, TBC coating, and effusion hole laser drilling. The configured specimen is cyclically exposed to hot spot thermal gradients typically experienced by fielded hardware using a jet-fueled burner and heated cooling air. Damage mechanisms simulated include bond coat oxidation, TBC spallation, thermal fatigue and distortion. A summary of these damage mechanisms and lessons learned from test development are presented. Results from recent combustor liner, bond coat, and top coat material modifications are also discussed. The effect of combustor liner material creep and thermal fatigue resistance, bond coat composition and processing, and TBC composition and structure on combustor durability is presented.
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