GB809031A - Improvements in apparatus for generating gaseous working fluid - Google Patents

Abstract

809,031. Gas turbine plant. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. Nov. 25, 1955 [Nov. 26, 1954], No. 33880/55. Class 110 (3). [Also in Group XII] An apparatus for the production of gaseous working fluid comprises a combustion chamber for the decomposition of injected fuel, a contiguous fuel storage container, and a piston contained in the storage container adapted to be actuated by the pressure developed in the combustion chamber so as to cause fuel to pass from the storage chamber into the combustion chamber. A firing block adapted to receive a cartridge containing slow-burning powder is provided on the combustion chamber. In the apparatus shown, an open-ended cylinder 1 is divided by a partition 3 into a combustion or decomposition chamber 2 and a fuel storage chamber 30. A casing 13 is secured at the combustion chamber end of the cylinder 1 and contains a diaphragm 15 having discharge nozzles 16, a bladed turbine wheel 18 and an electrical generator 21, 22. The fuel storage chamber 30 is closed by a wall 24 and contains a piston 22 carried on a rod 26. The fuel storage chamber is filled through a pipe 28 and fuel passes from the chamber through a duct 32 in which is a frangible disc 33 to an injection nozzle 5 in the combustion chamber 2- A heating and ignition device is disposed in the combustion chamber and comprises a cartridge 7 containing slow-burning powder which is fired electrically, the gases produced issuing through the nozzle 13a into the combustion chamber. Some gases pass through the nozzles 16 to drive the turbine 18 and some pass through the orifice 4 in the partition 3 and act on the piston 22, thereby causing fuel in the chamber 30 to flow through the duct 32 and after bursting the disc 33, to issue through the nozzle 5 into the combustion chamber. The fuel is caused to burn or decompose by the hot gases from the igniter cartridge 7 and the combustion or decomposition products flow to the turbine 18 and to the space behind the piston 22 so that the fuel supply is maintained. The fuel is a monofuel such as ethylene oxide or propyl nitrate. The apertured partition 3 may be omitted so that the piston 22 forms one end wall of the combustion chamber.