combustors Most modern passenger and military aircraft are powered by gas turbine engines, which are also

called jet engines. There are several different types of gas turb ine engines, and all turbine engines have some parts in common. All turbine engi nes have a combustor,or burner, in which the fuel is combined with high pressure air and burned.The resu lting high temperature exhaust gas is used to turn the power turbine and produce thrust when passed through a nozzle. Burners are also used on ramjet and scramj et propulsion systems. The design of ramjet and scramjet burners are slightly di fferent than the burners used on gas turbine engines, although the basic thermod ynamic principles are the same.On this page, we discuss the operation of a gas t urbine burner. The burner is shown in red on the computer graphic at the lower r ight of the figure.The burner sits between the compressor and the power turbine. The burner is arranged li e an annulus, or a doughnut, as shown by the three bu rner configurations at the lower left. The central shaft that connects the turbi ne and compressor passes through the center hole. Burners are made from material s that can withstand the high temperatures of combustion. A burner usually has a n outer casing, shown in red, and an inner liner,shown in orange. The liner is o ften perforated to enhance mixing of the fuel and air, as shown in the photo at the upper right.There are three main types of combustors, and all three designs are found in modern gas turbines: 1. The burner at the left is an annular combustor with the liner sitting inside the outer casing which has been peeled open in the drawing.Many modern burners have an annular design. 2. The burner in the middle is an older can or tubular design. The photo at the top left shows some actual burner cans. Each can has both a liner and a casing, and the cans are arranged around the central shaft. 3. A compromise design is shown at the right. This is a can-annular design, in whic h the casing is annular and the liner is can-shaped. The advantage to the can-an nular design is that the individual cans are more easily designed, tested, and s erviced. The details of mixing and burning the fuel are quite complex and require extensi ve testing for a new burner. For our purposes, we can consider the burner as sim ply the place where combustion occurs and where the wor ing fluid (air) temperat ure is raised with aslight decrease in pressure.Most modern passenger and milita ry aircraft are powered by gasturbine engines, which are also called jet engines . There are several different typesof gas turbine engines, but all turbine engin es have some parts in common. All gas turbine engines have a powerturbine locate d downstream of the burner to extract energy from the hot flow and turn the comp ressor .Wor is done on the power turbine by the hot exhaust flow from the burne r. Description of Images The bottom of the figure shows: computer drawings of a turbojet with the location of the turbine relative to the other engine components, on the right