Controlled separation combustor

Claim 1

A short annular combustor for a gas turbine comprising a pair of spaced axially extending walls forming a full annulus, an annular liner mounted in said annulus forming a combustion chamber, a plurality of nozzles mounted at one end of said combustion chamber, means for supplying fuel to said nozzles, a diffuser adjacent to said nozzles for supplying air to said annulus thereby forming a combustible mixture with said fuel, the end of the annular liner adjacent to said nozzles is open whereby air from said diffuser flows around said nozzles thereby creating a low velocity recirculation space adjacent to each of said nozzles, said diffuser having an asymmetric geometry formed by a rapidly diverging outer wall and a gradually diverging inner wall terminating at said axially extending walls adjacent to said nozzles, a plurality of circumferentially spaced bleed ports in at least one of said diverging walls for selectively removing a small fraction of the diffuser inlet airflow through at least one of said diverging walls to control the airflow distribution at various operating conditions of the turbine, at least one manifold, means for connecting said bleed ports to said manifold, and a plurality of valves for selectively controlling the bleed flow of air through said ports to said manifold thereby controlling the circumferential airflow distribution.