Combustion apparatus for a gas turbine

Claim 1

Combustion apparatus suitable for a gas turbine engine comprising a combustion chamber having a fuel burner at its upstream end, said fuel burner comprising a generally tubular member having an upstream end and a downstream end, said upstream end being positioned externally of said combustion chamber and said downstream end being positioned within said combustion chamber, fuel conduit means having a fuel outlet opening defined within said tubular member and in facing relation to the radially inner walls of said tubular member for directing fuel against said radially inner walls, compressed air inlet means for directing compressed air into said tubular member, said tubular member directing a mixture of said compressed air and fuel into said combustion chamber, the downstream end of said tubular member being provided with a deflection member which is so configured as to cooperate with said tubular member to define a generally annular radially directed outlet with respect to the axis of said tubular member for said mixture of fuel and air, said radially directed outlet being located immediately downstream of the upstream end of said combustion chamber so that said mixture of fuel and air is urged into a single substantially toroidal fuel rich vortex in a first combustion zone situated in the upstream region of said combustion chamber, said combustion chamber being provided with additional air inlets downstream of said burner to direct air into a second combustion zone in said combustion chamber downstream of said toroidal vortex so as to render said second combustion zone fuel weak.