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A combustor is a component or area of a gas turbine, ramjet, or scramjet engine where combustion takes place. It is also known as a burner, combustion chamber or flame holder. In a gas turbine engine, the ''combustor'' or combustion chamber is fed high pressure air by the compression system. The combustor then heats this air at constant pressure. After heating, air passes from the combustor through the nozzle guide vanes to the turbine. In the case of a ramjet or scramjet engines, the air is directly fed to the nozzle. A combustor must contain and maintain stable combustion despite very high air flow rates. To do so combustors are carefully designed to first mix and ignite the air and fuel, and then mix in more air to complete the combustion process. Early gas turbine engines used a single chamber known as a can type combustor. Today three main configurations exist: can, annular and cannular (also referred to as can-annular tubo-annular). Afterburners are often considered another type of combustor. Combustors play a crucial role in determining many of an engine's operating characteristics, such as fuel efficiency, levels of emissions and transient response (the response to changing conditions such a fuel flow and air speed). ==Fundamentals== The objective of the combustor in a gas turbine is to add energy to the system to power the turbines, and produce a high velocity gas to exhaust through the nozzle in aircraft applications. As with any engineering challenge, accomplishing this requires balancing many design considerations, such as the following: *Completely combust the fuel. Otherwise, the engine is just wasting the unburnt fuel and creating unwanted emissions of unburnt hydrocarbons, CO and soot. *Low pressure loss across the combustor. The turbine which the combustor feeds needs high pressure flow to operate efficiently. *The flame (combustion) must be held (contained) inside of the combustor. If combustion happens further back in the engine, the turbine stages can easily be damaged. Additionally, as turbine blades continue to grow more advanced and are able to withstand higher temperatures, the combustors are being designed to burn at higher temperatures and the parts of the combustor need to be designed to withstand those higher temperatures. *Uniform exit temperature profile. If there are hot spots in the exit flow, the turbine may be subjected to thermal stress or other types of damage. Similarly, the temperature profile within the combustor should avoid hot spots, as those can damage or destroy a combustor from the inside. *Small physical size and weight. Space and weight is at a premium in aircraft applications, so a well designed combustor strives to be compact. Non-aircraft applications, like power generating gas turbines, are not as constrained by this factor. *Wide range of operation. Most combustors must be able to operate with a variety of inlet pressures, temperatures, and mass flows. These factors change with both engine settings and environmental conditions (I.e., full throttle at low altitude can be very different from idle throttle at high altitude). *Environmental emissions. There are strict regulations on aircraft emissions of pollutants like carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides, so combustors need to be designed to minimize those emissions. (See ''Emissions'' section below) Sources:〔Flack, p. 440.〕〔Mattingly, Heiser, and Pratt, p. 325.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Combustor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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