NASA advanced low emissions combustor program

The purpose of this program is to conduct combustion tests on lean, premixed, and prevaporized (LPP) combustor concepts designed for use in commercial aircraft engines to attain improved performance, durability, and lower pollutant emissions levels relative to current technology combustor designs. Four full annular combustors were designed for the CF6-50 engine. These concepts utilize premixing of the fuel and air, variable geometry, and fuel staging to control the equivalence ratios of the burning zone. The testing is being conducted on these four full annular combustors over a wide range of operating conditions at pressures up to actual subsonic cruise (1.16 MPa). The test results for the most promising of these combustor concepts are reported in this paper.