Patents Represented by Attorney Richard A. DeCristofare
  • Patent number: 7966801
    Abstract: An Active Combustion Control System and method provides for monitoring combustor pressure and modulating fuel to a gas turbine combustor to prevent combustion dynamics and/or flame extinguishments. The system includes an actuator, wherein the actuator periodically injects pulsed fuel into the combustor. The apparatus also includes a sensor connected to the combustion chamber down stream from an inlet, where the sensor generates a signal detecting the pressure oscillations in the combustor. The apparatus controls the actuator in response to the sensor. The apparatus prompts the actuator to periodically inject pulsed fuel into the combustor at a predetermined sympathetic frequency and magnitude, thereby controlling the amplitude of the pressure oscillations in the combustor by modulating the natural oscillations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Chukwueloka Umeh, Leonardo C. Kammer, Minesh Shah, Jeffrey B. Fortin, Aaron Knobloch, William J. Myers, Alfred Albert Mancini