Non-Equilibrium Plasma Igniters and Pilots for Aerospace Application

Major results of development and experimental investigations of plasma igniters and pilots for gas turbine engine improvements are presented. Plasma igniters demonstrated reliable starts of real aircraft turbines at 12+ km altitude. Plasma pilots and plasma fuel nozzles realized simultaneous fuel atomization, ignition and partial fuel oxidation without lean flame outs and provided higher combustion performance in a smaller volume. Perspective subsonic and supersonic non-thermal plasma generators for the second generation of plasma assisted combustion systems were developed. Employment of high voltage DC arc in reverse vortex flow for such kind of plasmatrons demonstrated dramatically extended life time of the electrodes without their cooling and significantly wider range of operation parameters.