PIV MEASUREMENT FOR SWIRLER FLOW FIELD IN GAS TURBINE COMBUSTOR

The characteristics of swirler flow field, including cold flow field and combustion flow field, in gas tur- bine combustor with two-stage swirler are studied by using particle image velocimetry （PIV）. Velocity compo- nents, fluctuation velocity, Reynolds stress and recirculation zone length are obtained, respectively. Influences of geometric parameter of primary hole, arrangement of primary hole, inlet air temperature, first-stage swirler an- gle and fuel/air ratio on flow field are investigated, respectively. The experimental results reveal that the primary recirculation zone lengths of combustion flow field are shorter than those of cold flow field, and the primary reeir- culation zone lengths decrease with the increase of inlet air temperature and fuel/air ratio. The change of the geo- metric parameter of primary hole casts an important influence on the swirler flow field in two-stage swirler com- bustor.

NUMERICAL CALCULATIONS OF GASEOUS REACTING FLOWS IN A MODEL OF GAS TURBINE COMBUSTORS

This paper describes the numerical calculations of gaseous reaction flows in a model of gas turbine combustors. The profiles of hydrodynamic and thermodynamic patterns in a three-dimensional combustor model are obtained by solving the governing differential transport equations. The well-established numerical prediction algorithm SIMPLE, the modified k-ε turbulence model and k-ε-g turbulent diffusion flame model have been adopted in computations. The β function has been selected as probability density function. The effect of combustion process on flow patterns has been investigated. The calculated results have been verified by experiments. They are in remarkably good agreement.

Experimental Study of Fuel-Air Mixing and Dilution Jets on Outlet Temperature Distribution in a Small Gas Turbine Combustor

Experimental analysis was conducted to study the impact of fuel-air mixing and dilution jet on the temperature distribution in a small gas turbine combustor using various optical diagnostic techniques.The strength and velocity of the swirler at the venturi exit were adjusted to modify the fuel-air mixture,which is presumed to dominate the heat release of the main combustion zone.Additionally,the dilution hole configuration,including the number and size of the holes,was varied to investigate the dilution effect on outlet temperature distribution.Various optical diagnostic techniques,such as particle image velocimetry,planar Mie scattering,and OH~*chemiluminescence,were used to measure the flow field,fuel spray distribution,and flame structure,respectively.A reduction in swirling strength led to a decrease in the average flow rate in the throat,which improved the structure and symmetry of the axial vortex system in the sleeve,enhanced the mixing of fuel and gas in the dome swirling air,and ultimately,improved the temperature uniformity of the heat release zone.Compared to larger and sparse dilution jets,smaller and dense dilution jets tended to generate hot spots shifted towards the radial middle area.

An FV-EE model to predict lean blowout limits for gas turbine combustors with different structures and sprays

The occurrence of Lean Blowout(LBO)is a disadvantage that endangers a stable operation of gas turbines.A determination of LBO limits is essential in the design of gas turbine combustors.A semiempirical model is one of the most widely used methods to predict LBO limits.Among the existing semiempirical models for predicting LBO limits,Lefebvre’s LBO model and the Flame Volume(FV)model are particularly suitable for gas turbine combustors.On the basis of Lefebvre’s and FV models,the concept of effective evaporation efficiency is introduced in this paper,and a Flame Volume-Evaporation Efficiency(FV-EE)model is derived and validated.LBO experiments are carried out in a model combustor with 23 different structures and 10 different sprays.The prediction uncertainty of the FV-EE model is less than±13%for all of these 33 structures and sprays,compared with±50%for the FV model and±60%for Lefebvre’s model.Furthermore,the prediction uncertainty of the FV-EE model is also less than±13%for other combustors from available literature.

Numerical study on the combustion process in a gas turbine combustor with different reference velocities

The mixing and combustion processes under different reference velocities in a gas turbine combustor were numerically investigated using the Flamelet Generated Manifold(FGM)model based on the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS)method.The flow and combustion fields show strong self-similarity except on the slow auto-ignition in the mixing layer between fuel-rich product and fresh air upstream of the flame stabilization position.The time-scale analysis was carried out to understand the combustion modes inside the combustor.In general,the residence time of the fuel-mixture is much longer than both the chemical time scale and the mixing time scale.Thus,the combustion properties in each sub-zone were dominated by the mean flow structures.Furthermore,the combustion process exhibits a mixing-controlled feature in total.However,partially premixed combustion still appears on the flame base.Most of the fuel was found to be oxidized in the primary zone and the intermediate zone;however,the slow oxidization reactions also play a non-negligible role on the whole combustion process.Finally,a sketch map on the space of mixture fraction and combustion efficiency was proposed to understand the mixing and oxidization experiences of the fuel mixture.

A Chemical Reactor Network for Oxides of Nitrogen Emission Prediction in Gas Turbine Combustor

This study presents the use of a new chemical reactor network(CRN) model and non-uniform injectors to predict the NOx emission pollutant in gas turbine combustor. The CRN uses information from Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) combustion analysis with two injectors of CH4-air mixture. The injectors of CH4-air mixture have different lean equivalence ratio, and they control fuel flow to stabilize combustion and adjust combustor's equivalence ratio. Non-uniform injector is applied to improve the burning process of the turbine combustor. The results of the new CRN for NOx prediction in the gas turbine combustor show very good agreement with the experimental data from Korea Electric Power Research Institute.

Influence of Turbulence Schmidt Number on Exit Temperature Distribution of an Annular Gas Turbine Combustor using Flamelet Generated Manifold

The Reynolds analogy concept has been used in almost all turbulent reacting flow RANS(Reynoldsaveraged Navier–Stokes)simulations,where the turbulence scalar transfers in flow fields are calculated based on the modeled turbulence momentum transfer.This concept,applied to a lean premixed combustion system,was assessed in this paper in terms of exit temperature distribution.Because of the isotropic assumption involved in this analogy,the prediction in some flow condition,such as jet cross flow mixing,would be inaccurate.In this study,using Flamelet Generated Manifold as reaction model,some of the numerical results,obtained from an annular combustor configuration with the turbulent Schmidt number varying from 0.85 to 0.2,were presented and compared with a benchmark atmospheric test results.It was found that the Schmidt numberσt in mean mass fraction f transport equation had significant effect on dilution air mixing process.The mixing between dilution air and reaction products from the primary zone obviously improved asσt decreased on the combustor exit surface.Meanwhile,the sensitivity ofσt in three turbulence models including Realizable k-ε,SST(Shear Stress Transport)and RSM(Reynolds Stress Model)has been compared as well.Since the calculation method of eddy viscosity was different within these three models,RSM was proved to be less sensitive than another two models and can guarantee the best prediction of mixing process condition.On the other hand,the results of dilution air mixing were almost independent of Schmidt number Sct in progress variable c transport equation.This study suggested that for accurate prediction of combustor exit temperature distribution in steady state reacting flow simulation,the turbulent Schmidt number in steady state simulation should be modified to cater to dilution air mixing process.

Effects of H_2/CO/CH_4 syngas composition variation on the NO_x and CO emission characteristics in a partially-premixed gas turbine combustor

This paper reports the effects of variations in the fuel composition of H_2/CO/CH_4 syngas on the characteristics of NO_x and CO emissions in a partially-premixed gas turbine combustor. Combustion tests were conducted on a full range of fuel compositions by varying each component gas from 0% to 100% at heat inputs of 40 and 50 k Wth. Flame temperature, combustor liner temperature, ignition delay time, and flame structure were investigated computationally and experimentally to judge whether they are significant indicators of NO_x and CO formation. The characteristics of and reasons for NO_x and CO emissions were investigated by analyzing the emission mechanisms and relationships among fuel property, equivalence ratio, flame temperature, liner temperature, flame shape. The flame structures were investigated using the following flame visualization methods:(1) time-averaged OH* chemiluminescence and its Abel-deconvolution;(2) direct photography; and(3) instantaneous OH-PLIF. The flame structures were greatly changed by the fuel composition and heat input, and they were subjected to key affecting parameters of the temperatures of the flames and the liners. NO_x and CO emissions also largely varied according to fuel composition and heat input, showing neither linearly nor exponentially clear proportional trends toward the syngas compositions because of the singular conditions. For example, only the 100% CO flame at low load emitted lots of CO, whereas complete combustion was observed in other cases. However, the qualitative observations showed that the root causes of NO_x emission behaviors were flame temperature and flame structure, which were directly related to the residence time in the flame. Various sets of practical test results were obtained, and these results could contribute to the optimal selection of the fuel-feeding condition when fuel is changed from natural gas to syngas in order to minimize NO_x and CO emissions with stable combustion.

燃气轮机流动大涡模拟的进展与挑战（英文）

Gas turbine flows are complex and very difficult to be predicted accurately not only due to that they are inherently unsteady but also because the presence of many complex flow phenomena such as transition,separation,substantial secondary flow,combustion and so on.Those complex flow phenomena cannot be captured accurately by the traditional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS)and Unsteady RANS(URANS)methods although they have been the main numerical tools for computing gas turbine flows in the past decades due to their computational efficiency and reasonable accuracy.Therefore,the desire for greater accuracy has led to the development and application of high fidelity numerical simulation tools for gas turbine flows.Two such tools available are Direct Numerical Simulation(DNS)which captures directly all details of turbulent flow in space and time,and Large Eddy Simulation(LES)which computes large scale motions of turbulent flow directly in space and time while the small scale motions are modelled.DNS is computationally very expensive and even with the available most powerful supercomputers today or in the foreseeable future it is still prohibitive to apply DNS for gas turbine flows.LES is the most promising simulation tool which has already reasonably widely used for gas turbine flows.This paper will very briefly review first the applications of LES in turbomachinery flows and then focus on two gas turbine combustor related flow cases,summarizing the current status of LES applications in gas turbines and pointing out the challenges that we are facing.

N_(2)and Ar dilution on the premixed biogas jet flame under external acoustic enforcement

In this study,combustion instabilities and flue gas emission changes under different dilutions of N_(2)(nitrogen)and Ar(argon)of a promising biogas mixture(70%CH4-30%CO_(2))in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions were investigated.In the experiments,additions were made from 0%to 50%at intervals of 10%for both gases.In order to detect the instability of the flame,external acoustic enforcements at different frequencies was applied through the speakers placed in the combustion chamber arms.The dynamic pressure fluctuation values were recorded.The results showed that low dilution ratios were effective in reducing flame instability for both inert gases.However,as the dilution ratio increased,the fuel/air mixture became leaner and blowoff occurred.In the case of comparing two different gases,it has been observed that the effect of argon gas on reducing dynamic pressure fluctuation is higher.Burner outlet temperature and brightness values of the flame decreased in both Ar and N_(2)dilution.CO and NOx emissions increased with increasing diluent volume for all dilution conditions.When the emissions of the two diluent gases are compared,the CO emission,which was 3134 ppm in the undiluted condition,increased up to 4949 ppm in 50%Ar dilution,while it increased to 4521 ppm in 50%N_(2)dilution.

MILD Combustion for Hydrogen and Syngas at Elevated Pressures

As gas recirculation constitutes a fundamental condition for the realization of MILD combustion, it is necessary to determine gas recirculation ratio before designing MILD combustor. MILD combustion model with gas recirculation was used in this simulation work to evaluate the effect of fuel type and pressure on threshold gas recirculation ratio of MILD mode. Ignition delay time is also an important design parameter for gas turbine combustor, this parameter is kinetically studied to analyze the effect of pressure on MILD mixture ignition. Threshold gas recirculation ratio of hydrogen MILD combustion changes slightly and is nearly equal to that of 10 MJ/Nm3syngas in the pressure range of 1-19 atm, under the conditions of 298 K fresh reactant temperature and 1373 K exhaust gas temperature, indicating that MILD regime is fuel flexible. Ignition delay calculation results show that pressure has a negative effect on ignition delay time of 10 MJ/Nm3syngas MILD mixture, because OH mole fraction in MILD mixture drops down as pressure increases, resulting in the delay of the oxidation process.

Fundamental investigations for lowering emissions and improving operability

This paper first highlights recent developments in lean direct injection(LDI)combustion technology.In view of the needs and opportunities to lower emissions and expand the operability range of LDI,fundamental research has been undertaken to elucidate the effects of air swirler vane angle,air swirler rotation direction,and overall equivalence ratio on the LDI flow field and flame structure/response.Moreover,additional investigation has been conducted to understand the fundamental differences between representative LDI and airblast injectors in order to highlight the importance of the flare feature to LDI venturi geometry.The results of these fundamental studies are discussed to help identify possible areas for optimization to generic LDI designs that may improve individual swirler performance.