Study of Combustion Instabilities Imposed by Inlet Velocity Disturbance in Combustor Using LES

Author(s):  
Kenji Sato ◽  
Ed Knudsen ◽  
Heinz Pitsch

Stable combustion is one of the most important requirements for the development of heavy duty gas turbine engines that comply with stringent environmental regulations at high firing temperatures. In this research, one of the typical combustion instabilities which is caused by an acoustically forced velocity disturbance is investigated using variable density LES simulations. The G-equation approach for LES is used as the combustion model [1], and an experiment by Balachandran et al. [2, 3] is selected for case study. The velocity profiles in the experimental combustion chamber are compared with experimentally measured data at non-reacting conditions and it is confirmed that these are in good agreement. At the reacting conditions, predicted flame shapes are compared with OH PLIF measurements. The transfer function of the heat release due to inlet velocity forcing at 40 Hz and 160 Hz frequencies is also compared with the experimental data. These are in good agreement, including the nonlinear response of heat release. The transfer function is highly related to the flow field. The non-linearity of the transfer function can be traced to the interaction of the flow field in the combustion chamber with the combustion process itself.

Author(s):  
C. F. Zeng ◽  
J. X. Zhao ◽  
Z. T. Ding

In this paper the numerical method is adopted to predict the combustion recirculating flow behind flame-holders. A modified k-ε turbulence model and Magnussen’s combustion model are employed. Becouse of the large variation of density in combustion flow field, the influences of variable density have been considered. The results predicted include: the combustion recirculating flow field and the flame spreading; the variation of recirculation length with equivalence ratio, and inlet velocity, etc. All of these are qualitatively good comparing with experimental results.


Author(s):  
Gasser Hassan ◽  
Mohamed Pourkashanian ◽  
Derek Ingham ◽  
Lin Ma ◽  
Stephen Taylor

This study is concerned with building a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the combustion process occurring in the combustion chamber of some domestic boilers. The burner used in this boiler is a conventional cylindrical premix burner with small inlet holes on its surface. A two-dimensional CFD model is built to simulate the combustion chamber domain, and the partially premixed combustion model with a postprocessor for NOx calculations is used to simulate the combustion process inside the combustion chamber. A complete description of the formation characteristics of NOx produced from the boiler is discussed in detail. A comparison between the CFD numerical results and the experimental measurements at different boiler loads is performed in order to validate the numerical model and investigate the accuracy of the CFD model. The validated CFD model is used to investigate the effect of different boundaries temperatures and the mixture inlet velocity on the flue gas average temperature, residence time, and hence the CO and NOx concentrations produced from the combustion chamber. The concept of changing the mixture inlet velocity is found to be an effective method to improve the design of the burner in order to reduce the pollutant emissions produced from the boiler with no effect on the boiler efficiency.


Author(s):  
Gasser Hassan ◽  
Mohamed Pourkashanian ◽  
Derek Ingham ◽  
Lin Ma ◽  
Stephen Taylor

This study is concerned with building a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the combustion process occurring in the combustion chamber of some domestic boilers. The burner used in this boiler is a conventional cylindrical premix burner with small inlet holes on its surface. A two-dimensional (2D) CFD model is built to simulate the combustion chamber domain and the partially premixed combustion model with a postprocessor for NOx calculations is used to simulate the combustion process inside the combustion chamber. A complete description of the formation characteristics of NOx produced from the boiler is discussed in detail. A comparison between the CFD numerical results and the experimental measurements at different boiler loads is performed in order to validate the numerical model and investigate the accuracy of the CFD model. The validated CFD model is used to investigate the effect of different boundaries temperatures and the mixture inlet velocity on the flue gas average temperature, residence time and hence the CO and NOx concentrations produced from the combustion chamber. The concept of changing the mixture inlet velocity is found to be an effective method to improve the design of the burner in order to reduce the pollutant emissions produced from the boiler with no effect on the boiler efficiency.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2729
Author(s):  
Ireneusz Pielecha ◽  
Sławomir Wierzbicki ◽  
Maciej Sidorowicz ◽  
Dariusz Pietras

The development of internal combustion engines involves various new solutions, one of which is the use of dual-fuel systems. The diversity of technological solutions being developed determines the efficiency of such systems, as well as the possibility of reducing the emission of carbon dioxide and exhaust components into the atmosphere. An innovative double direct injection system was used as a method for forming a mixture in the combustion chamber. The tests were carried out with the use of gasoline, ethanol, n-heptane, and n-butanol during combustion in a model test engine—the rapid compression machine (RCM). The analyzed combustion process indicators included the cylinder pressure, pressure increase rate, heat release rate, and heat release value. Optical tests of the combustion process made it possible to analyze the flame development in the observed area of the combustion chamber. The conducted research and analyses resulted in the observation that it is possible to control the excess air ratio in the direct vicinity of the spark plug just before ignition. Such possibilities occur as a result of the properties of the injected fuels, which include different amounts of air required for their stoichiometric combustion. The studies of the combustion process have shown that the combustible mixtures consisting of gasoline with another fuel are characterized by greater combustion efficiency than the mixtures composed of only a single fuel type, and that the influence of the type of fuel used is significant for the combustion process and its indicator values.


2014 ◽  
Vol 984-985 ◽  
pp. 957-961
Author(s):  
Vijayashree ◽  
P. Tamil Porai ◽  
N.V. Mahalakshmi ◽  
V. Ganesan

This paper presents the modeling of in-cylinder pressure variation of a four-stroke single cylinder spark ignition engine. It uses instantaneous properties of working fluid, viz., gasoline to calculate heat release rates, needed to quantify combustion development. Cylinder pressure variation with respect to either volume or crank angle gives valuable information about the combustion process. The analysis of the pressure – volume or pressure-theta data of a engine cycle is a classical tool for engine studies. This paper aims at demonstrating the modeling of pressure variation as a function of crank angle as well as volume with the help of MATLAB program developed for this purpose. Towards this end, Woschni heat release model is used for the combustion process. The important parameter, viz., peak pressure for different compression ratios are used in the analysis. Predicted results are compared with experimental values obtained for a typical compression ratio of 8.3.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 492-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Giezendanner ◽  
P. Weigand ◽  
X. R. Duan ◽  
W. Meier ◽  
U. Meier ◽  
...  

The driving mechanism of pulsations in gas turbine combustors depends on a complex interaction between flow field, chemistry, heat release, and acoustics. Experimental data on all these factors are therefore required to obtain insight into the coupling mechanisms during a pulsation period. In order to develop a comprehensive experimental database to support a phenomenological understanding and to provide validation data for numerical simulation, a standard burner for optical investigations was established that exhibits strong self-excited oscillations. The burner was a swirl-stabilized nonpremixed model combustor designed for gas turbine applications and operated using methane as fuel at atmospheric pressure. It was mounted in a combustion chamber, which provides almost unobstructed optical access. The periodic combustion instabilities were studied by a variety of phase-resolved laser-based diagnostic techniques, locked to the frequency of the dominant pressure oscillation. Measurement techniques used were LDV for velocity measurements, planar laser-induced fluorescence for imaging of CH and OH radicals, and laser Raman scattering for the determination of the major species concentrations, temperature, and mixture fraction. The phase-resolved measurements revealed significant variations of all measured quantities in the vicinity of the nozzle exit, which trailed off quickly with increasing distance. A strong correlation of the heat release rate and axial velocity at the nozzle was observed, while the mean mixture fraction as well as the temperature in the periphery of the flame is phase shifted with respect to axial velocity oscillations. A qualitative interpretation of the experimental observations is given, which will help to form a better understanding of the interaction between flow field, mixing, heat release, and temperature in pulsating reacting flows, particularly when accompanied by corresponding CFD simulations that are currently underway.


Author(s):  
Brian Jones ◽  
Jong Guen Lee ◽  
Bryan D. Quay ◽  
Domenic A. Santavicca

The response of turbulent premixed flames to inlet velocity fluctuations is studied experimentally in a lean premixed, swirl-stabilized, gas turbine combustor. Overall chemiluminescence intensity is used as a measure of the fluctuations in the flame’s global heat release rate, and hot wire anemometry is used to measure the inlet velocity fluctuations. Tests are conducted over a range of mean inlet velocities, equivalence ratios, and velocity fluctuation frequencies, while the normalized inlet velocity fluctuation (V′/Vmean) is fixed at 5% to ensure linear flame response over the employed modulation frequency range. The measurements are used to calculate a flame transfer function relating the velocity fluctuation to the heat release fluctuation as a function of the velocity fluctuation frequency. At low frequency, the gain of the flame transfer function increases with increasing frequency to a peak value greater than 1. As the frequency is further increased, the gain decreases to a minimum value, followed by a second smaller peak. The frequencies at which the gain is minimum and achieves its second peak are found to depend on the convection time scale and the flame’s characteristic length scale. Phase-synchronized CH∗ chemiluminescence imaging is used to characterize the flame’s response to inlet velocity fluctuations. The observed flame response can be explained in terms of the interaction of two flame perturbation mechanisms, one originating at flame-anchoring point and propagating along the flame front and the other from vorticity field generated in the outer shear layer in the annular mixing section. An analysis of the phase-synchronized flame images show that when both perturbations arrive at the flame at the same time (or phase), they constructively interfere, producing the second peak observed in the gain curves. When the perturbations arrive at the flame 180 degrees out-of-phase, they destructively interfere, producing the observed minimum in the gain curve.


Author(s):  
Long Liu ◽  
Xia Wen ◽  
Qian Xiong ◽  
Xiuzhen Ma

Abstract With energy shortages and increasing environmental problems, natural gas, as a clean energy, has the advantages of cheap price and large reserves and has become one of the main alternative fuels for marine diesel engines. For large bore natural gas engines, pre-chamber spark plug ignition can be used to increase engine efficiency. The engine mainly relies on the flame ejected from the pre-chamber to ignite the mixture of natural gas and air in the main combustion chamber. The ignition flame in the main combustion chamber is the main factor affecting the combustion process. Although the pre-chamber natural gas engines have been extensively studied, the characteristics of combustion in the pre-chamber and the development of ignition flame in the main combustion chamber have not been fully understood. In this study, a two-zone phenomenological combustion model of pre-chamber spark-ignition natural gas engines is established based on the exchange of mass and energy of the gas flow process in the pre-chamber and the main combustion chamber. The basic characteristics of the developed model are: a spherical flame surface is used to describe the combustion state in the pre-chamber, and according to the turbulent jet theory, the influence of turbulence on the state of the pilot flame is considered based on the Reynolds number. According to the phenomenological model, the time when the flame starts to be injected from the pre-chamber to the main combustion chamber, and the parameters such as the length of the pilot flame are analyzed. The model was verified by experimental data, and the results showed that the calculated values were in good agreement with the experimental values. It provides an effective tool for mastering the law of flame development and supporting the optimization of combustion efficiency.


Author(s):  
Ruitao Song ◽  
Gerald Gentz ◽  
Guoming Zhu ◽  
Elisa Toulson ◽  
Harold Schock

A turbulent jet ignition system of a spark ignited (SI) engine consists of pre-combustion and main-combustion chambers, where the combustion in the main-combustion chamber is initiated by turbulent jets of reacting products from the pre-combustion chamber. If the gas exchange and combustion processes are accurately controlled, the highly distributed ignition will enable very fast combustion and improve combustion stability under lean operations, which leads to high thermal efficiency, knock limit extension, and near zero NOx emissions. For model-based control, a precise combustion model is a necessity. This paper presents a control-oriented jet ignition combustion model, which is developed based on simplified fluid dynamics and thermodynamics, and implemented into a dSPACE based real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation environment. The two-zone combustion model is developed to simulate the combustion process in two combustion chambers. Correspondingly, the gas flowing through the orifices between two combustion chambers is divided into burned and unburned gases during the combustion process. The pressure traces measured from a rapid compression machine (RCM), equipped with a jet igniter, are used for initial model validation. The HIL simulation results show a good agreement with the experimental data.


Author(s):  
Yoshiyuki Kidoguchi ◽  
Michiko Sanda ◽  
Kei Miwa

Abstract This study investigated the effect of combustion chamber geometry and initial mixture distribution on combustion process in a direct-injection diesel engine by means of experiment and CFD calculation. The high squish combustion chamber with squish lip could produce simultaneous reduction of NOx and particulate emissions with retarded injection timing in the real engine experiment. According to the CFD computation, the high squish combustion chamber with central pip is effective to continue combustion under the squish lip until the end of combustion and the combustion region forms rich and high turbulence atmosphere, which reduces NOx emissions. This chamber can also reduce initial burning because combustion continues under the squish lip. The CFD computation is also carried out in order to investigate the effect of initial mixture distribution on combustion process. The results suggest that mixture distribution affects the history of heat release rate. When fuel is distributed in the bottom or wide region in the combustion chamber, burned gas tends to spread to the cavity center and initial heat release rate becomes high. On the contrary, the high squish combustion chamber with central pip produces lower initial heat release rate because combustion with local rich condition continues long under the squish lip. Diffusion burning is promoted by high swirl motion in this chamber with keeping lower initial heat release rate.


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