Numerical Simulations of Turbulent Mixing and Autoignition of Hydrogen Fuel at Reheat Combustor Operating Conditions

Author(s):  
Elizaveta Ivanova ◽  
Berthold Noll ◽  
Peter Griebel ◽  
Manfred Aigner ◽  
Khawar Syed

Turbulent mixing and autoignition of H2-rich fuels at relevant reheat combustor operating conditions are investigated in the present numerical study. The flow configuration under consideration is a fuel jet perpendicularly injected into a crossflow of hot flue gas (T > 1000K, p = 15bar). Based on the results of the experimental study for the same flow configuration and operating conditions two different fuel blends are chosen for the numerical simulations. The first fuel blend is a H2/natural gas/N2 mixture at which no autoignition events were observed in the experiments. The second fuel blend is a H2/N2 mixture at which autoignition in the mixing section occurred. First, the non-reacting flow simulations are performed for the H2/natural gas/N2 mixture in order to compare the accuracy of different turbulence modeling methods. Here the steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) as well as the unsteady scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) turbulence modeling methods are applied. The velocity fields obtained in both simulations are directly validated against experimental data. The SAS method shows better agreement with the experimental results. In the second part of the present work the autoignition of the H2/N2 mixture is numerically studied using the 9-species 21-steps reaction mechanism of O’Conaire et al. [1]. As in the reference experiments, autoignition can be observed in the simulations. Influences of the turbulence modeling as well as of the hot flue gas temperature are investigated. The onset and the propagation of the ignition kernels are studied based on the SAS modeling results. The obtained numerical results are discussed and compared with data from experimental autoignition studies.

Author(s):  
Elizaveta M. Ivanova ◽  
Berthold E. Noll ◽  
Peter Griebel ◽  
Manfred Aigner ◽  
Khawar Syed

Turbulent mixing and autoignition of H2-rich fuels at relevant reheat combustor operating conditions are investigated in the present numerical study. The flow configuration under consideration is a fuel jet perpendicularly injected into a crossflow of hot flue gas (T>1000K,p=15 bar). Based on the results of the experimental study for the same flow configuration and operating conditions, two different fuel blends are chosen for the numerical simulations. The first fuel blend is a H2/natural gas/N2 mixture at which no autoignition events were observed in the experiments. The second fuel blend is a H2/N2 mixture at which autoignition in the mixing section occurred. First, the non-reacting flow simulations are performed for the H2/natural gas/N2 mixture in order to compare the accuracy of different turbulence modeling methods. Here, the steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier- Stokes (RANS) as well as the unsteady scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) turbulence modeling methods are applied. The velocity fields obtained in both simulations are directly validated against experimental data. The SAS method shows better agreement with the experimental results. In the second part of the present work, the autoignition of the H2/N2 mixture is numerically studied using the 9-species 21-steps reaction mechanism of O’Conaire et al. (Int. J. Chem. Kinet., 36(11), 2004). As in the reference experiments, autoignition can be observed in the simulations. Influences of the turbulence modeling as well as of the hot flue gas temperature are investigated. The onset and the propagation of the ignition kernels are studied based on the SAS modeling results. The obtained numerical results are discussed and compared with data from experimental autoignition studies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 779 ◽  
pp. 411-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Oggian ◽  
D. Drikakis ◽  
D. L. Youngs ◽  
R. J. R. Williams

Both experiments and numerical simulations pertinent to the study of self-similarity in shock-induced turbulent mixing often do not cover sufficiently long times for the mixing layer to become developed in a fully turbulent manner. When the Mach number of the flow is sufficiently low, numerical simulations based on the compressible flow equations tend to become less accurate due to inherent numerical cancellation errors. This paper concerns a numerical study of the late-time behaviour of a single-shocked Richtmyer–Meshkov instability (RMI) and the associated compressible turbulent mixing using a new technique that addresses the above limitation. The present approach exploits the fact that the RMI is a compressible flow during the early stages of the simulation and incompressible at late times. Therefore, depending on the compressibility of the flow field, the most suitable model, compressible or incompressible, can be employed. This motivates the development of a hybrid compressible–incompressible solver that removes the low-Mach-number limitations of the compressible solvers, thus allowing numerical simulations of late-time mixing. Simulations have been performed for a multi-mode perturbation at the interface between two fluids of densities corresponding to an Atwood number of 0.5, and results are presented for the development of the instability, mixing parameters and turbulent kinetic energy spectra. The results are discussed in comparison with previous compressible simulations, theory and experiments.


Author(s):  
Martia Shahsavan ◽  
Mohammadrasool Morovatiyan ◽  
J. Hunter Mack

Natural gas is traditionally considered as a promising fuel in comparison to gasoline due to the potential of lower emissions and significant domestic reserves. These emissions can be further diminished by using noble gases, such as argon, instead of nitrogen as the working fluid in internal combustion engines. Furthermore, the use of argon as the working fluid can increase the thermodynamic efficiency due to its higher specific heat ratio. In comparison to pre-mixed operation, the direct injection of natural gas enables the engine to reach higher compression ratios while avoiding knock. Using argon as the working fluid increases the in-cylinder temperature at top dead center and enables the compression ignition of natural gas. In this numerical study, the combustion quality and ignition behavior of methane injected into a mixture of oxygen and argon has been investigated using a three-dimensional transient model of a constant volume combustion chamber. A dynamic structure large eddy simulation model has been utilized to capture the behavior of the non-premixed turbulent gaseous jet. A reduced mechanism consists of 22-species and 104-reactions were coupled with the CFD solver. The simulation results show that the methane jet ignites at engine-relevant conditions when nitrogen is replaced by argon as the working fluid. Ignition delay times are compared across a variety of operating conditions to show how mixing affects jet development and flame characteristics.


Author(s):  
Martia Shahsavan ◽  
Mohammadrasool Morovatiyan ◽  
J. Hunter Mack

Natural gas is traditionally considered as a promising fuel in comparison with gasoline due to the potential of lower emissions and significant domestic reserves. These emissions can be further diminished by using noble gases, such as argon, instead of nitrogen as the working fluid in internal combustion engines. Furthermore, the use of argon as the working fluid can increase the thermodynamic efficiency due to its higher specific heat ratio. In comparison with premixed operation, the direct injection of natural gas enables the engine to reach higher compression ratios while avoiding knock. Using argon as the working fluid increases the in-cylinder temperature at top dead center (TDC) and enables the compression ignition (CI) of natural gas. In this numerical study, the combustion quality and ignition behavior of methane injected into a mixture of oxygen and argon have been investigated using a three-dimensional transient model of a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC). A dynamic structure large eddy simulation (LES) model has been utilized to capture the behavior of the nonpremixed turbulent gaseous jet. A reduced mechanism consists of 22-species, and 104-reactions were coupled with the CFD solver. The simulation results show that the methane jet ignites at engine-relevant conditions when nitrogen is replaced by argon as the working fluid. Ignition delay times are compared across a variety of operating conditions to show how mixing affects jet development and flame characteristics.


Author(s):  
Stefan Fischer ◽  
David Kluß ◽  
Franz Joos

Flue gas recirculation in combined cycle power plants using hydrocarbon fuels is a promising technology for increasing the efficiency of the post combustion carbon capture and storage process. However, the operation with flue gas recirculation significantly changes the combustion behavior within the gas turbine. In this paper the effects of external flue gas recirculation on the combustion behavior of a generic gas turbine combustor was experimentally investigated. While prior studies have been performed with natural gas, the focus of this paper lies on the investigation of the combustion behavior of alternative fuel gases at atmospheric conditions, namely typical biogas mixtures and syngas. The flue gas recirculation ratio and the fuel mass flow were varied to establish the operating region of stable flammability. In addition to the experimental investigations, a numerical study of the combustive reactivity under flue gas recirculation conditions was performed. Finally, a prediction of blowout limits was performed using a perfectly stirred reactor approach and the experimental natural gas lean extinction data as a reference. The extinction limits under normal (non-vitiated) and flue gas recirculation conditions can be predicted well for all the fuels investigated.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Cemal Benim ◽  
Sohail Iqbal ◽  
Franz Joos ◽  
Alexander Wiedermann

Turbulent reacting flows in a generic swirl gas turbine combustor are investigated numerically. Turbulence is modelled by a URANS formulation in combination with the SST turbulence model, as the basic modelling approach. For comparison, URANS is applied also in combination with the RSM turbulence model to one of the investigated cases. For this case, LES is also used for turbulence modelling. For modelling turbulence-chemistry interaction, a laminar flamelet model is used, which is based on the mixture fraction and the reaction progress variable. This model is implemented in the open source CFD code OpenFOAM, which has been used as the basis for the present investigation. For validation purposes, predictions are compared with the measurements for a natural gas flame with external flue gas recirculation. A good agreement with the experimental data is observed. Subsequently, the numerical study is extended to syngas, for comparing its combustion behavior with that of natural gas. Here, the analysis is carried out for cases without external flue gas recirculation. The computational model is observed to provide a fair prediction of the experimental data and predict the increased flashback propensity of syngas.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martia Shahsavan ◽  
Mohammadrasool Morovatiyan ◽  
John Hunter Mack

Natural gas is traditionally considered as a promising fuel in comparison to gasoline due to the potential of lower emissions and significant domestic reserves. These emissions can be further diminished by using noble gases, such as argon, instead of nitrogen as the working fluid in internal combustion engines. Furthermore, the use of argon as the working fluid can increase the thermodynamic efficiency due to its higher specific heat ratio. In comparison to pre-mixed operation, the direct injection of natural gas enables the engine to reach higher compression ratios while avoiding knock. Using argon as the working fluid increases the in-cylinder temperature at top dead center and enables the compression ignition of natural gas. In this numerical study, the combustion quality and ignition behavior of methane injected into a mixture of oxygen and argon has been investigated using a three-dimensional transient model of a constant volume combustion chamber. A dynamic structure large eddy simulation model has been utilized to capture the behavior of the non-premixed turbulent gaseous jet. A reduced mechanism consists of 22-species and 104-reactions were coupled with the CFD solver. The simulation results show that the methane jet ignites at engine-relevant conditions when nitrogen is replaced by argon as the working fluid. Ignition delay times are compared across a variety of operating conditions to show how mixing affects jet development and flame characteristics.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martia Shahsavan ◽  
Mohammadrasool Morovatiyan ◽  
Mammadbaghir Baghirzade ◽  
John Hunter Mack

Natural gas is known as a relatively clean fossil fuel due to its low carbon to hydrogen ratio compared to other transportation fuels, which yields a reduction of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and unburned hydrocarbons emissions. However, it has a low cetane number, which makes it a difficult fuel for use in compression ignition engines. A potential solution for this issue can be adding small amounts of argon, as a noble gas with a low specific heat to modify the intake conditions. In this numerical study, a commercial compression ignition engine has been modeled to evaluate the auto-ignition of natural gas with the modified intake conditions. Different amounts of argon added to the intake air are examined in order to attain the optimal operating conditions. A detailed chemistry solver is implemented on a 53-species chemical kinetics mechanism to calculate the rate constants. The results show that compression ignition of natural gas can be achieved by adding small amounts of argon to the intake air. It drastically increases the in-cylinder temperature and pressure near TDC, which enables the auto-ignition of the injected natural gas. Moreover, it leads to the reduction in ignition delay and heat release rate, and expands the combustion duration. Emissions analysis indicates that NOx and CO2 can be significantly diminished by increasing the amount of argon in the intake composition. This study introduces an efficient and clean compression ignition engine fueled with natural gas running in optimal operating conditions using argon addition to the intake.


Author(s):  
Vishnu Teja Vithala ◽  
John Hoard ◽  
Dennis Assanis ◽  
Daniel Styles

A 3-D numerical study of turbulent mixing characteristics of air and exhaust gas in a low pressure EGR system (LP-EGR) has been performed under typical operating conditions. There are two objectives of this study. The first objective of the study is to understand and quantify the effects of following factors on mixing quality of exhaust gas and intake air: a) Rate of generation and dissipation of turbulence in the near mixing zone. b) Swirl induced due to formation of counter rotating vortex pairs (CVPs). c) Impingement of the EGR jet on the opposite wall of the intake manifold. The second objective of this study is to understand mixing quality with respect to pressure drop. Under typical conditions, on the low pressure side of the turbocharger, the pressure drop available to ensure required mass flow rate of EGR into the intake air is minimal. Hence, different EGR inlet configurations have been modeled to calculate the mixing quality along with the pressure drops. Some of configurations that have been studied are the effect of varying the diameter of EGR inlet tube, varying the insertion of EGR inlet tube into the intake air duct, angular injection, mixing elbow, multi-point EGR injection, EGR tube with multiple nozzles, venturi configuration, EGR flow control valve at EGR inlet etc. The above mixers have been compared by plotting respective mixing quality vs. EGR-side pressure drop and air-side pressure drop on a 3-D scatter plot at various operating conditions of the engine. One of the important conclusions of the study is that, in the range of operating conditions considered, a simple T-Junction like configuration, which generates maximum local turbulence and allows uninhibited formation and propagation of counter rotating vortex pairs, provides the best mixing quality with the least pressure drop.


Author(s):  
Rainer Lu¨ckerath ◽  
Wolfgang Meier ◽  
Manfred Aigner

In Flameless Oxidation (FLOX®) the combustion is distributed over a large volume by a high internal flue gas recirculation. This technology has been successfully used for many years in technical furnaces under atmospheric conditions with very low NOx emissions. In the work presented here, FLOX® combustion was for the first time investigated at high pressure in order to assess its applicability for gas turbine combustors. A FLOX® burner was equipped with a combustion chamber with quartz windows and installed into a high pressure test rig with optical access. The burner was operated under typical gas turbine conditions at pressure of 20 bar with thermal powers up to 475 kW. Natural gas as well as mixtures of natural gas and H2 were used as fuel. The NOx and CO emissions were recorded for the different operating conditions. OH* chemiluminescence imaging and planar laser-induced fluorescence of OH were applied in order to characterize the flame zone and the relative temperature distributions. The combustion behaviour was investigated as a function of equivalence ratio and fuel composition, and the influence of the gas inlet velocity on mixing and emissions was studied. For various operating conditions the lean extinction limits were determined.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document