Experimental Investigation of the Flashback Limits and Flame Propagation Mechanisms for Premixed Hydrogen-Air Flames in Non-Swirling and Swirling Flow

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Baumgartner ◽  
Thomas Sattelmayer
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Flame Propagation ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Swirling Flow ◽  
Laser Sheet ◽  
Mie Scattering ◽  
Propagation Path ◽  
Wall Boundary Layer ◽  
Wall Boundary

In modern industrial gas turbines swirling flow is widely used for stabilizing flames at the transition from the burner to the combustor. In premixed combustion systems using highly reactive fuels, flashback due to combustion induced vortex breakdown (CIVB) has been observed frequently when swirl was present. This paper focuses on the effect of low swirl intensities on the flashback propensity and the predominant flashback mechanisms in a hydrogen-air tube burner. An existing test rig with a vertical quartz tube and a generic swirl generator has been used. At the tube exit the flame was stabilized in the free atmosphere. The turbulent flashback limits were measured for hydrogen-air mixtures at atmospheric conditions over a broad range of equivalence ratios for both non-swirling and swirling flow. The upstream flame propagation during flashback was observed through the OH*-chemiluminescence captured by two synchronized intensified high-speed cameras in a 90° arrangement, both looking at the flame from the side. In addition to that, a high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) system was used to insert a horizontal laser sheet into the vertical tube in order to investigate the propagation path of the leading flame tip through a time series of Mie-scattering images from the bottom. As expected, it turned out that the flame always flashes back along the wall boundary layer for non-swirling flow. For swirling flow it could be shown that again only boundary layer flashback takes place for equivalence ratios lower than ϕ≈0.75. In this rather lean region, the resistance against flashback is improved compared to non-swirling flow due to higher wall velocity gradients. For higher equivalence ratios, flashback is initiated through CIVB. That is, the flame enters the tube on the burner centerline until its tail gets in touch with the burner walls. Subsequently, there is a shift in flashback mechanism and the flame propagates further upstream along the wall boundary layer. For the given setup and these near-stoichiometric mixture compositions, this resulted in a significantly increased flashback propensity when compared with non-swirling flames. The present studies showed that imposing low swirl upon the burner flow can improve the resistance against boundary layer flashback for low and moderate equivalence ratios, whereas the change to the CIVB mechanism deteriorates the performance for high equivalence ratios.

Flashback in a Swirl Burner With Cylindrical Premixing Zone

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jassin Fritz ◽  
Martin Kröner ◽  
Thomas Sattelmayer
Keyword(s):  
Flame Propagation ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Vortex Breakdown ◽  
Swirling Flow ◽  
Laser Doppler Anemometry ◽  
Burning Velocity ◽  
Turbulent Flame ◽  
Measurement Techniques ◽  
Mean Flow

Flame flashback from the combustion chamber into the mixing zone is one of the inherent problems of lean premixed combustion and essentially determines the reliability of low NOx burners. Generally, flashback can be initiated by one of the following four phenomena: flashback due to the conditions in the boundary layer, flashback due to turbulent flame propagation in the core flow, flashback induced by combustion instabilities and flashback caused by combustion induced vortex breakdown. In this study, flashback in a swirling tubular flow was investigated. In order to draw maximum benefit from the tests with respect to the application in gas turbines, the radial distribution of the axial and circumferential momentum in the tube was selected such that the typical character of a flow in mixing zones of premix burners without centerbody was obtained. A single burner test rig has been designed to provoke flashback with the preheating temperature, the equivalence ratio and the mean flow rate being the influencing parameters. The flame position within the mixing section is detected by a special optical flame sensor array, which allows the control of the experiment and furthermore the triggering of the measurement techniques. The burning velocity of the fuel has been varied by using natural gas or hydrogen. The characteristics of the flashback, the unsteady swirling flow during the flame propagation, the flame dynamics and the reaction zones have been investigated by applying High Speed Video recordings, the Laser Doppler Anemometry and the Laser Induced Fluorescence. The presented results show that a combustion induced vortex breakdown is the dominating mechansim of the observed flashback. This mechanism is very sensitive to the momentum distribution in the vortex core. By adding axial momentum around the mixing tube axis, the circumferential velocity gradient is reduced and flashback can be prevented.

Flashback in a Swirl Burner With Cylindrical Premixing Zone

2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Fritz ◽  
M. Kro¨ner ◽  
T. Sattelmayer
Keyword(s):  
Flame Propagation ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Vortex Breakdown ◽  
Swirling Flow ◽  
Laser Doppler Anemometry ◽  
Burning Velocity ◽  
Turbulent Flame ◽  
Measurement Techniques ◽  
Mean Flow

Flame flashback from the combustion chamber into the mixing zone is one of the inherent problems of lean premixed combustion and essentially determines the reliability of low NOx burners. Generally, flashback can be initiated by one of the following four phenomena: flashback due to the conditions in the boundary layer, flashback due to turbulent flame propagation in the core flow, flashback induced by combustion instabilities and flashback caused by combustion induced vortex breakdown. In this study, flashback in a swirling tubular flow was investigated. In order to draw maximum benefit from the tests with respect to the application in gas turbines, the radial distribution of the axial and circumferential momentum in the tube was selected such that the typical character of a flow in mixing zones of premix burners without centerbody was obtained. A single burner test rig has been designed to provoke flashback with the preheating temperature, the equivalence ratio and the mean flow rate being the influencing parameters. The flame position within the mixing section is detected by a special optical flame sensor array, which allows the control of the experiment and furthermore the triggering of the measurement techniques. The burning velocity of the fuel has been varied by using natural gas or hydrogen. The characteristics of the flashback, the unsteady swirling flow during the flame propagation, the flame dynamics and the reaction zones have been investigated by applying high-speed video recordings, the laser Doppler anemometry and the laser induced fluorescence. The presented results show that a combustion induced vortex breakdown is the dominating mechanism of the observed flashback. This mechanism is very sensitive to the momentum distribution in the vortex core. By adding axial momentum around the mixing tube axis, the circumferential velocity gradient is reduced and flashback can be prevented.

Experiments on Flame Flashback in a Quasi-2D Turbulent Wall Boundary Layer for Premixed Methane-Hydrogen-Air Mixtures

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Eichler ◽  
Thomas Sattelmayer
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Boundary Layers ◽  
Turbulent Flows ◽  
Turbulent Transport ◽  
Wall Friction ◽  
Evaluation Procedure ◽  
Wall Boundary Layer ◽  
Wall Boundary ◽  
Flame Flashback ◽  
Turbulent Wall

Premixed combustion of hydrogen-rich mixtures involves the risk of flame flashback through wall boundary layers. For laminar flow conditions, the flashback mechanism is well understood and is usually correlated by a critical velocity gradient at the wall. Turbulent transport inside the boundary layer considerably increases the flashback propensity. Only tube burner setups have been investigated in the past and thus turbulent flashback limits were only derived for a fully-developed Blasius wall friction profile. For turbulent flows, details of the flame propagation in proximity to the wall remain unclear. This paper presents results from a new experimental combustion rig, apt for detailed optical investigations of flame flashbacks in a turbulent wall boundary layer developing on a flat plate and being subject to an adjustable pressure gradient. Turbulent flashback limits are derived from the observed flame position inside the measurement section. The fuels investigated cover mixtures of methane, hydrogen and air at various mixing ratios. The associated wall friction distributions are determined by RANS computations of the flow inside the measurement section with fully resolved boundary layers. Consequently, the interaction between flame back pressure and incoming flow is not taken into account explicitly, in accordance with the evaluation procedure used for tube burner experiments. The results are compared to literature values and the critical gradient concept is reviewed in light of the new data.

Boundary Layer Flashback Limits of Hydrogen-Methane-Air Flames in a Generic Swirl Burner at Gas Turbine Relevant Conditions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Ebi ◽  
Peter Jansohn
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Wall Temperature ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Preheat Temperature ◽  
Swirl Burner ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract Operating stationary gas turbines on hydrogen-rich fuels offers a pathway to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the power generation sector. A key challenge in the design of lean-premixed burners, which are flexible in terms of the amount of hydrogen in the fuel across a wide range and still adhere to the required emissions levels, is to prevent flame flashback. However, systematic investigations on flashback at gas turbine relevant conditions to support combustor development are sparse. The current work addresses the need for an improved understanding with an experimental study on boundary layer flashback in a generic swirl burner up to 7.5 bar and 300° C preheat temperature. Methane-hydrogen-air flames with 50 to 85% hydrogen by volume were investigated. High-speed imaging was applied to reveal the flame propagation pathway during flashback events. Flashback limits are reported in terms of the equivalence ratio for a given pressure, preheat temperature, bulk flow velocity and hydrogen content. The wall temperature of the center body along which the flame propagated during flashback events has been controlled by an oil heating/cooling system. This way, the effect any of the control parameters, e.g. pressure, had on the flashback limit was de-coupled from the otherwise inherently associated change in heat load on the wall and thus change in wall temperature. The results show that the preheat temperature has a weaker effect on the flashback propensity than expected. Increasing the pressure from atmospheric conditions to 2.5 bar strongly increases the flashback risk, but hardly affects the flashback limit beyond 2.5 bar.

Wall Boundary Layers in Turbomachines

1972 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 411-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Marsh ◽  
J. H. Horlock
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Integral Equations ◽  
Cross Flow ◽  
Inlet Guide Vanes ◽  
Wall Boundary Layer ◽  
Wall Boundary ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
The Many ◽  
Momentum Integral

Equations for the passage-averaged flow in a cascade are used to derive the momentum integral equations governing the development of the wall boundary layer in turbomachines. Several existing methods of analysis are discussed and an alternative approach is given which is based on the passage-averaged momentum integral equations. The analysis leads to an anomaly in the prediction of the cross flow and to avoid this it is suggested that for the many-bladed cascade there should be a variation of the blade force through the boundary layer. This variation of the blade force can be included in the analysis as a force deficit integral. The growth of the wall boundary layer has been calculated by four methods and the predictions are compared with two sets of published experimental results for flow through inlet guide vanes.

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