Effect of Hydrogen on Steady-State and Transient Combustion Instability Characteristics

Author(s):  
John Strollo ◽  
Stephen Peluso ◽  
Jacqueline O’Connor

Abstract This paper examines the effects of steady-state and transient hydrogen enrichment on thermoacoustic instability in a model gas turbine combustor. Combustion instability, a feedback loop between flame heat release rate oscillations and combustor acoustics, is characterized in a swirl-stabilized flame operated at a range of hydrogen-natural gas fuel blends and heat rates. Measurements of combustor chamber pressure fluctuations and CH* chemiluminescence imaging are used to characterize instability at a range of operating conditions. Steady-state tests show that both mixture heat rate and hydrogen content affect system stability. At a given heat rate, higher levels of hydrogen result in unstable combustion. As heat rate increases, instability occurs at lower concentrations of hydrogen in the fuel. Transient operation was tested in two directions — instability onset and decay — and two hydrogen-addition times — a short time of 1 millisecond and a longer time of 4 seconds. Results show that instability onset processes, through the transient addition of hydrogen, are highly repeatable regardless of the timescale of hydrogen addition. Certain instability decay processes are less repeatable, resulting in cases that do not fully transition from unstable to stable combustion despite similar changes in hydrogen fuel flow rate. Flame behavior before, during, and after the transient is characterized using high-speed CH* chemiluminescence imaging. Analysis of the high-speed images show changes in flame stabilization and dynamics during the onset and decay processes. The results of this study can have implications for systems that experience variations in fuel composition, particularly in light of growing interest in hydrogen as a renewable fuel.

Author(s):  
John Strollo ◽  
Stephen Peluso ◽  
Jacqueline O'Connor

Abstract This paper examines the effects of steady-state and transient hydrogen enrichment on thermoacoustic instability in a model gas turbine combustor. Measurements of combustor chamber pressure fluctuations and CH* chemiluminescence imaging are used to characterize instability at a range of operating conditions. Steady-state tests show that both mixture heat rate and hydrogen content affect system stability. At a given heat rate, higher levels of hydrogen result in unstable combustion. As heat rate increases, instability occurs at lower concentrations of hydrogen in the fuel. Transient operation was tested in two directions - instability onset and decay - and two hydrogen-addition times - a short time of 1 millisecond and a longer time of 4 seconds. Results show that instability onset processes, through the transient addition of hydrogen, are highly repeatable regardless of the timescale of hydrogen addition. Certain instability decay processes are less repeatable, resulting in cases that do not fully transition from unstable to stable combustion despite similar changes in hydrogen fuel flow rate. Flame behavior before, during, and after the transient is characterized using high-speed CH* chemiluminescence imaging. Analysis of the high-speed images show changes in flame stabilization and dynamics during the onset and decay processes. The results of this study can have implications for systems that experience variations in fuel composition, particularly in light of growing interest in hydrogen as a renewable fuel.


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph A. Schmalhofer ◽  
Peter Griebel ◽  
Manfred Aigner

The use of highly reactive hydrogen-rich fuels in lean premixed combustion systems strongly affects the operability of stationary gas turbines (GT) resulting in higher autoignition and flashback risks. The present study investigates the autoignition behavior and ignition kernel evolution of hydrogen–nitrogen fuel mixtures in an inline co-flow injector configuration at relevant reheat combustor operating conditions. High-speed luminosity and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements in an optically accessible reheat combustor are employed. Autoignition and flame stabilization limits strongly depend on temperatures of vitiated air and carrier preheating. Higher hydrogen content significantly promotes the formation and development of different types of autoignition kernels: More autoignition kernels evolve with higher hydrogen content showing the promoting effect of equivalence ratio on local ignition events. Autoignition kernels develop downstream a certain distance from the injector, indicating the influence of ignition delay on kernel development. The development of autoignition kernels is linked to the shear layer development derived from global experimental conditions.


Author(s):  
B. R. Nichols ◽  
R. L. Fittro ◽  
C. P. Goyne

Many high-speed, rotating machines across a wide range of industrial applications depend on fluid film bearings to provide both static support of the rotor and to introduce stabilizing damping forces into the system through a developed hydrodynamic film wedge. Reduced oil supply flow rate to the bearings can cause cavitation, or a lack of a fully developed film layer, at the leading edge of the bearing pads. Reducing oil flow has the well-documented effects of higher bearing operating temperatures and decreased power losses due to shear forces. While machine efficiency may be improved with reduced lubricant flow, little experimental data on its effects on system stability and performance can be found in the literature. This study looks at overall system performance of a test rig operating under reduced oil supply flow rates by observing steady-state bearing performance indicators and baseline vibrational response of the shaft. The test rig used in this study was designed to be dynamically similar to a high-speed industrial compressor. It consists of a 1.55 m long, flexible rotor supported by two tilting pad bearings with a nominal diameter of 70 mm and a span of 1.2 m. The first bending mode is located at approximately 5,000 rpm. The tiling-pad bearings consist of five pads in a vintage, flooded bearing housing with a length to diameter ratio of 0.75, preload of 0.3, and a load-between-pad configuration. Tests were conducted over a number of operating speeds, ranging from 8,000 to 12,000 rpm, and bearing loads, while systematically reducing the oil supply flow rates provided to the bearings under each condition. For nearly all operating conditions, a low amplitude, broadband subsynchronous vibration pattern was observed in the frequency domain from approximately 0–75 Hz. When the test rig was operated at running speeds above its first bending mode, a distinctive subsynchronous peak emerged from the broadband pattern at approximately half of the running speed and at the first bending mode of the shaft. This vibration signature is often considered a classic sign of rotordynamic instability attributed to oil whip and shaft whirl phenomena. For low and moderate load conditions, the amplitude of this 0.5x subsynchronous peak increased with decreasing oil supply flow rate at all operating speeds. Under the high load condition, the subsynchronous peak was largely attenuated. A discussion on the possible sources of this subsynchronous vibration including self-excited instability and pad flutter forced vibration is provided with supporting evidence from thermoelastohydrodynamic (TEHD) bearing modeling results. Implications of reduced oil supply flow rate on system stability and operational limits are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Jeongan Choi ◽  
Rajavasanth Rajasegar ◽  
Qili Liu ◽  
Tonghun Lee ◽  
Jihyung Yoo

Abstract In this work, the growth regime of combustion instability was studied by analyzing 10 kHz OH planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) images through a combination of dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) and spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) methods. Combustion instabilities were induced in a mesoscale burner array through an external speaker at an imposed perturbation frequency of 210 Hz. During the transient onset of combustion instabilities, 10 kHz OH PLIF imaging was employed to capture spatially and temporally resolved flame images. Increased acoustic perturbations prevented flame reignition in the central recirculation zone and eventually led to the flame being extinguished inwards from the outer burner array elements. Coherent modes and their growth rates were obtained from DMD spectral analyses of high-speed OH PLIF images. Positive growth rates were observed at the forcing frequency during the growth regime. Coherent structures, closely associated with thermoacoustic instability, were extracted using an appropriate SPOD filter operation to identify mode structures that correlate to physical phenomena such as shear layer instability and flame response to longitudinal acoustic forcing. Overall, a combination of DMD and SPOD was shown to be effective at analyzing the onset and propagation of combustion instabilities, particularly under transient burner operations.


Author(s):  
Adesile Ajisafe ◽  
Midhat Talibi ◽  
Andrea Ducci ◽  
Ramanarayanan Balachandran ◽  
Nishant Parsania ◽  
...  

Abstract Liquid fuel spray characterisation is essential for understanding the mechanisms underlying fuel energy release and pollutant formation. Careful selection of operating conditions can promote flow instabilities in the fuel spray which can enhance atomisation and fuel mixing, thereby resulting in more efficient combustion. However, the inherent instabilities present in the spray could have adverse effect on the combustor dynamics. Hence, it is important to better understand the dynamical behaviour of the spray, and particularly at representative operating conditions. This work describes an experimental investigation of dynamical behaviour of pressure-swirl atomisers used in Siemens industrial gas turbine combustors, at a range of chamber pressures and fuel injection pressures, using high speed laser planar imaging. Two modal decomposition techniques — Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) — are applied and compared to assess the spray dynamics. Results indicate that both POD and DMD are able to capture periodic structures occurring in the spray at different spatial length scales. The characteristic frequencies estimated from both the methods are in good agreement with each other. Both techniques are able to identify coherent structures with variable size, shape and level of staggering, which are observed to be dependent on the pressure difference across the atomiser and the chamber pressure. The spatio-temporally resolved data and the results could be used for spray model development and validation. Furthermore, the methods employed could be applied to other fuel atomisers, and more complicated conditions involving cross flow and higher chamber temperatures.


Author(s):  
Vineeth Nair ◽  
R. I. Sujith

The dynamic transitions preceding combustion instability and lean blowout were investigated experimentally in a laboratory scale turbulent combustor by systematically varying the flow Reynolds number. We observe that the onset of combustion-driven oscillations is always presaged by intermittent bursts of high-amplitude periodic oscillations that appear in a near random fashion amidst regions of aperiodic, low-amplitude fluctuations. The onset of high-amplitude, combustion-driven oscillations in turbulent combustors thus corresponds to a transition in dynamics from chaos to limit cycle oscillations through a state characterized as intermittency in dynamical systems theory. These excursions to periodic oscillations become last longer in time as operating conditions approach instability and finally the system transitions completely into periodic oscillations. Such intermittent oscillations emerge through the establishment of homoclinic orbits in the phase space of the global system which is composed of hydrodynamic and acoustic subsystems that operate over different time scales. Such intermittent burst oscillations are also observed in the combustor on increasing the Reynolds number further past conditions of combustion instability towards the lean blowout limit. High-speed flame images reveal that the intermittent states observed prior to lean blowout correspond to aperiodic detachment of the flame from the bluff-body lip. These intermittent oscillations are thus of prognostic value and can be utilized to provide early warning signals to combustion instability as well as lean blowout.


Author(s):  
Julia Fleck ◽  
Peter Griebel ◽  
Manfred Aigner ◽  
Adam M. Steinberg

Previous autoignition studies at conditions relevant to reheat combustor operation have indicated that the presence of relatively small amounts of natural gas (NG) in H2/N2 fuel significantly changes the autoignition behavior. The present study further elucidates the influence of NG on autoignition, kernel propagation, and subsequent flame stabilization at conditions that are relevant for the practical operation of gas turbine reheat combustors (p = 15 bar, Tinlet > 1000 K, hot flue gas, appropriate residence times). The experimental investigation was carried out in a generic, optically accessible reheat combustor. Autoignition events in the mixing zone were recorded by a high-speed camera at frame rates of up to 30,000 fps. This paper describes the autoignition behavior as the H2 volume fraction is increased (decreasing NG) in a H2/NG/N2 fuel mixture for two different jet penetration depths. Additionally, the subsequent flame stabilization phenomena and the structure of the stabilized flame are discussed. The results reveal that autoignition kernels occurred even for the lowest H2 fuel fraction, but they did not initiate a stable flame in the mixing zone. Increasing the H2 volume fraction decreased the distance between the initial position of the autoignition kernels and the fuel injector, finally leading to flame stabilization. The occurrence of autoignition kernels at lower H2 volume fractions (H2/(H2+NG) < 85%) was not found to be significantly influenced by the fluid dynamic and mixing field differences related to the different jet penetration depths. In contrast, autoignition leading to flame stabilization was found to depend on jet penetration; flame stabilization occurred at lower H2 fractions for the higher jet penetration depth (H2/(H2+NG) ≈ 89 compared to H2/(H2+NG) ≈ 95 vol. %).


2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Zhao ◽  
F. K. Choy ◽  
M. J. Braun

This paper describes a numerical procedure for analyzing the dynamics of transient and steady state vibrations in a wavy thrust bearing. The major effects of the wavy geometry and the operating parameters on the dynamic characteristics of the bearing had been discussed in a previous paper; the present paper thus concentrates on examining the relationships between the development of the transient and steady state vibrations when operating conditions are parametrically varied. Special attention is given to the development of steady state vibrations from initial transients with comparisons and consequences to the overall system stability. Numerical based vibration signature analysis procedures are then used to identify and quantify the transient vibrations. The conclusions provide general indicators for designing wavy thrust bearings that are less susceptible to transients induced by external perturbations.


Author(s):  
Arman Ahamed Subash ◽  
Haisol Kim ◽  
Sven-Inge Möller ◽  
Mattias Richter ◽  
Christian Brackmann ◽  
...  

Abstract Experimental investigations were performed using a standard 3rd generation dry low emission (DLE) burner under atmospheric pressure to study the effect of central and pilot fuel addition, load variations and H2 enrichment in a NG flame. High-speed OH-PLIF and OH-chemiluminescence imaging were employed to investigate the flame stabilization, flame turbulence interactions, and flame dynamics. Along with the optical measurements, combustion emissions were recorded to observe the effect of changing operating conditions on NOX level. The burner is used in Siemens industrial gas turbines SGT-600, SGT-700 and SGT-800 with minor hardware differences. This study thus is a step to characterize fuel and load flexibility for these turbines. Without pilot and central fuel injections in the current burner configuration, the main flame is stabilized creating a central recirculation zone. Addition of the pilot fuel strengthens the outer recirculation zone (ORZ) and moves the flame slightly downstream, whereas the flame moves upstream without affecting the ORZ when central fuel injection is added. The flame was investigated utilizing H2/NG fuel mixtures where the H2 amount was changed from 0 to 100%. The flame becomes more compact, the anchoring position moves closer to the burner exit and the OH signal distribution becomes more distinct for H2 addition due to increased reaction rate, diffusivity, and laminar burning velocity. Changing the load from part to base, similar trends were observed in the flame behavior but in this case due to the higher heat release because of increased turbulence intensity.


Author(s):  
M. J. Conlon ◽  
A. Dadouche ◽  
W. M. Dmochowski ◽  
R. Payette ◽  
J.-P. Be´dard ◽  
...  

An experimental facility dedicated to measuring both the steady-state and dynamic properties of foil bearings, under a variety of operating conditions, has been designed and commissioned. The bearing under test is placed at the midspan of a horizontal, simply-supported, stepped shaft which rotates at up to 60 krpm. Static and dynamic loads of up to 3500 N and 450 N (respectively) can be applied by means of a pneumatic cylinder and two electrodynamic shakers. This paper outlines the test procedures and data analysis methods pertaining to the operation of the high-speed, oil-free bearing test rig, and presents steady-state and dynamic results for a first-generation foil bearing. The test bearing, which was fabricated in-house, is 0.07 m diameter and has an aspect ratio of 1; bearing manufacturing details are provided.


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