Experimental Investigation of Methane Lean Blowout Limit; Effects of Dilution, Mass Flow Rate and Inlet Temperature

Author(s):  
Parisa Sayad ◽  
Alessandro Schönborn ◽  
Denny Clerini ◽  
Jens Klingmann

Lean blowout (LBO) is one of the major instability problems of premixed combustion. LBO equivalence ratio is a function of inlet temperature and pressure, mass flow or aerodynamic loading, and fuel composition. All these, except the last, vary during startup and with load. Developing gas turbine combustors capable of operating within wider range of fuel compositions requires extensive knowledge about instability limits of the combustor at different operating conditions. In this work an atmospheric variable swirl combustor was used to study the influence of inlet temperature, mass flow, swirl number and dilution on lean blowout of methane. The equivalence ratio at LBO was investigated for methane at 3 different inlet temperatures at various swirl numbers. The swirl number was varied by changing the ratio of axial and tangential flow through the combustor inlet, and was determined using Laser Doppler Anemometry. The experiments showed that increasing the swirl number reduced the lean blowout equivalence ratio for a given inlet temperature and that increasing the inlet temperature reduced the lean blowout equivalence ratio at a certain swirl number. In order to study the effect of inlet mass flow rate on lean stability limit, blowout experiments were conducted at 7 different mass flow rates. The measurements showed that the total mass flow has a non-monotonic effect on the lean blowout limit. At total mass flow rates below 200 SLPM increasing the total mass flow extended lean stability limit whereas at mass flow rates higher than 300 SLPM the trend was reversed. The effect of fuel dilution on the LBO limit was also investigated by adding different fractions of N2 and CO2 to the fuel mixture. The results were compared with those for pure methane at the same swirl number. Dilution with either diluent reduced the LBO limit of methane. However at the concentrations lower than 50% the effect of dilution on LBO equivalence ratio was relatively small and no significant difference was observed between N2 and CO2 dilution.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1298
Author(s):  
Shan Jin ◽  
Qingyang Meng ◽  
Zhiming Li ◽  
Ningbo Zhao ◽  
Hongtao Zheng ◽  
...  

The mixing process of fuel and oxidizer is a very critical factor affecting the real operating performance of non-premixed rotating detonation combustor. In this paper, a two-dimensional numerical study is carried out to investigate the flow and mixing characteristics of CH4/air in combustor with different injection structures. On this basis, the effect of CH4/air mixing on the critical ignition energy for forming detonation is theoretically analyzed in detail. The numerical results indicate that injection strategies of CH4 and air can obviously affect the flow filed characteristic, pressure loss, mixing uniformity and local equivalence ratio in combustor, which further affect the critical ignition energy for forming detonation. In the study for three different mass flow rates (the mass flow rates of air are 12.01 kg/s,8.58 kg/s and 1.72 kg/s, respectively), when air is radially injected into combustor (fuel/air are injected perpendicular to each other), although the mixing quality of CH4 and air is improved, the total pressure loss is also increased. In addition, the comparative analysis also shows that the increase of mass flow rate of CH4/air can decrease the difference of the critical ignition energy for forming detonation at a constant total equivalence ratio. The ignition energy decreases with the decrease of the total flow rate and then increases gradually.


Author(s):  
Karthik Silaipillayarputhur ◽  
Stephen A. Idem

The step response of a single-pass crossflow heat exchanger with variable inlet temperatures and mass flow rates was determined. In every instance, the energy balance equations were solved using an implicit central finite difference method. Numerical predictions were obtained for cases where both the minimum or maximum capacity rate fluids were subjected to step changes in inlet temperature, coupled with step mass flow rate changes of the fluids. Likewise, performance calculations were conducted for heat exchangers operating initially at steady state, where step flow rate changes of the minimum and maximum capacity rate fluids were imposed in the absence of any temperature perturbations. Because of the storage of energy in the heat exchanger wall, and finite propagation times associated with the inlet perturbations, the outlet temperatures of both fluids do not respond instantaneously. A parametric study was conducted by varying the dimensionless parameters governing the transient response of the heat exchanger over a representative range of values.


Author(s):  
Yiheng Tong ◽  
Mao Li ◽  
Jens Klingmann

Flame structures, blowout limits and emissions of swirl-stabilized premixed methane-air flames were studied experimentally in a small atmospheric combustor rig. Combustion sections with rectangular cross section (30mm by 40mm) and circular cross section (inner diameter = 39mm) were used to investigate effects of combustor geometry on the flame’s performance. Flame structures and instabilities were obtained from CH* chemiluminescence captured by a high speed intensified CMOS camera. Maps of flame blowout limits (ΦBO) versus total mass flow rates ( ṁ = 70 ∼ 130 standard liter per minute, SLPM) were obtained with the combustor inlet flow temperature (Tin) kept at Tin = 397 ± 5K and a flow swirl number of S = 0.6. Emission data of mole fraction of CO in the exhaust gas versus equivalence ratio was obtained under the conditions of Tin = 293 ± 5K and S = 0.66. It is found that the flame became longer and more unstable with decreasing equivalence ratio or increasing total mass flow rates. A strong high-amplitude and low-frequency oscillation was found to be the reason for the flame blowout. A possible reason for flame instability and blowout is presented in the paper. Within the parameters investigated in this study, the equivalence ratio had the strongest impact on flame stabilities and CO emission. Both in the rectangular and circular combustors, when the flame length increased to a critical value (LIBO, which was approximately the same for these two combustors), flame could not be stabilized anymore and blowout occurred. Compared with the rectangular combustor, the circular one had lower blowout limits and was better in stabilizing the flame. Combustor geometry did not significantly affect CO emission in the current study.


Author(s):  
Karthik Silaipillayarputhur ◽  
Stephen A. Idem

The step response of a single-pass crossflow heat exchanger with variable inlet temperatures and mass flow rates was determined. In every instance the energy balance equations were solved using an implicit central finite difference method. Numerical predictions were obtained for cases where both the minimum or maximum capacity rate fluids were subjected to step changes in inlet temperature, coupled with step mass flow rate changes of the fluids. Likewise performance calculations were conducted for heat exchangers operating initially at steady state, where step flow rate changes of the minimum and maximum capacity rate fluids were imposed in the absence of any temperature perturbations. Because of the storage of energy in the heat exchanger wall, and finite propagation times associated with the inlet perturbations, the outlet temperatures of both fluids do not respond instantaneously. A parametric study was conducted by varying the dimensionless parameters governing the transient response of the heat exchanger over a representative range of values.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Blanke ◽  
Markus Hagenkamp ◽  
Bernd Döring ◽  
Joachim Göttsche ◽  
Vitali Reger ◽  
...  

AbstractPrevious studies optimized the dimensions of coaxial heat exchangers using constant mass flow rates as a boundary condition. They show a thermal optimal circular ring width of nearly zero. Hydraulically optimal is an inner to outer pipe radius ratio of 0.65 for turbulent and 0.68 for laminar flow types. In contrast, in this study, flow conditions in the circular ring are kept constant (a set of fixed Reynolds numbers) during optimization. This approach ensures fixed flow conditions and prevents inappropriately high or low mass flow rates. The optimization is carried out for three objectives: Maximum energy gain, minimum hydraulic effort and eventually optimum net-exergy balance. The optimization changes the inner pipe radius and mass flow rate but not the Reynolds number of the circular ring. The thermal calculations base on Hellström’s borehole resistance and the hydraulic optimization on individually calculated linear loss of head coefficients. Increasing the inner pipe radius results in decreased hydraulic losses in the inner pipe but increased losses in the circular ring. The net-exergy difference is a key performance indicator and combines thermal and hydraulic calculations. It is the difference between thermal exergy flux and hydraulic effort. The Reynolds number in the circular ring is instead of the mass flow rate constant during all optimizations. The result from a thermal perspective is an optimal width of the circular ring of nearly zero. The hydraulically optimal inner pipe radius is 54% of the outer pipe radius for laminar flow and 60% for turbulent flow scenarios. Net-exergetic optimization shows a predominant influence of hydraulic losses, especially for small temperature gains. The exact result depends on the earth’s thermal properties and the flow type. Conclusively, coaxial geothermal probes’ design should focus on the hydraulic optimum and take the thermal optimum as a secondary criterion due to the dominating hydraulics.


2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. McGarry ◽  
L. Grega

The mass flow distribution and local flow structures that lead to areas of reactant starvation are explored for a small power large active area PEM fuel cell. A numerical model was created to examine the flow distribution for three different inlet profiles; blunt, partially developed, and fully developed. The different inlet profiles represent the various distances between the blower and the inlet to the fuel cell and the state of flow development. The partially and fully developed inlet profiles were found to have the largest percentage of cells that are deficient, 20% at a flow rate of 6.05 g/s. Three different inlet mass flow rates (stoichs) were also examined for each inlet profile. The largest percent of cells deficient in reactants is 27% and occurs at the highest flow rate of 9.1 g/s (3 stoichs) for the partially and fully developed turbulent profiles. In addition to the uneven flow distribution, flow separation occurs in the front four channels for the blunt inlet profile at all flow rates examined. These areas of flow separation lead to localized reactant deficient areas within a channel.


2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-305
Author(s):  
Jan Novotný ◽  
Jiří Nožička

The aim of this paper is to present a design and a development of a heat simulator, which will be used for a flow research in data centers. The designed heat simulator is based on an ideological basis of four-processor 1U Supermicro server. The designed heat simulator enables to control the flow and heat output within the range of 10–100 %. The paper covers also the results of testing measurements of mass flow rates and heat flow rates in the simulator. The flow field at the outlet of the server was measured by the stereo PIV method. The heat flow rate was determined, based on measuring the temperature field at the inlet and outlet of the simulator and known mass flow rate.


Author(s):  
M. K. Mittal ◽  
R. Kumar ◽  
A. Gupta

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of coiling on the flow characteristics of R-407C in an adiabatic spiral capillary tube. The characteristic coiling parameter for a spiral capillary tube is the coil pitch; hence, the effect of the coil pitch on the mass flow rate of R-407C was studied on several capillary tube test sections. It was observed that the coiling of the capillary tube significantly reduced the mass flow rate of R-407C in the adiabatic spiral capillary tube. In order to quantify the effect of coiling, the experiments were also conducted for straight a capillary tube, and it was observed that the coiling of the capillary tube reduced the mass flow rate in the spiral tube in the range of 9–18% as compared with that in the straight capillary tube. A generalized nondimensional correlation for the prediction of the mass flow rates of various refrigerants was developed for the straight capillary tube on the basis of the experimental data of R-407C of the present study, and the data of R-134a, R-22, and R-410A measured by other researchers. Additionally, a refrigerant-specific correlation for the spiral capillary was also proposed on the basis of the experimental data of R-407C of the present study.


2016 ◽  
Vol 836 ◽  
pp. 102-108
Author(s):  
Mirmanto ◽  
Emmy Dyah Sulistyowati ◽  
I Ketut Okariawan

In the rainy season, in tropical countries, to dry stuffs is difficult. Using electrical power or fossil energy is an expensive way. Therefore, it is wise to utilize heat waste. A device that can be used for this purpose is called radiator. The effect of mass flow rate on pressure drop and heat transfer for a dryer room radiator have been experimentally investigated. The room model size was 1000 mm x 1000 mm x 1000 mm made of plywood and the overall radiator dimension was 360 mm x 220 mm x 50 mm made of copper pipes with aluminium fins. Three mass flow rates were investigated namely 12.5 g/s, 14 g/s and 16.5 g/s. The water temperature at the entrance was increased gradually and then kept at 80°C. The maximum temperature reached in the dryer room was 50°C which was at the point just above the radiator. The effect of the mass flow rate on the room temperature was insignificant, while the effect on the pressure drop was significant. Moreover, the pressure drop decreased as the inlet temperature increased. In general, the radiator is recommended to be used as the heat source in a dryer room.


2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Belforte ◽  
T. Raparelli ◽  
V. Viktorov ◽  
A. Trivella

In porous resistances, Darcy’s law provides a good approximation of mass flow rate when the differences between upstream and downstream pressures are sufficiently small. In this range, the mass flow rates are proportional to the porous resistance’s permeability. For gas bearings, the pressure difference is normally higher, and it is known experimentally that the mass flow rates are lower than would result from Darcy’s law. Forchheimer’s law adds an inertial term to Darcy’s law and, when an appropriate coefficient is selected for this term, provides a good approximation of flow rates for the same applications even with the highest pressure differences. This paper presents an experimental and theoretical investigation of porous resistances used in gas bearing and thrust pad supply systems. The porous resistances considered in the investigation were made by sintering bronze powders with different grain sizes to produce cylindrical inserts that can be installed in bearing supply devices. The paper describes the test setup and experimental results obtained for: (i) mass flow rate through single porous resistances at different upstream and downstream pressures and (ii) mass flow rate and pressure distribution on a pneumatic pad featuring the same porous resistances. The theoretical permeability of the chosen porous resistances was calculated, and the results from setup (i) were then used to obtain experimental permeability and to determine the inertial coefficients. The results, which are expressed as a function of the Reynolds number, confirmed the validity of using Forchheimer’s law. The mass flow rates from setup (ii) were compared to those from setup (i) at the same pressure differentials across the resistance.


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