scholarly journals Experimental and Computational Study of Trapped Vortex Combustor Sector Rig with High-Speed Diffuser Flow

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 375-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. Hendricks ◽  
D. T. Shouse ◽  
W. M. Roquemore ◽  
D. L. Burrus ◽  
B. S. Duncan ◽  
...  

The Trapped Vortex Combustor (TVC) potentially offers numerous operational advantages over current production gas turbine engine combustors. These include lower weight, lower pollutant emissions, effective flame stabilization, high combustion efficiency, excellent high altitude relight capability, and operation in the lean burn or RQL modes of combustion. The present work describes the operational principles of the TVC, and extends diffuser velocities toward choked flow and provides system performance data. Performance data include EINOx results for various fuel-air ratios and combustor residence times, combustion efficiency as a function of combustor residence time, and combustor lean blow-out (LBO) performance. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations using liquid spray droplet evaporation and combustion modeling are performed and related to flow structures observed in photographs of the combustor. The CFD results are used to understand the aerodynamics and combustion features under different fueling conditions. Performance data acquired to date are favorable compared to conventional gas turbine combustors. Further testing over a wider range of fuel-air ratios, fuel flow splits, and pressure ratios is in progress to explore the TVC performance. In addition, alternate configurations for the upstream pressure feed, including bi-pass diffusion schemes, as well as variations on the fuel injection patterns, are currently in test and evaluation phases.

Author(s):  
T. Providakis ◽  
L. Zimmer ◽  
P. Scouflaire ◽  
S. Ducruix

Burners operating in lean premixed prevaporized (LPP) regimes are considered as good candidates to reduce pollutant emissions from gas turbines. Lean combustion regimes result in lower burnt gas temperatures and therefore a reduction on the NOx emissions, one of the main pollutant species. However, these burners usually show strong flame dynamics, making them prone to various stabilization problems (combustion instabilities, flashback, flame extinction). To face this issue, multi-injection staged combustion can be envisaged. Staging procedures enable fuel distribution control, while multipoint injections can lead to a fast and efficient mixing. A laboratory-scale staged multipoint combustor is developed in the present study, in the framework of LPP combustion, with an injection device close to the industrial one. Using a staging procedure between the primary pilot stage and the secondary multipoint one, droplet and velocity field distributions can be varied in the spray that is formed at the entrance of the combustion chamber. The resulting spray and the flame are characterized using OH-Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence, High Speed Particle Image Velocimetry and Phase Doppler Anemometry measurements. Three staging values, corresponding to three different flame stabilization processes, are analyzed, while power is kept constant. It is shown that mean values are strongly influenced by the fuel distribution and the flame position. Using adequate post-processing, the interaction between the acoustic field and the droplet behavior is characterized. Spectral analysis reveals a strong acoustic-flame coupling leading to a low frequency oscillation of both the velocity field and the spray droplet distribution. In addition, acoustic measurements in the feeding line show that a strong oscillation of the acoustic field leading to a change in fuel injection, and hence droplet behavior.


Author(s):  
Theodore Providakis ◽  
Laurent Zimmer ◽  
Philippe Scouflaire ◽  
Sébastien Ducruix

Burners operating in lean premixed prevaporized (LPP) regimes are considered as good candidates to reduce pollutant emissions from gas turbines. Lean combustion regimes result in lower burnt gas temperatures and therefore a reduction on the NOx emissions, one of the main pollutant species. However, these burners usually show strong flame dynamics, making them prone to various stabilization problems (combustion instabilities, flashback, flame extinction). To face this issue, multi-injection staged combustion can be envisaged. Staging procedures enable fuel distribution control, while multipoint injections can lead to a fast and efficient mixing. A laboratory-scale staged multipoint combustor is developed in the present study, in the framework of LPP combustion, with an injection device close to the industrial one. Using a staging procedure between the primary pilot stage and the secondary multipoint one, droplet and velocity field distributions can be varied in the spray that is formed at the entrance of the combustion chamber. The resulting spray and flame are characterized using OH-planar laser induced fluorescence, high speed particle image velocimetry, and phase Doppler anemometry measurements. Three staging values, corresponding to three different flame stabilization processes, are analyzed, while power is kept constant. It is shown that mean values are strongly influenced by the fuel distribution and the flame position. Using adequate postprocessing, the interaction between the acoustic field and the droplet behavior is characterized. Spectral analysis reveals a strong acoustic-flame coupling leading to a low frequency oscillation of both the velocity field and the spray droplet distribution. In addition, acoustic measurements in the feeding line show that a strong oscillation of the acoustic field leads to a change in fuel injection, and hence droplet behavior.


Author(s):  
Abhishek Dubey ◽  
Pooja Nema ◽  
Abhijit Kushari

Abstract This paper describes experimental investigation of a Reverse Flow Slinger (RFS) combustor that has been developed in order to attain high flame stability and low emissions in gas turbine engines. The combustor employs centrifugal fuel injection through a rotary atomizer and performs flame stabilization at the stagnation zone generated by reverse flow configuration. The design facilitates entrainment of hot product gases and internal preheating of the inlet air which enhances flame stability and permits stable lean operation for low NOx. Moreover, the use of rotary atomizer eliminates the need for high injection pressure resulting in a compact and lightweight design. Atmospheric pressure combustion was performed with liquid fuels, Jet A-1 and Methanol at ultra-lean fuel air ratios (FAR) with thermal intensity of 28 - 50 MW/m3atm. Combustor performance was evaluated by analyzing the lean blowout, emissions and combustion efficiency. Test results showed high flame stability of combustor and a very low lean blowout corresponding to global equivalence ratio of around 0.1 was obtained. Sustained and stable combustion at low heat release was attained and NOx emissions as low as of 0.4 g/Kg and 0.1 g/Kg were obtained with Jet A-1 and Methanol respectively. Combustion efficiency of 55% and 90% was obtained in operation with Jet A-1 and Methanol. Performance of the combustor was significantly better with Methanol in terms of emissions and efficiency.


Author(s):  
Timothy S. Snyder ◽  
Thomas J. Rosfjord ◽  
John B. McVey ◽  
Aaron S. Hu ◽  
Barry C. Schlein

A dry-low-NOx, high-airflow-capacity fuel injection system for a lean-premixed combustor has been developed for a moderate pressure ratio (20:1) aeroderivative gas turbine engine. Engine requirements for combustor pressure drop, emissions, and operability have been met. Combustion performance was evaluated at high power conditions in a high-pressure, single-nozzle test facility which operates at full baseload conditions. Single digit NOx levels and high combustion efficiency were achieved A wide operability range with no signs of flashback, autoignition, or thermal problems was demonsuated. NOx sensitivities 10 pressure and residence time were found to be small at flame temperatures below 1850 K (2870 F). Above 1850 K some NOx sensitivity to pressure and residence Lime was observed and was associated with the increased role of the thermal NOx production mechanism at elevated flame temperatures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 1662-1677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyi Zhou ◽  
Tie Li ◽  
Yijie Wei ◽  
Ning Wang

Scaled model experiments can greatly reduce the cost, time and energy consumption in diesel engine development, and the similarity of spray characteristics has a primary effect on the overall scaling results of engine performance and pollutant emissions. However, although so far the similarity of spray characteristics under the non-evaporating condition has been studied to some extent, researches on scaling the evaporating sprays are still absent. The maximum liquid penetration length has a close relationship with the spray evaporation processes and is a key parameter in the design of diesel engine spray combustion system. In this article, the similarity of maximum liquid penetration length is theoretically derived based on the hypotheses that the spray evaporation processes in modern high-pressure common rail diesel engines are fuel–air mixing controlled and local interphase transport controlled, respectively. After verifying that the fuel injection rates are perfectly scaled, the similarity of maximum liquid penetration length in evaporating sprays is studied for three scaling laws using two nozzles with hole diameter of 0.11 and 0.14 mm through the high-speed diffused back-illumination method. Under the test conditions of different fuel injection pressures, ambient temperatures and densities, the lift-off law and speed law lead to a slightly increased maximum liquid penetration length, while the pressure law can well scale the maximum liquid penetration length. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical analyses based on the hypothesis that the spray evaporation processes are fuel–air mixing controlled, indicating that the local interphase transports of energy, momentum and mass on droplet surface are not rate-controlled steps with respect to spray evaporation processes.


Author(s):  
Antonio Andreini ◽  
Matteo Cerutti ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Luca Mangani

One of the driving requirements in gas turbine design is the combustion analysis. The reduction of exhaust pollutant emissions is in fact the main design constraint of modern gas turbine engines, requiring a detailed investigation of flame stabilization criteria and temperature distribution within combustion chamber. At the same time, the prediction of thermal loads on liner walls continues to represent a critical issue especially with diffusion flame combustors which are still widely used in aeroengines. To meet such requirement, design techniques have to take advantage also of the most recent CFD tools that have to supply advanced combustion models according to the specific application demand. Even if LES approach represents a very accurate approach for the analysis of reactive flows, RANS computation still represents a fundamental tool in industrial gas turbine development, thanks to its optimal tradeoff between accuracy and computational costs. This paper describes the development and the validation of both combustion and radiation models in a object-oriented RANS CFD code: several turbulent combustion models were considered, all based on a generalized presumed PDF flamelet approach, valid for premixed and non premixed flames. Concerning radiative heat transfer calculations, two directional models based on the P1-Approximation and the Finite Volume Method were treated. Accuracy and reliability of developed models have been proved by performing several computations on well known literature test-cases. Selected cases investigate several turbulent flame types and regimes allowing to prove code affordability in a wide range of possible gas turbine operating conditions.


Author(s):  
Oliver Lammel ◽  
Tim Rödiger ◽  
Michael Stöhr ◽  
Holger Ax ◽  
Peter Kutne ◽  
...  

In this contribution, comprehensive optical and laser based measurements in a generic multi-jet combustor at gas turbine relevant conditions are presented. The flame position and shape, flow field, temperatures and species concentrations of turbulent premixed natural gas and hydrogen flames were investigated in a high-pressure test rig with optical access. The needs of modern highly efficient gas turbine combustion systems, i.e., fuel flexibility, load flexibility with increased part load capability, and high turbine inlet temperatures, have to be addressed by novel or improved burner concepts. One promising design is the enhanced FLOX® burner, which can achieve low pollutant emissions in a very wide range of operating conditions. In principle, this kind of gas turbine combustor consists of several nozzles without swirl, which discharge axial high momentum jets through orifices arranged on a circle. The geometry provides a pronounced inner recirculation zone in the combustion chamber. Flame stabilization takes place in a shear layer around the jet flow, where fresh gas is mixed with hot exhaust gas. Flashback resistance is obtained through the absence of low velocity zones, which favors this concept for multi-fuel applications, e.g. fuels with medium to high hydrogen content. The understanding of flame stabilization mechanisms of jet flames for different fuels is the key to identify and control the main parameters in the design process of combustors based on an enhanced FLOX® burner concept. Both experimental analysis and numerical simulations can contribute and complement each other in this task. They need a detailed and relevant data base, with well-known boundary conditions. For this purpose, a high-pressure burner assembly was designed with a generic 3-nozzle combustor in a rectangular combustion chamber with optical access. The nozzles are linearly arranged in z direction to allow for jet-jet interaction of the middle jet. This line is off-centered in y direction to develop a distinct recirculation zone. This arrangement approximates a sector of a full FLOX® gas turbine burner. The experiments were conducted at a pressure of 8 bar with preheated and premixed natural gas/air and hydrogen/air flows and jet velocities of 120 m/s. For the visualization of the flame, OH* chemiluminescence imaging was performed. 1D laser Raman scattering was applied and evaluated on an average and single shot basis in order to simultaneously and quantitatively determine the major species concentrations, the mixture fraction and the temperature. Flow velocities were measured using particle image velocimetry at different section planes through the combustion chamber.


Author(s):  
Antonio Andreini ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Luca Mangani ◽  
Stefano Cocchi ◽  
Roberto Modi

Medium- and low-LHV fuels are receiving a continuously growing interest in stationary power applications. Besides that, since in many applications the fuels available at a site can be time by time of significantly different composition, fuel flexibility has become one of the most important requirements to be taken into account in developing power systems. A test campaign, aimed to provide a preliminary assessment of a small power gas turbine’s fuel flexibility, was carried over a full-scale GE10 prototypical unit, located at the Nuovo-Pignone manufacturing site, in Florence. The engine is a single shaft, simple cycle gas turbine designed for power generation applications, rated at 11 MW electrical power and equipped with a silos-type combustor. A variable composition gas fuel was obtained by mixing natural gas with CO2 to about 40% by vol. at engine base-load condition. Tests involved two different diffusive combustion systems: the standard version, designed for operation with natural gas, and a specific system designed for low-LHV fuels. Tests performed aimed to investigate both ignition limits and combustors’ performances, focusing on hot parts’ temperatures and pollutant emissions. Regarding NOx emissions, data collected during standard combustor’s tests were matched a simple scaling law (as a function of cycle parameters and CO2 concentration in the fuel mixture), which can be used in similar applications as a NOx predictive tool. In a following step, a CFD study was performed in order to verify in detail the effects of LHV reduction on flame structure and to compare measured and calculated NOx. STAR-CD™ code was employed as main CFD solver while turbulent combustion and NOx models were specifically developed and implemented using STAR’s user-subroutine features. Both models are based on classical laminar-flamelet approach. Three different operating points were considered at base-load conditions, varying CO2 concentration (0%, 20% and 30% vol. simulated). Numerical simulations point out the flexibility of the GE10 standard combustor to assure flame stabilization even against large variation of fuel characteristics. Calculated NOx emissions are in fairly good agreement with measured data confirming the validity of the adopted models.


Author(s):  
Pradip Xavier ◽  
Mickael Pires ◽  
Alexis Vandel ◽  
Bruno Renou ◽  
Gilles Cabot ◽  
...  

Development of lean premixed (LP) combustion is still a challenge as it results in considerable constraints for the combustor design. Indeed, new combustors using LP combustion are more prone to flashback, blow-off, or even thermo-acoustic instabilities. A detailed understanding of mechanisms leading to such extreme conditions is then crucial to reduce pollutant emissions, widen the range of operating conditions, and reduce design time. This paper reports the experimental study of an innovative LP trapped vortex combustor (TVC). The TVC concept uses a recirculating rich flow trapped in a cavity to create a stable flame that continuously ignites a main lean mixture passing above the cavity. This concept gave promising performances but some workers highlighted the existence of combustion instabilities for some operating conditions. Detailed studies have therefore been carried out in order to understand the occurrence of these drastic operating conditions. Results showed that the cavity flow dynamics in conjunction with the location of the interfacial mixing zone (between the cavity and the mainstream) were the driving forces to obtain stable combustion regimes. The goal of this work has been to take advantage of these detailed recommendations to determine stability maps, trends, and dimensionless parameters which could be easily used as early-design rules. For this reason, the study introduced a simple and robust criterion, based on the global pressure fluctuation energy. The latter was used to distinguish stable and unstable modes. An aerodynamic momentum flux ratio and a chemical stratification ratio (taken between the cavity and the mainstream) were defined to scale all measurements. Results indicated that the mainstream velocity was critically important to confine the cavity and to prevent combustion instabilities. Remarkably, this trend was verified and even more pronounced for larger cavity powers. In addition, flame stabilization above the cavity resulted in the existence of specific stratification ratios, in order to obtain a soft gradient of gas composition between the rich and lean regions. Finally, a linear relation between the mainstream and cavity velocities became apparent, thereby making possible to simply predict the combustor stability.


Author(s):  
A. Okuto ◽  
T. Kimura ◽  
I. Takehara ◽  
T. Nakashima ◽  
Y. Ichikawa ◽  
...  

Research and development project of ceramic gas turbines (CGT) was started in 1988 promoted by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in Japan. The target of the CGT project is development of a 300kW-class ceramic gas turbine with a 42 % thermal efficiency and a turbine inlet temperature (TIT) of 1350°C. Three types of CGT engines are developed in this project. One of the CGT engines, which is called CGT302, is a recuperated two-shaft gas turbine for co-generation use. In this paper, we describe the research and development of a combustor for the CGT302. The project requires a combustor to exhaust lower pollutant emissions than the Japanese regulation level. In order to reduce NOx emissions and achieve high combustion efficiency, lean premixed combustion technology is adopted. Combustion rig tests were carried out using this combustor. In these tests we measured the combustor performance such as pollutant emissions, combustion efficiency, combustor inlet/outlet temperature, combustor inlet pressure and pressure loss through combustor. Of course air flow rate and fuel flow rate are controlled and measured, respectively. The targets for the combustor such as NOx emissions and combustion efficiency were accomplished with sufficient margin in these combustion rig tests. In addition, we report the results of the tests which were carried out to examine effects of inlet air pressure on NOx emissions here.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document