Influence of inlet swirl on pattern factor and pressure loss in an aero engine combustor

Author(s):  
KVL Narayana Rao ◽  
BVSSS Prasad ◽  
CH Kanna Babu ◽  
Girish K Degaonkar

The effect of compressor exit swirl angle (θsw) at the intake of an aero engine combustor on the exit temperature non-uniformity (pattern factor) and combustor total pressure loss is investigated. Experiments are conducted in the engine test rig, measuring the gas temperature and pressure at the inlet and exit planes of the combustor. These parameters are measured at distinct locations along the circumferential and radial directions in the engine test facility. Simulations are carried out using RANS based turbulence modeling and reacting flow approach with Ansys CFX commercial code. The predicted results are validated with experimental data at 5° swirl angle. The swirl angle at the combustor intake is further varied from 0° to 15° and 4 cases (0°, 5°, 10° and 15°) has been considered to predict the effect on the combustor pattern factor and pressure loss. The changes in the flow structure inside the combustion chamber for all these 4 cases are reported in detail. The pattern factor varies from 0.34 to 0.49 as swirl angle changes from 0° to 15°. The lowest pattern factor of 0.34 occurs at 10° swirl angle. However a linear increase in combustor total pressure loss from 5.85% to 6.53% is predicted with the change in swirl angle from 0° to 15°.

Author(s):  
Feng-Shan Wang ◽  
Wen-Jun Kong ◽  
Bao-Rui Wang

A research program is in development in China as a demonstrator of combined cooling, heating and power system (CCHP). In this program, a micro gas turbine with net electrical output around 100kW is designed and developed. The combustor is designed for natural gas operation and oil fuel operation, respectively. In this paper, a prototype can combustor for the oil fuel was studied by the experiments. In this paper, the combustor was tested using the ambient pressure combustor test facility. The sensors were equipped to measure the combustion performance; the exhaust gas was sampled and analyzed by a gas analyzer device. From the tests and experiments, combustion efficiency, pattern factor at the exit, the surface temperature profile of the outer liner wall, the total pressure loss factor of the combustion chamber with and without burning, and the pollutants emission fraction at the combustor exit were obtained. It is also found that with increasing of the inlet temperature, the combustion efficiency and the total pressure loss factor increased, while the exit pattern factor coefficient reduced. The emissions of CO and unburned hydrogen carbon (UHC) significantly reduced, but the emission of NOx significantly increased.


Author(s):  
A. Duncan Walker ◽  
Bharat Koli ◽  
Liang Guo ◽  
Peter Beecroft ◽  
Marco Zedda

To manage the increasing turbine temperatures of future gas turbines a cooled cooling air system has been proposed. In such a system some of the compressor efflux is diverted for additional cooling in a heat exchanger (HX) located in the bypass duct. The cooled air must then be returned, across the main gas path, to the engine core for use in component cooling. One option is do this within the combustor module and two methods are examined in the current paper; via simple transfer pipes within the dump region or via radial struts in the prediffuser. This paper presents an experimental investigation to examine the aerodynamic impact these have on the combustion system external aerodynamics. This included the use of a fully annular, isothermal test facility incorporating a bespoke 1.5 stage axial compressor, engine representative outlet guide vanes (OGVs), prediffuser, and combustor geometry. Area traverses of a miniature five-hole probe were conducted at various locations within the combustion system providing information on both flow uniformity and total pressure loss. The results show that, compared to a datum configuration, the addition of transfer pipes had minimal aerodynamic impact in terms of flow structure, distribution, and total pressure loss. However, the inclusion of prediffuser struts had a notable impact increasing the prediffuser loss by a third and consequently the overall system loss by an unacceptable 40%. Inclusion of a hybrid prediffuser with the cooled cooling air (CCA) bleed located on the prediffuser outer wall enabled an increase of the prediffuser area ratio with the result that the system loss could be returned to that of the datum level.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146808742110178
Author(s):  
J Sarathkumar Sebastin ◽  
S Jeyakumar ◽  
K Karthik

The influence of pylon and wall injection in coaxial jets of a Dual Combustion Ramjet engine is numerically investigated in a non-reacting flow field. The supersonic combustor is modeled and analyzed using the commercial CFD software ANSYS 18.0. The three-dimensional compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations coupled with the SST k-ω turbulence model have been used to analyze the coaxial mixing characteristics of the jets. The numerical study is validated with the experimental data of the wall static pressures measured in the combustor’s flow direction. The pylon and wall injectors are located symmetrically at the gas generator’s exit nozzle, and the air is used as the injectant to simulate gaseous fuel. Three injection pressures are used for the study to understand the flow field characteristics in the injector regime. Also, the gas generator downstream direction is investigated. The shock waves generated from the gas generator nozzle enhance the mixing of the coaxial jets with minimum total pressure loss. The shock wave interactions are noticed with reducing intensity within the supersonic combustor for pylon injection, leading to higher total pressure loss than the wall injection. The pylon injection provides the spatial distribution of fuels compared to the wall injection in the coaxial supersonic flow field.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 831
Author(s):  
A. Antony Athithan ◽  
S. Jeyakumar ◽  
Norbert Sczygiol ◽  
Mariusz Urbanski ◽  
A. Hariharasudan

This paper focuses on the influence of ramp locations upstream of a strut-based scramjet combustor under reacting flow conditions that are numerically investigated. In contrast, a computational study is adopted using Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations with the Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model. The numerical results of the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt or German Aerospace Centre (DLR) scramjet model are validated with the reported experimental values that show compliance within the range, indicating that the adopted simulation method can be extended for other investigations as well. The performance of the ramps in the strut-based scramjet combustor is analyzed based on parameters such as wall pressures, combustion efficiency and total pressure loss at various axial locations of the combustor. From the numerical shadowgraph, more shock interactions are observed upstream of the strut injection region for the ramp cases, which decelerates the flow downstream, and additional shock reflections with less intensity are also noticed when compared with the DLR scramjet model. The shock reflection due to the ramps enhances the hydrogen distribution in the spatial direction. The ignition delay is noticed for ramp combustors due to the deceleration of flow compared to the baseline strut only scramjet combustor. However, a higher flame temperature is observed with the ramp combustor. Because more shock interactions arise from the ramps, a marginal increase in the total pressure loss is observed for ramp combustors when compared to the baseline model.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeyakumar Suppandipillai ◽  
Jayaraman Kandasamy ◽  
R. Sivakumar ◽  
Mehmet Karaca ◽  
Karthik K.

Purpose This paper aims to study the influences of hydrogen jet pressure on flow features of a strut-based injector in a scramjet combustor under-reacting cases are numerically investigated in this study. Design/methodology/approach The numerical analysis is carried out using Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations with the Shear Stress Transport k-ω turbulence model in contention to comprehend the flow physics during scramjet combustion. The three major parameters such as the shock wave pattern, wall pressures and static temperature across the combustor are validated with the reported experiments. The results comply with the range, indicating the adopted simulation method can be extended for other investigations as well. The supersonic flow characteristics are determined based on the flow properties, combustion efficiency and total pressure loss. Findings The results revealed that the augmentation of hydrogen jet pressure via variation in flame features increases the static pressure in the vicinity of the strut and destabilize the normal shock wave position. Indeed, the pressure of the mainstream flow drives the shock wave toward the upstream direction. The study perceived that once the hydrogen jet pressure is reached 4 bar, the incoming flow attains a subsonic state due to the movement of normal shock wave ahead of the strut. It is noticed that the increase in hydrogen jet pressure in the supersonic flow field improves the jet penetration rate in the lateral direction of the flow and also increases the total pressure loss as compared with the baseline injection pressure condition. Practical implications The outcome of this research provides the influence of fuel injection pressure variations in the supersonic combustion phenomenon of hypersonic vehicles. Originality/value This paper substantiates the effect of increasing hydrogen jet pressure in the reacting supersonic airstream on the performance of a scramjet combustor.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Li ◽  
Zhao Liu ◽  
Zhenping Feng

Abstract The blade tip region of the shroud-less high-pressure gas turbine is exposed to an extremely operating condition with combined high temperature and high heat transfer coefficient. It is critical to design new tip structures and apply effective cooling method to protect the blade tip. Multi-cavity squealer tip has the potential to reduce the huge thermal loads and improve the aerodynamic performance of the blade tip region. In this paper, numerical simulations were performed to predict the aerothermal performance of the multi-cavity squealer tip in a heavy-duty gas turbine cascade. Different turbulence models were validated by comparing to the experimental data. It was found that results predicted by the shear-stress transport with the γ-Reθ transition model have the best precision. Then, the film cooling performance, the flow field in the tip gap and the leakage losses were presented with several different multi-cavity squealer tip structures, under various coolant to mainstream mass flow ratios (MFR) from 0.05% to 0.15%. The results show that the ribs in the multi-cavity squealer tip could change the flow structure in the tip gap for that they would block the coolant and the leakage flow. In this study, the case with one-cavity (1C) achieves the best film cooling performance under a lower MFR. However, the cases with multi-cavity (2C, 3C, 4C) show higher film cooling effectiveness under a higher MFR of 0.15%, which are 32.6%%, 34.2%% and 41.0% higher than that of the 1C case. For the aerodynamic performance, the case with single-cavity has the largest total pressure loss coefficient in all MFR studied, whereas the case with two-cavity obtains the smallest total pressure loss coefficient, which is 7.6% lower than that of the 1C case.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan He ◽  
Qinghua Deng ◽  
Zhenping Feng

Abstract Double wall cooling, consisting of internal impingement cooling and external film cooling, is believed to be the most advanced technique in modern turbine blades cooling. In this paper, to improve the uniformity of temperature distribution, a flat plate double wall cooling model with gradient diameter of film and impingement holes was proposed, and the heat transfer and flow characteristics were investigated by solving steady three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with SST k-ω turbulence model. The influence of gradient diameter on overall cooling effectiveness and total pressure loss was studied by comparing with the uniform pattern at the blowing ratios ranging from 0.5 to 2. For gradient diameter of film hole patterns, results show that −10% film pattern always has the lowest film flow non-uniformity coefficient. The laterally averaged overall cooling effectiveness of uniform pattern lies between that of +10% and −10% film patterns, but the intersection of three patterns moves upstream from the middle of flow direction with the increase of blowing ratio. Therefore, the −10% film pattern exerts the highest area averaged cooling effectiveness, which is improved by up to 1.6% and 1% at BR = 0.5 and 1 respectively compared with a uniform pattern. However, at higher blowing ratios, the +10% film pattern maintains higher cooling effectiveness and lower total pressure loss. For gradient diameter of impingement hole patterns, the intersection of laterally averaged overall cooling effectiveness in three patterns is located near the middle of flow direction under all blowing ratios. The uniform pattern has the highest area averaged cooling effectiveness and the smallest non-uniform coefficient, but the −10% jet pattern has advantages of reducing pressure loss, especially in the laminated loss.


Author(s):  
Ronald S. LaFleur

The iceformation design method generates an endwall contour, altering the secondary flows that produce elevated endwall heat transfer load and total pressure losses. Iceformation is an analog to regions of metal melting where a hot fluid alters the isothermal surface shape of a part as it is maintained by a cooling fluid. The passage flow, heat transfer and geometry evolve together under the constraints of flow and thermal boundary conditions. The iceformation concept is not media dependent and can be used in analogous flows and materials to evolve novel boundary shapes. In the past, this method has been shown to reduce aerodynamic drag and total pressure loss in flows such as diffusers and cylinder/endwall junctures. A prior paper [1] showed that the Reynolds number matched iceform geometry had a 24% lower average endwall heat transfer than the rotationally symmetric endwall geometry of the Energy Efficiency Engine (E3). Comparisons were made between three endwall geometries: the ‘iceform’, the ‘E3’ and the ‘flat’ as a limiting case of the endwall design space. This paper adds to the iceformation design record by reporting the endwall aerodynamic performances. Second vane exit flow velocities and pressures were measured using an automated 2-D traverse of a 1.2 mm diameter five-hole probe. Exit plane maps for the three endwall geometries are presented showing the details of the total pressure coefficient contours and the velocity vectors. The formation of secondary flow vortices is shown in the exit plane and this results in an impact on exit plane total pressure loss distribution, off-design over- and under-turning of the exit flow. The exit plane contours are integrated to form overall measures of the total pressure loss. Relative to the E3 endwall, the iceform endwall has a slightly higher total pressure loss attributed to higher dissipation of the secondary flow within the passage. The iceform endwall has a closer-to-design exit flow pattern than the E3 endwall.


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