Experimental and numerical study of flame structure and emissions in a micro gas turbine combustor

Experimental and numerical study of flame and emission characteristics in a tubular micro gas turbine combustor is reported. Micro gas turbines are used for distributed power (DP) generation using alternative fuels in rural areas. The combustion and emission characteristics from the combustor have to be studied for proper design using different fuel types. In this study methane, representing fossil natural gas, and biogas, a renewable fuel that is a mixture of methane and carbon-dioxide, are used. Primary air flow (with swirl component) and secondary aeration have been varied. Experiments have been conducted to measure the exit temperatures. Turbulent reactive flow model is used to simulate the methane and biogas flames. Numerical results are validated against the experimental data. Parametric studies to reveal the effects of primary flow, secondary flow and swirl have been conducted and results are systematically presented. An analysis of nitric-oxides emission for different fuels and operating conditions has been presented subsequently.

Estimation of the turbulent Schmidt number in a model gas turbine combustor

This article presents the estimation of turbulent Schmidt number in a model gas turbine combustor. Different gases are used as the model fuel while maintaining the mass flow rate. The simplest closure models for Reynolds stress and turbulent flux are considered. The anisotropy of turbulent viscosity is demonstrated.

Investigation of effect of atomization performance on lean blowout limit for gas turbine combustors by comparison of utilizing aviation kerosene and methane as fuel

The lean blowout (LBO) limit is crucial for gas turbine combustor in the aero engine. The effect of atomization of liquid fuels on the LBO limit is needed to be further studied. On the other hand, the effects of atomization on the LBO limit can be neglected if gas fuels are utilized in a combustor. Thus, the comparative experiment between liquid fuel and gas fuel can be utilized to study the effects of atomization performance of liquid fuels on the LBO limit. In this paper, the LBO limit for a gas turbine combustor utilizing methane is studied experimentally. Seven kinds of combustor configurations are chosen for the experimental test. The LBO limits are obtained for all the chosen combustors. The variation of the LBO limit with the combustor configuration for both methane and aviation kerosene exhibits the similar tendency, i.e., the LBO limits utilizing methane are slightly larger than those utilizing aviation kerosene for the same combustor. Further, the atomization performance has little effects on the LBO limits for the present combustor configurations at the present operating conditions where the SMD for the fuel atomizer utilizing aviation kerosene is about 10 μm.