Investigation of Extinction and Reignition Events Using the Flamelet Generated Manifold Model

Simulations for the Cambridge swirl bluff-body spray burner are performed near blow-out conditions. A hybrid stress blended eddy simulation (SBES) model is utilized for sub-grid turbulence closure. SBES blends the RANS-SST model at the boundary layer with large eddy simulation dynamic Smagorinsky model outside the boundary layer. The injected N-heptane spray droplets are tracked using a typical Eulerian-Lagrangian approach. Heat transfer coupling between the bluff-body walls and the near-walls fluid is accounted for by coupling the solid and fluid energy equations at the bluff-body surface. Mixing and chemistry are modeled using the Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM) model. The study investigates how successful the FGM model is in predicting finite rate effects like local extinction and flame lift-off height. To this end, two near blow-out spray flames, the H1S1 (75% to blow-out) and H1S2 (88% to blow-out) are simulated. Good results are shown matching the spray Sauter mean diameter (SMD) and axial velocity mean and rms experimental data. The results also show that the FGM model captured reasonably well the flame structure and lift-off height as well as the spray pattern. Overall the spray droplets mean D32 and mean axial velocity were under-predicted, while the rms distribution matched reasonably well for the H1S1 flame. The mean flame brush lift-off height is estimated based on the statistically stationary mean flame brush and is estimated to be around 6 mm from the bluff-body base. Instantaneous local flame extinction is observed. The H1S2 flame, however, showed similar but slightly better match with the measurements for the mean spray data compared to the H1S1 flame, with slight under-prediction for D32 at Z = 10 mm and Z = 20 mm. Future work will investigate the sensitivity of the simulation to the spray boundary conditions and grid resolution.

Synchronization of Thermoacoustic Modes in Sequential Combustors

Sequential combustion constitutes a major technological step-change for gas turbines applications. This design provides higher operational flexibility, lower emissions and higher efficiency compared to today’s conventional architectures. Like any constant pressure combustion system, sequential combustors can undergo thermoacoustic instabilities. These instabilities potentially lead to high-amplitude acoustic limit cycles, which shorten the engine components’ lifetime and therefore reduce their reliability and availability. In case of a sequential system, the two flames are mutually coupled via acoustic and entropy waves. This additional inter-stages interaction markedly complicates the already challenging problem of thermoacoustic instabilities. As a result, new and unexplored system dynamics are possible. In this work, experimental data from our generic sequential combustor are presented. The system exhibits many different distinctive dynamics, as function of the operation parameters and of the combustor arrangement. This paper investigates a particular bifurcation, where two thermoacoustic modes synchronize their self-sustained oscillations over a range of operating conditions. A low-order model of this thermoacoustic bifurcation is proposed. This consists of two coupled stochastically driven non-linear oscillators, and is able to reproduce the peculiar dynamics associated with this synchronization phenomenon. The model aids in understanding what the physical mechanisms that play a key role in the unsteady combustor physics are. In particular, it highlights the role of entropy waves, which are a significant driver of thermoacoustic instabilities in this sequential setup. This research helps to lay the foundations for understanding the thermoacoustic instabilities in sequential combustion systems.

Experimental Characterisation of Acoustic Damping Generated by Perforated Screens at High Frequencies

Modern low-emission gas turbine combustion systems often experience thermo-acoustic instabilities at certain operating conditions, which adversely affect the performance of the engine. One way to mitigate the detrimental effect of such instabilities is to place passive damping devices along the wall of the combustion chamber. To achieve greatest overall damping requires good understanding of the acoustic properties of the damping devices at engine conditions and determination of the undesired acoustic mode shapes for optimal placement at the wall. This paper presents an experimental study which characterises the acoustic properties of bias flow liners operating at frequencies in the low kilohertz regime (> 1 kHz). The engine conditions are simulated in the experiment at ambient conditions by maintaining dynamic similarity, i.e. by matching a number of non-dimensional parameters in the experiment which characterise the engine conditions. The present experimental study contributes to the existing measurement database by taking into account the strong gradient in characteristic impedance between grazing and bias flow medium. The acoustic properties of the investigated damper configurations are assessed in terms of the surface impedance at the interface between grazing and bias flow. An impedance model is suggested which accounts for the strong gradient in characteristic impedance between grazing and bias flow medium. The impedance model may serve conveniently as input to an acoustic mode shape prediction in the combustion chamber to identify the optimal placement of the damping devices.

Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the CeCOST Swirl Burner

Clean technology has become a key feature due to increasing environmental concerns. Swirling flows, being directly associated with combustion performance and hence minimized pollutant formation, are encountered in most propulsion and power-generation combustion devices. In this study, the development process of the conceptual swirl burner developed at the Swedish National Centre for Combustion and Technology (CeCOST), is presented. Utilizing extensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, both the lead time and cost in manufacturing of the different burner parts were significantly reduced. The performance maps bounded by the flashback and blow-off limits for the current configuration were obtained and studied in detail using advanced experimental measurements and numerical simulations. Utilizing high speed OH-chemiluminescence, OH/CH2O-PLIF and Large Eddy Simulation (LES), details of the combustion process and flame-flow interaction are presented. The main focus is on three different cases, a stable case, a case close to blow-off and flashback condition. We show the influence of the flame on the core flow and how an increase in swirl may extend the stability limit of the anchored flame in swirling flow burners.

Prediction of Boundary Layer Flashback Limits of Laminar Premixed Jet Flames

Preventing flame flashback into the premixing section is one of the major challenges in premixed combustion systems. For jet flames, the flame typically propagates upstream inside the low velocity region close to the burner wall, referred to as boundary layer flashback. The physical mechanism of boundary layer flashback of laminar flames is mainly influenced by flame-wall interaction and flame quenching. Flashback is initiated if the burning velocity at some wall distance is higher than the local flow velocity. Since the burning velocity drops towards the wall due to heat losses, the wall distance of flashback can be defined at the location closest to the wall where the burning velocity still is sufficiently high. The well-established critical gradient concept of Lewis and von Elbe to predict flashback limits of laminar flames represents these assumptions but neglects the important influence of flame stretch on the burning velocity close to the wall. For that reason, a modified prediction model is developed in this work based on similar assumptions as in the critical gradient concept, but including the effect of flame stretch. A validation for hydrogen-air and methane-air flames highlights its advantages compared to the critical gradient concept and shows good prediction accuracy.

Emulsion Jet in Crossflow Atomization Characteristics and Dynamics

This work presents the atomization characteristics and dynamics of water-in-heptane (W/H) emulsions injected into a gaseous crossflow. W/H mixtures were tested while varying momentum flux ratios and aerodynamic Weber numbers. Different injector orifice diameters and orifice length-to-diameter ratios were used to test the generality of the results. The atomization properties of W/H mixtures were compared with properties of neat water and neat heptane to evaluate the effect of an emulsion on droplet sizing, cross-sectional stability and dispersion, and jet penetration depth. Liquid dynamics were extracted through analyzing instantaneous spray measurements and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) on high-speed video recordings of the atomization processes. Correlations were proposed to establish preliminary relationships between fundamental spray processes and test conditions. These correlations allowed for emulsion behavior to be compared with neat liquid behavior. The use of emulsions induces greater spray instability than through using neat liquids, likely due to the difficulty in injecting a stable emulsion. Neat liquid correlations were produced and successfully predicted various spray measurements. These correlations, however, indicate that injector geometry has an effect on spray properties which need to be addressed independently. The emulsions are unable to adhere to the neat liquid correlations suggesting that an increased number of correlation terms are required to adequately predict emulsion behavior.

First Demonstration of an Acousto-Optically Modulated Quantum Cascade Laser As a Broadband, Time-Resolved Combustion Diagnostic

We provide the first demonstration of an acousto-optically modulated quantum cascade laser (AOM QCL) system as a diagnostic for combustion by measuring nitric oxide (NO), a highly-regulated emission produced in gas turbines. The system provides time-resolved broadband spectral measurements of the present gas species via a single line of sight measurement, offering advantages over widely used narrowband absorption spectroscopy (e.g., the potential for simultaneous multi-species measurements using a single laser) and considerably faster (> 15kHz rates and potentially up to MHz) than sampling techniques which employ FTIR or GC/MS. The developed AOM QCL system yields fast tunable output covering a spectral range of 1725–1930 cm−1 with a linewidth of 10–15 cm−1. For the demonstration experiment, the AOM QCL system has been used to obtain time-resolved spectral measurements of NO formation during the shock heating of mixture of a 10% nitrous oxide (N2O) in a balance of argon over a temperature range of 1245–2517 K and a pressure range of 3.6–5.8 atm. Results were in good agreement with chemical kinetic simulations. The system shows revolutionary promise for making simultaneous time-resolved measurements of multiple species concentrations and temperature with a single line of sight measurement.

An Assessment on the Benefits of Additive Manufacturing Regarding New Swirler Geometries for Gas Turbine Burners

In the near future, combustion engineers will shape the burner according to the flame, and not the opposite way anymore. In this contribution, this idea is explored with the help of additive manufacturing (AM). The focus is put on the design and the production of swirlers using advanced materials with the least possible efforts in terms of manufacturing. The material chosen for this study is Inconel 718. There are three motivations to this project. The first one is to design new shapes and assess these in comparison to conventional ones. The second motivation is to be able to manufacture them using additive manufacturing, and to gather know-how on selective laser melting. The third motivation is to elaborate a methodology involving engineering, research and education to promote — only if and when this is desirable — the production of series of premium parts such as high-end components of gas turbine combustor using AM. First-of-a-kind swirler shapes are explained and designed. These are unlikely to be produced using conventional manufacturing. They are then successfully produced in Inconel 718 using AM. The raw parts are directly submitted for testing with no surface post-processing. The paper states why at current state-of-the-art the raw surface quality still needs improvement, and highlights the benefits of the new swirler shape versus conventional.

Experimental and Analytical Characterization of Alternative Aviation Fuel Sprays Under Realistic Operating Conditions

The National Jet Fuel Combustion Program (NJFCP) is an initiative, currently being led by the Office of Environment & Energy at the FAA, to streamline the ASTM jet fuels certification process for alternative aviation fuels. In order to accomplish this objective, the program has identified specific applied research tasks in several areas. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is contributing to the NJFCP in the areas of sprays and atomization and high altitude engine performance. This paper describes work pertaining to atomization tests using a reference injection system. The work involves characterization of the injection nozzle, comparison of sprays and atomization quality of various conventional and alternative fuels, as well as use of the experimental data to validate spray correlations. The paper also briefly explores the application viability of a new spray diagnostic system that has potential to reduce test time in characterizing sprays. Measurements were made from ambient up to 10 bar pressures in NRC’s High Pressure Spray Facility using optical diagnostics including laser diffraction, phase Doppler anemometry (PDA), LIF/Mie Imaging and laser sheet imaging to assess differences in the atomization characteristics of the test fuels. A total of nine test fluids including six NJFCP fuels and three calibration fluids were used. The experimental data was then used to validate semi-empirical models, developed through years of experience by engine OEMs and modified under NJFCP, for predicting droplet size and distribution. The work offers effective tools for developing advanced fuel injectors, and generating data that can be used to significantly enhance multi-dimensional combustor simulation capabilities.

Thermoacoustics of Can-Annular Combustors

Can-annular combustors consist of a set of independent cans, connected on the upstream side to the combustor plenum, and on the downstream side to the turbine inlet, where a transition duct links the round geometry of each can with the annular segment of the turbine inlet. Each transition duct is open on the sides towards the adjacent transition ducts, so that neighbouring cans are acoustically connected through a so called cross-talk open area. This theoretical, numerical and experimental work discusses the effect that this communication has on the thermoacoustic frequencies of the combustor. We show how this communication gives rise to axial and azimuthal modes, and that these correspond to particularly synchronised states of axial thermoacoustic oscillations in each individual can. We show that these combustors typically show clusters of thermoacoustic modes with very close frequencies and that a slight loss of rotational symmetry, e.g. a different acoustic response of certain cans, can lead to mode localization. We corroborate the predictions of azimuthal modes, clusters of eigenmodes and mode localization with experimental evidence.