Numerical Study on the Effect of Real Syngas Compositions on Ignition Delay Times and Laminar Flame Speeds at Gas Turbine Conditions

Depending on the feedstock and the production method, the composition of syngas can include (in addition to H2 and CO) small hydrocarbons, diluents (CO2, water, and N2), and impurities (H2S, NH3, NOx, etc.). Despite this fact, most of the studies on syngas combustion do not include hydrocarbons or impurities and in some cases not even diluents in the fuel mixture composition. Hence, studies with realistic syngas composition are necessary to help designing gas turbines. The aim of this work was to investigate numerically the effect of the variation in the syngas composition on some fundamental combustion properties of premixed systems such as laminar flame speed and ignition delay time at realistic engine operating conditions. Several pressures, temperatures, and equivalence ratios were investigated. To perform this parametric study, a state-of-the-art C0-C5 detailed kinetics mechanism was used. Results of this study showed that the addition of hydrocarbons generally reduces the reactivity of the mixture (longer ignition delay time, slower flame speed) due to chemical kinetic effects. The amplitude of this effect is however dependent on the nature and concentration of the hydrocarbon as well as the initial condition (pressure, temperature, and equivalence ratio).

Modeling Unsteady Flow of a Lean Partially Premixed Flame on a Dry Low NOx Combustion System

The phenomenon of combustion dynamics (CD) is one of the most important operational challenges facing the gas turbine (GT) industry today. The Limousine project, a Marie Curie Initial Training network funded by the European Commission, focuses on the understanding of the limit cycle behavior of unstable pressure oscillations in gas turbines, and on the resulting mechanical vibrations and materials fatigue. In the framework of this project, a full transient CFD analysis for a Dry Low NOx combustor in a heavy duty gas turbine has been performed. The goal is to gain insight on the thermo-acoustic instability development mechanisms and limit cycle oscillations. The possibility to use numerical codes for complex industrial cases involving fuel staging, fluid-structure interaction, fuel quality variation and flexible operations has been also addressed. The unsteady U-RANS approach used to describe the high-swirled lean partially premixed flame is presented and the results on the flow characteristics as vortex core generation, vortex shedding, flame pulsation are commented on with respect to monitored parameters during operations of the GT units at Electrabel/GDF-SUEZ sites. The time domain pressure oscillations show limit cycle behavior. By means of Fourier analysis, the coupling frequencies caused by the thermo-acoustic feedback between the acoustic resonances of the chamber and the flame heat release has been detected. The possibility to reduce the computational domain to speed up computations, as done in other works in literature, has been investigated.

Why Non-Uniform Density Suppresses the Precessing Vortex Core

Isothermal swirling jets undergoing vortex breakdown are known to be susceptible to self-excited flow oscillations. They manifest in a precessing vortex core and synchronized growth of large-scale vortical structures. Recent theoretical studies associate these dynamics with the onset of a global hydrodynamic instability mode. These global modes also emerge in reacting flows, thereby crucially affecting the mixing characteristics and the flame dynamics. It is, however, observed that these self-excited flow oscillations are often suppressed in the reacting flow, while they are clearly present at isothermal conditions. This study provides strong evidence that the suppression of the precessing vortex core is caused by density stratification created by the flame. This mechanism is revealed by considering two reacting flow configurations: The first configuration represents a detached steam-diluted natural gas swirl-stabilized flame featuring a strong precessing vortex core. The second represents a natural gas swirl-stabilized flame anchoring near the combustor inlet, which does not exhibit self-excited oscillations. Experiments are conducted in a generic combustor test rig and the flow dynamics are captured using PIV and LDA. The corresponding density fields are approximated from the seeding density using a quantitative light sheet technique. The experimental results are compared to the global instability properties derived from hydrodynamic linear stability theory. Excellent agreement between the theoretically derived global mode frequency and measured precession frequency provide sufficient evidence to conclude that the self-excited oscillations are, indeed, driven by a global hydrodynamic instability. The effect of the density field on the global instability is studied explicitly by performing the analysis with and without density stratification. It turns out that the significant change on instability is caused by the radial density gradients in the inner recirculation zone and not by the change of the mean velocity field. The present work provides a theoretical framework to analyze the global hydrodynamic instability of realistic combustion configurations. It allows relating the flame position and the resulting density field to the emergence of a precessing vortex core.

Siemens SGT-800 Industrial Gas Turbine Enhanced to 50MW: Combustor Design Modifications, Validation and Operation Experience

Siemens Oil & Gas introduced an enhanced SGT-800 gas turbine during 2010. The new power rating is 50.5MW at a 38.3% electrical efficiency in simple cycle (ISO) and best in class combined-cycle performance of more than 55%, for improved fuel flexibility at low emissions. The updated components in the gas turbine are interchangeable from the existing 47MW rating. The increased power and improved efficiency are mainly obtained by improved compressor airfoil profiles and improved turbine aerodynamics and cooling air layout. The current paper is focused on the design modifications of the combustor parts and the combustion validation and operation experience. The serial cooling system of the annular combustion chamber is improved using aerodynamically shaped liner cooling air inlet and reduced liner rib height to minimize the pressure drop and optimize the cooling layout to improve the life due to engine operation hours. The cold parts of the combustion chamber were redesigned using cast cooling struts where the variable thickness was optimized to maximize the cycle life. Due to fewer thicker vanes of the turbine stage #1, the combustor-turbine interface is accordingly updated to maintain the life requirements due to the upstream effect of the stronger pressure gradient. Minor burner tuning is used which in combination with the previously introduced combustor passive damping results in low emissions for >50% load, which is insensitive to ambient conditions. The combustion system has shown excellent combustion stability properties, such as to rapid load changes and large flame temperature range at high loads, which leads to the possibility of single digit Dry Low Emission (DLE) NOx. The combustion system has also shown insensitivity to fuels of large content of hydrogen, different hydrocarbons, inerts and CO. Also DLE liquid operation shows low emissions for 50–100% load. The first SGT-800 with 50.5MW rating was successfully tested during the Spring 2010 and the expected performance figures were confirmed. The fleet leader has, up to January 2013, accumulated >16000 Equivalent Operation Hours (EOH) and a planned follow up inspection made after 10000 EOH by boroscope of the hot section showed that the combustor was in good condition. This paper presents some details of the design work carried out during the development of the combustor design enhancement and the combustion operation experience from the first units.

Optical Measurement of Local and Global Transfer Functions for Equivalence Ratio Fluctuations in a Turbulent Swirl Flame

Equivalence ratio fluctuations are known to be one of the key factors controlling thermoacoustic stability in lean premixed gas turbine combustors. The mixing and thus the spatio-temporal evolution of these perturbations in the combustor flow is, however, difficult to account for in present low-order modeling approaches. To investigate this mechanism, experiments in an atmospheric combustion test rig are conducted. To assess the importance of equivalence ratio fluctuations in the present case, flame transfer functions for different injection positions are measured. By adding known perturbations in the fuel flow using a solenoid valve, the influence of equivalence ratio oscillations on the heat release rate is investigated. The spatially and temporally resolved equivalence ratio fluctuations in the reaction zone are measured using two optical chemiluminescence signals, captured with an intensified camera. A steady calibration measurement allows for the quantitative assessment of the equivalence ratio fluctuations in the flame. This information is used to obtain a mixing transfer function, which relates fluctuations in the fuel flow to corresponding fluctuations in the equivalence ratio of the flame. The current study focuses on the measurement of the global, spatially integrated, transfer function for equivalence ratio fluctuations and the corresponding modeling. In addition, the spatially resolved mixing transfer function is shown and discussed. The global mixing transfer function reveals that despite the good spatial mixing quality of the investigated generic burner, the ability to damp temporal fluctuations at low frequencies is rather poor. It is shown that the equivalence ratio fluctuations are the governing heat release rate oscillation response mechanism for this burner in the low-frequency regime. The global transfer function for equivalence ratio fluctuations derived from the measurements is characterized by a pronounced low-pass characteristic, which is in good agreement with the presented convection–diffusion mixing model.

Modeling an Enclosed, Turbulent Reacting Methane Jet With the Premixed Conditional Moment Closure Method

Here the premixed Conditional Moment Closure (CMC) method is used to model the recent PIV and Raman turbulent, enclosed reacting methane jet data from DLR Stuttgart [1]. The experimental data has a rectangular test section at atmospheric pressure and temperature with a single inlet jet. A jet velocity of 90 m/s is used with an adiabatic flame temperature of 2,064 K. Contours of major species, temperature and velocities along with velocity rms values are provided. The conditional moment closure model has been shown to provide the capability to model turbulent, premixed methane flames with detailed chemistry and reasonable runtimes [2]. The simplified CMC model used here falls into the class of table lookup turbulent combustion models where the chemical kinetics are solved offline over a range of conditions and stored in a table that is accessed by the CFD code. Most table lookup models are based on the laminar 1-D flamelet equations, which assume the small scale turbulence does not affect the reaction rates, only the large scale turbulence has an effect on the reaction rates. The CMC model is derived from first principles to account for the effects of small scale turbulence on the reaction rates, as well as the effects of the large scale mixing, making it more versatile than other models. This is accomplished by conditioning the scalars with the reaction progress variable. By conditioning the scalars and accounting for the small scale mixing, the effects of turbulent fluctuations of the temperature on the reaction rates are more accurately modeled. The scalar dissipation is used to account for the effects of the small scale mixing on the reaction rates. The original premixed CMC model used a constant value of scalar dissipation, here the scalar dissipation is conditioned by the reaction progress variable. The steady RANS 3-D version of the open source CFD code OpenFOAM is used. Velocity, temperature and species are compared to the experimental data. Once validated, this CFD turbulent combustion model will have great utility for designing lean premixed gas turbine combustors.

High Fidelity Simulation of the Spray Generated by a Realistic Swirling Flow Injector

Practical aero-engine fuel injection systems are highly complicated, combining complex fuel atomizer and air swirling elements to achieve good fuel-air mixing as well as long residence time in order to enhance both combustion efficiency and stability. While detailed understanding of the multiphase flow processes occurring in a realistic injector has been limited due to the complex geometries and the challenges in near-field measurements, high fidelity, first principles simulation offers, for the first time, the potential for a comprehensive physics-based understanding. In this work, such simulations have been performed to investigate the spray atomization and subsequent droplet transport in a swirling air stream generated by a complex multi-nozzle/swirler combination. A Coupled Level Set and Volume Of Fluid (CLSVOF) approach is used to directly capture the liquid-gas interface and an embedded boundary (EB) method is applied to flexibly handle the complex injector geometry. The ghost fluid (GF) method is also used to facilitate simulations at realistic fuel-air density ratio. Adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and Lagrangian droplet models are used to efficiently resolve the multi-scale processes. To alleviate the global constraint on the time-step imposed by locally activated AMR near liquid jets, a separate AMR simulation focusing on jet atomization was performed for relatively short physical time and the resulting Lagrangian droplets are coupled into another simulation on a uniform grid at larger time-steps. The high cost simulations were performed at the U.S. Department of Defense high performance computing facilities using over 5000 processors. Experiments at the same flow conditions were conducted at UTRC. The simulation details of flow velocity and vorticity due to the interaction of the fuel jet and swirling air are presented. The velocity magnitude is compared with experimental measurement at two downstream planes. The two-phase spray spreading is compared with experimental images and the flow details are further analyzed to enhance understanding of the complex physics.

The Liftoff Properties of Dimethyl Ether Jet Diffusion Flames With Preheating

Liftoff properties of DME laminar axisymmetric diffusion flames were investigated experimentally with emphasis on the preheating effects. At room temperature, DME presented a different liftoff phenomenon from the non-oxygenated hydrocarbon fuels. It could not be lifted off directly by increasing the jet velocity except for far field ignition at relatively low mass flow rate. When fuel and dilution were preheated, the DME flame could be lifted off directly by increasing the jet velocity. The range of the mass flow rate of stabilized DME liftoff flames became much narrower and the liftoff height became much smaller at fuel preheating than that at ambient temperature. With the increase of the jet temperature, the DME liftoff flames exhibited as one of the following three types: stationary lifted flames, stable oscillating lifted flames and unstable oscillating lifted flames. Stationary lifted flames existed when the initial temperature was relatively low (less than 350 K). Stable oscillating lifted flames were observed at relatively high preheated temperature (about 350 K ∼ 750 K), and the trajectory of the liftoff flame base was nearly sinusoidal. Both the oscillating frequency and amplitude increased with the preheating temperature. The oscillating lifted flames were caused by thermal buoyancy effect, inertia and the instability in the inner flow. When the jet temperature exceeded 750 K, the oscillating lifted flames became unstable and easily to be blown out. The flame base of the stabilized DME liftoff flame had a tribrachial structure at both ambient temperature and elevated temperature.

Combustion Instability in a Swirl Flow Combustor With Transverse Extensions

The present investigation is an analysis of self-excited combustion instability in a swirl flame-based combustor with transverse extensions. Transverse extensions create the possibility of studying flame interaction with transverse acoustic oscillations. Such investigation important for understanding the phenomenon of thermoacoustic instability in annular combustors, where during thermoacoustic instability, azimuthal acoustic modes of the combustor couple with the multiple flames of the combustor. Flame and flow field dynamics during self-excited thermoacoustic instability in the single burner test-rig is presented here. These results are then compared to the dynamics of the isothermal and reacting flows in response to axial and transverse acoustic forcing. Both axial and transverse forcing led to the formation of axisymmetric shear layer vortices. Adding to the insight gained from previous investigations, these results suggest that that swirl flow dynamics in response to transverse acoustics consists of a non-trivial, direct effect of transverse acoustics on the flow field, in addition to its response to longitudinal fluctuations induced by transverse forcing.

Design for Thermo-Acoustic Stability: Modeling of Burner and Flame Dynamics

A Design for Thermo-Acoustic Stability (DeTAS) procedure is presented, that aims at selecting a most stable burner geometry for a given combustor. It is based on the premise that a thermo-acoustic stability model of the combustor can be formulated and that a burner design exists, which has geometric design parameters that sufficiently influence the dynamics of the flame. Describing the flame dynamics in dependence of the geometrical parameters an optimization procedure involving a linear stability model of the target combustor maximizes the damping and thereby yields the optimal geometrical parameters. To demonstrate the procedure on an existing annular combustor a generic burner design was developed that features a significant variability of dynamical flame response in dependence of two geometrical parameters. In this paper the experimentally determined complex burner acoustics and complex flame responses are described in terms of physics based parametric models with excellent agreement between experimental and model data. It is shown that these model parameters correlate uniquely with the variation of the burner geometrical parameters, allowing to interpolate the model with respect to the geometrical parameters. The interpolation is validated with experimental data.