The CIVIC—A Concept in Vortex Induced Combustion, Part II

1981 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 708-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Shekleton

Turbomach, A Division of Solar Turbines International, An Operating Group of International Harvester, manufactures the small 10kW Gemini gas turbine. The very small size of the combustor precluded the use of conventional gas turbine combustor design techniques. A novel solution was arrived at based primarily on an amalgam of design practices used in furnaces and reciprocating engines. Use was made of the centrifugal force effects of swirl flow (Rayleigh Instability Criteria) both as a method of fuel evaporation and as a method of control of the rate of flame propagation. Substantial advantage can be obtained by this design technique provided that a fine and accurately located fuel spray is achieved. Various applications of this method of combustor design are outlined with emphasis on aerodynamics and fuel atomization and volatility rather than reaction rate criteria as the dominant influences.

Author(s):  
Yeoung Min Han ◽  
Min Soo Yoon ◽  
Woo Seok Seol ◽  
Dae Sung Lee ◽  
Victor I. Yagodkin ◽  
...  

An experimental investigation is carried out on modeling of fuel atomization for the purpose of simulating the idle regime of a gas turbine combustor through atmospheric testing. If the simulation is successfully applied, it will significantly reduce the cost of testing. The simulation must sustain nearly the same fuel spray characteristics and the same aerodynamics at the exit of the frontal device. Air assisting through the main stage of a dual orifice fuel nozzle is employed to match the fuel spray characteristics. Optical diagnostic methods including flow visualization and Adaptive Phase/Doppler Velocimetry are used for the investigation of spray characteristics. Once the fuel spray characteristics are matched by air assisting, the combustor characteristics may then be matched by maintaining the loading parameter constant. The possibility of modeling with air assisting is shown and appropriate conditions for air assisting are found.


1975 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Markowski ◽  
R. P. Lohmann ◽  
R. S. Reilly

The vorbix burner (acronym for Vortex Burning and Mixing) represents a new approach to a practical gas turbine combustor design. The concept exploits the Rayleigh instability of swirling flows to enhance the mixing and combustion rates. The combination of a two-stage fuel system with a piloted combustor leads to a unique high rate technique for fuel prevaporization within the combustor proper. This paper presents the fundamental concepts in the definition of the vorbix combustor and the results of exploratory tests conducted on can (tubular) and annular vorbix combustors. The results indicate that this type of combustor has unique performance characteristics that include excellent stability and high combustion efficiency over wide excursions in operating fuel air ratios in addition to substantially reduced emission levels during high power operation.


Author(s):  
Joost L. H. P. Sallevelt ◽  
Artur K. Pozarlik ◽  
Martin Beran ◽  
Lars-Uno Axelsson ◽  
Gerrit Brem

Combustion tests with bioethanol and diesel as a reference have been performed in OPRA's 2 MWe class OP16 gas turbine combustor. The main purposes of this work are to investigate the combustion quality of ethanol with respect to diesel and to validate the developed CFD model for ethanol spray combustion. The experimental investigation has been conducted in a modified OP16 gas turbine combustor, which is a reverse-flow tubular combustor of the diffusion type. Bioethanol and diesel burning experiments have been performed at atmospheric pressure with a thermal input ranging from 29 to 59 kW. Exhaust gas temperature and emissions (CO, CO2, O2, NOx) were measured at various fuel flow rates while keeping the air flow rate and air temperature constant. In addition, the temperature profile of the combustor liner has been determined by applying thermochromic paint. CFD simulations have been performed with ethanol for five different operating conditions using ANSYS FLUENT. The simulations are based on a 3D RANS code. Fuel droplets representing the fuel spray are tracked throughout the domain while they interact with the gas phase. A liner temperature measurement has been used to account for heat transfer through the flame tube wall. Detailed combustion chemistry is included by using the steady laminar flamelet model. Comparison between diesel and bioethanol burning tests show similar CO emissions, but NOx concentrations are lower for bioethanol. The CFD results for CO2 and O2 are in good agreement, proving the overall integrity of the model. NOx concentrations were found to be in fair agreement, but the model failed to predict CO levels in the exhaust gas. Simulations of the fuel spray suggest that some liner wetting might have occurred. However, this finding could not be clearly confirmed by the test data.


Author(s):  
R. K. R. Katreddy ◽  
S. R. Chakravarthy

The present study focuses on identifying and resolving large-scale energy containing structures and turbulent eddies in a typical gas turbine combustor single nozzle rig, using particle image velocimetry in cold flow. A generic fuel-air nozzle through a swirler is integrated with a sudden expansion square duct with optical access to perform laser diagnostics. Experiments are conducted to analyze the swirl flow field under starting and operating flow conditions. Three-component velocities are obtained in cross-sectional planes of Z/D = 0, 1.25, and 2.5 (normalized by the nozzle diameter), and two-component velocities are obtained in the mid-plane along the longitudinal (Z-) axis from Z/D = 0 to 2.5D. Velocity splitting is performed using spatial Gaussian smoothing with a kernel with filter width equal to integral scale is performed over the velocity fields to resolve the field of large-scale energy containing eddies. Proper orthogonal decomposition is performed over the large-scale velocity field, and the modes obtained indicate the existence of the precessing vortex core (PVC), formation of small scales Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) vortices for Z/D < 1.25D, and large-scale growing K-H structures in 1.25D < Z/D < 2.5D. Turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) is obtained from the turbulent velocity fluctuations below the integral length scale and is observed to be higher at the interface of the corner recirculation zone (CRZ) and central toroidal recirculation zone (CTRZ). Resolving the swirl velocity field obtained in the above manner into large-scale structures formed by the PVC, CTRZ, K-H vortices, CRZ, and small-scale turbulence field, indicates the clear distinction in rapid mixing zones and unsteady convective zones. The length-scales and zones of these structures within the swirl combustor are identified.


Author(s):  
Daero Joung ◽  
Kang Y. Huh

This study is concerned with 3D RANS simulation of turbulent flow and combustion in a 5 MW commercial gas turbine combustor. The combustor under consideration is a reverse flow, dry low NOx type, in which methane and air are partially mixed inside swirl vanes. We evaluated different turbulent combustion models to provide insights into mixing, temperature distribution, and emission in the combustor. Validation is performed for the models in STAR-CCM+ against the measurement data for a simple swirl flame (http://public.ca.sandia.gov/TNF/swirlflames.html). The standard k-ε model with enhanced wall treatment is employed to model turbulent swirl flow, whereas eddy break-up (EBU), presumed probability density function laminar flamelet model, and partially premixed coherent flame model (PCFM) are tried for reacting flow in the combustor. Independent simulations are carried out for the main and pilot nozzles to avoid flashback and to provide realistic inflow boundary conditions for the combustor. Geometrical details such as air swirlers, vane passages, and liner holes are all taken into account. Tested combustion models show similar downstream distributions of the mean flow and temperature, while EBU and PCFM show a lifted flame with stronger effects of swirl due to limited increase in axial momentum by expansion.


Author(s):  
Mohamed A. Altaher ◽  
Hu Li ◽  
Gordon E. Andrews

Biodiesels have advantages of low carbon footprint, reduced toxic emissions, improved energy supply security and sustainability and therefore attracted attentions in both industrial and aero gas turbines sectors. Industrial gas turbine applications are more practical biodiesels due to low temperature waxing and flow problems at altitude for aero gas turbine applications. This paper investigated the use of biodiesels in a low NOx radial swirler, as used in some industrial low NOx gas turbines. A waste cooking oil derived methyl ester biodiesel (WME) was tested on a radial swirler industrial low NOx gas turbine combustor under atmospheric pressure, 600K air inlet temperature and reference Mach number of 0.017&0.023. The pure WME, its blends with kerosene (B20 and B50) and pure kerosene were tested for gaseous emissions and lean extinction as a function of equivalence ratio for both Mach numbers. Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) of the fuel spray droplets was calculated. The results showed that the WME and its blends had lower CO, UHC emissions and higher NOx emissions than the kerosene. The weak extinction limits were determined for all fuels and B100 has the lowest value. The higher air velocity (at Mach = 0.023) resulted in smaller SMDs which improved the mixing and atomizing of fuels and thus led to reductions in NOx emissions.


Author(s):  
Sonu Kumar ◽  
Swetaprovo Chaudhuri ◽  
Saptarshi Basu

Abstract The swirl flow in gas turbine combustor plays a major role in flame stabilisation and performance of engine. Since the swirl flow is very complex and boundary sensitive phenomena, it is difficult to interpret it properly. High shear injector is being used now a days in modern gas turbine combustor to generate the swirl flow and achieve better fuel atomisation in the combustion chamber. High shear injector accommodates a series of swirlers (primary and secondary) with a diverging flare at the exit and fuel nozzle mounted at the centre of the swirler. In the present study it is tried to understand the influence of the flare angle on the non-reactive flow behaviour of the swirling spray flow-field generated through counter-rotating high shear injector. To perceive the influence of flare angle on the flow topology of the spray flow-field generated by a high shear injector, seven different flare half angles (β): 40°, 45°, 50°, 55°, 60°, 65° and 70° respectively were selected as a geometrical parameter to conduct the experiments. High-Speed Particle Image Velocimetry (HSPIV) technique was employed to perceive the topological structure of the spray flow field, mean and instantaneous behaviour of the velocity fields respectively. For all the cases mass flow of air and liquid (water) were kept constant. It was observed that with change in flare angle the size of the CTRZ, mean velocity and turbulent behaviour were also changing. Here the size of CTRZ is represented in terms of nondimensional radial width (W/Df) and height (H/Df) of the recirculation zone. The experiment was conducted without flare, initially and then subsequently with flares. It was found that both the radial width and the height of the recirculation zone were smallest for without flare case. With increase in flare angle the radial width and height of the CTRZ increases initially up to 60° flare angle and afterward decreased. The experiments made clear that flare angle has strong effect on the spray flow-field.


Author(s):  
Sandeep Kedukodi ◽  
Srinath Ekkad

Established numerical approaches for performing detailed flow analysis happens to be an effective tool for industry based applied research. In the present study, computations are performed on multiple gas turbine combustor geometries for turbulent, non-reactive and reactive swirling flow conditions for an industrial swirler. The purpose of this study is to identify the location of peak convective heat transfer along the combustor liner under swirling inlet flow conditions and to investigate the influence of combustor geometry on the flow field. Instead of modeling the actual swirler along with the combustor, an inlet swirl flow profile is applied at the inlet boundary based on previous literature. Initially, the computed results are validated against available experimental data for an inlet Reynolds number flow of 50000 using a 2D axi-symmetric flow domain for non-reacting conditions. A constant heat flux on the liner is applied for the study. Two turbulence models (RNG k-ε and k-ω SST) are utilized for the analysis based on its capability to simulate swirling flows. It is found that both models predict the peak liner heat transfer location similar to experiments. However, k-ε RNG model predicts heat transfer magnitude much closer to the experimental values except displaying an additional peak whereas k-ω model predicts only one peak but tends to over-predict in magnitude. Since the overall characteristic liner heat transfer trend is captured well by the latter one, it is chosen for future computations. A 3D sector (30°) model results also show similar trends as 2D studies. Simulations are then extended to 3 different combustors (Case 1: full cylinder and Case 2 and 3: cylinders with downstream contractions having reduced exit areas) by adopting the same methodology for same inlet flow conditions. Non-reacting simulations predict that the peak heat transfer location is marginally reduced by the downstream contraction of the combustor. However the peak location shifts towards downstream due to the presence of accelerated flow. Reacting flow simulations are performed with Flamelet Generation Manifold (FGM) model for simulating premixed combustion for the same inlet flow conditions as above. It is observed that Case 3 predicts a threefold increase in the exit flow velocity in comparison to non-reacting flow simulations. The liner heat transfer predictions show that both geometries predict similar peak temperatures. However, only one fourth of the initial liner length experiences peak temperature for Case 1 whereas the latter continues to feel the peak till the end. This behavior of Case 3 can be attributed to rapid convection of high temperature products downstream due to the prevailing accelerated flow.


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