Oscillatory fuel droplet vaporization - Driving mechanism for combustion instability

1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Duvvur ◽  
C. H. Chiang ◽  
W. A. Sirignano
Author(s):  
Subramanian V. Sankar ◽  
Dale H. Buermann ◽  
William D. Bachalo

Advanced, non-intrusive, laser-based diagnostics are being developed for simultaneously measuring the size, velocity, temperature, and instantaneous regression rates of vaporizing/burning fuel droplets in polydisperse flow environments. The size and velocity of the droplets are measured using a conventional phase Doppler particle analyzer (PDPA), whereas the droplet temperatures are simultaneously measured with a rainbow thermometer. This integrated diagnostic has been applied to the study of fuel droplet heat-up characteristics in a swirl-stabilized kerosene spray flame. It has also been shown that a novel extension of rainbow thermometry can be used to additionally extract the instantaneous droplet vaporization rate. The feasibility of measuring the instantaneous regression rate has also been demonstrated using controlled experiments with a vaporizing/burning stream of ethanol droplets.


Author(s):  
Xiaoling Chen ◽  
Wyatt Culler ◽  
Stephen Peluso ◽  
Domenic Santavicca ◽  
Jacqueline O’Connor

Low-emissions gas turbine combustion, achieved through the use of lean, premixed fueling strategies, is susceptible to combustion instability. The driving mechanism for this instability arises from fluctuations of pressure, fuel/air flow rate, and heat release rate. If these fluctuations are relatively in-phase, the combustion system will evolve to a self-excited state. The self-excited instability frequency and amplitude depend mainly on the operating condition and the geometry of the combustor. In this study, we consider the onset and decay of self-excited instabilities, resulting from transients in fuel/air ratio, in both single-nozzle and multi-nozzle combustors. In particular, we examine the differences in the instability onset and decay processes between these two flame configurations, as most gas turbine combustors have multiple nozzles, but most gas turbine combustor experiments utilize a single-nozzle. A nonlinear logistic regression analysis is applied to study the timescales of the decay and onset transients. Variations in the equivalence ratio change the heat release rate distribution inside the combustor, which is captured using chemiluminescence imaging. The normalized Rayleigh index, which shows the spatial distribution of the instability driving, is calculated to analyze the driving strength in different regions of the flame. Comparisons between the single- and multi-nozzle flame transients, including both center and outer flames for the multi-nozzle combustor, suggest that both confinement from the wall and flame-flame interaction are crucial to determining flame dynamics as the equivalence ratio transient changes the heat release rate distribution near corner recirculation zone and flame shear layers.


Fuel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 268 ◽  
pp. 117407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jigang Wang ◽  
Xiaoyu Huang ◽  
Xinqi Qiao ◽  
Dehao Ju ◽  
Chunhua Sun

2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. K. Aggarwal ◽  
H. C. Mongia

This paper deals with the multicomponent nature of gas turbine fuels under high-pressure conditions. The study is motivated by the consideration that the droplet submodels that are currently employed in spray codes for predicting gas turbine combustor flows do not adequately incorporate the multicomponent fuel and high-pressure effects. The quasi-steady multicomponent droplet model has been employed to investigate conditions under which the vaporization behavior of a multicomponent fuel droplet can be represented by a surrogate pure fuel droplet. The physical system considered is that of a multicomponent fuel droplet undergoing quasi-steady vaporization in an environment characterized by its temperature, pressure, and composition. Using different vaporization models, such as infinite-diffusion and diffusion-limit models, the predicted vaporization history and other relevant properties of a bicomponent droplet are compared with those of a surrogate single-component fuel droplet over a range of parameters relevant to gas turbine combustors. Results indicate that for moderate and high-power operation, a suitably selected single-component (50 percent boiling point) fuel can be used to represent the vaporization behavior of a bicomponent fuel, provided one employs the diffusion-limit or effective-diffusivity model. Simulation of the bicomponent fuel by a surrogate fuel becomes increasingly better at higher pressures. In fact, the droplet vaporization behavior at higher pressures is observed to be more sensitive to droplet heating models rather than to liquid fuel composition. This can be attributed to increase in the droplet heatup time and reduction in the volatility differential between the constituent fuels at higher pressures. For ignition, lean blowout and idle operations, characterized by low pressure and temperature ambient, the multicomponent fuel evaporation cannot be simulated by a single-component fuel. The validity of a quasi-steady high-pressure droplet vaporization model has also been examined. The model includes the nonideal gas behavior, liquid-phase solubility of gases, and variable thermo-transport properties including their dependence on pressure. Predictions of the high-pressure droplet model show good agreement with the available experimental data over a wide range of pressures, implying that quasi-steady vaporization model can be used at pressures up to the fuel critical pressure.


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