Effects of Unmixedness on Combustion Instabilities in a Lean-Premixed Gas Turbine Combustor

The present experimental study focuses on the effects of the degree of premixing and swirl strength on combustion instabilities occurring in a lean premixed gas turbine combustor burning natural gas and air. The combustor operated at pressurized conditions with heated air. Major measurements for the investigation of premixed combustion dynamics include pressure fluctuations, flame emissions in reacting flow, and acetone fluorescence in non-reacting flow to assess the degree of premixing between fuel and air. The acetone PLIF results revealed that the degree of premixing improves as mixing time increases. The first and second longitudinal acoustic modes were the dominant excited modes for most cases of interest. Combustion at a lean premixed condition becomes more susceptible to instabilities as the degree of premixing becomes poor, and self-excited pressure oscillations are obviously present under a fully premixed condition, even without equivalence ratio fluctuations in space. For incomplete premixing cases, local equivalence ratio fluctuations caused by poor premixing may initiate instabilities since reaction rate is sensitive to equivalence ratio fluctuations at lean conditions. Phase resolved chemiluminescence measurements show that pressure oscillations are strongly coupled with variations in flame structures.     

Effects of operating pressure on flame oscillation and emission characteristics in a partially premixed swirl combustor

The influence of varying combustor pressure on flame oscillation and emission characteristics in the partially premixed turbulent flame were investigated. In order to investigate combustion characteristics in the partially premixed turbulent flame, the combustor pressure was controlled in the range of −30 to 30 kPa for each equivalence ratio (Φ = 0.8-1.2). The r.m.s. of the pressure fluctuations increased with decreasing combustor pressure for the lean condition. The combustor pressure had a sizeable influence on combustion oscillation, whose dominant frequency varied with the combustor pressure. Combustion instabilities could be controlled by increasing the turbulent intensity of the unburned mixture under the lean condition. An unstable flame was caused by incomplete combustion; hence, EICO greatly increased. Furthermore, EINO_x simply reduced with decreasing combustor pressure at a rate of 0.035 g/10 kPa. The possibility of combustion control on the combusting mode and exhaust gas emission was demonstrated.     

Large-Eddy Simulation of Lean Premixed Turbulent Flames of Three Different Combustion Configurations using a Novel Reaction Closure

This large eddy simulation (LES) study is applied to three different premixed turbulent flames under lean conditions at atmospheric pressure. The hierarchy of complexity of these flames in ascending order are a simple Bunsen-like burner, a sudden-expansion dump combustor, and a typical swirl-stabilized gas turbine burner–combustor. The purpose of this paper is to examine numerically whether the chosen combination of the Smagorinsky turbulence model for sgs fluxes and a novel turbulent premixed reaction closure is applicable over all the three combustion configurations with varied degree of flow and turbulence. A quality assessment method for the LES calculations is applied. The cold flow data obtained with the Smagorinsky closure on the dump combustor are in close proximity with the experiments. It moderately predicts the vortex breakdown and bubble shape, which control the flame position on the double-cone burner. Here, the jet break-up at the root of the burner is premature and differs with the experiments by as much as half the burner exit diameter, attributing the discrepancy to poor grid resolution. With the first two combustion configurations, the applied subgrid reaction model is in good correspondence with the experiments. For the third case, a complex swirl-stabilized burner–combustor configuration, although the flow field inside the burner is only modestly numerically explored, the level of flame stabilization at the junction of the burner–combustor has been rather well captured. Furthermore, the critical flame drift from the combustor into the burner was possible to capture in the LES context (which was not possible with the RANS plus k–ɛ model), however, requiring tuning of a prefactor in the reaction closure.     

Experimental study of biogas combustion using a gas turbine configuration

The aim of the present work is to compare stability combustion domains, flame structures and dynamics between CH₄/air flames and a biogas/air flames (issued from waste methanisation) in a lean gas turbine premixed combustion conditions. Velocity profiles are obtained by Laser Doppler Anemometry measurements. CH* chemiluminescence measurements and temporal acquisition of chamber pressure are performed in order to describe flame structure and instabilities. Changes in flame structure and dynamics when fuel composition is varying are found to strongly depend on laminar flame speed. No clear correlation between the unstable flame and the reaction zone penetration in the corner recirculation can be found.     

PIV, 2D-LIF and 1D-Raman measurements of flow field,composition and temperature in premixed gas turbine flames

Several laser diagnostic measurement techniques have been applied to study the lean premixed natural gas/air flames of an industrial swirl burner. This was made possible by equipping the burner with an optical combustion chamber that was installed in the high-pressure test rig facility at the DLR Institute of Combustion Technology in Stuttgart. The burner was operated with preheated air at various operating conditions with pressures up to p = 6 bar and a maximum thermal power of P = 1 MW.The instantaneous planar flow field inside the combustor was studied with particle image velocimetry (PIV). Planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) of OH radicals on a single-shot basis was used to determine the shape and the location of the flame front as well as the spatial distribution of reaction products. 1D laser Raman spectroscopy was successfully applied for the measurement of the temperature and the concentration of major species under realistic gas turbine conditions.Results of the flow field analysis show the shape and the size of the main flow regimes: the inflow region, the inner and the outer recirculation zone. The highly turbulent flow field of the inner shear layer is found to be dominated by small and medium sized vortices. High RMS fluctuations of the flow velocity in the exhaust gas indicate the existence of a rotating exhaust gas swirl. From the PLIF images it is seen that the primary reactions happened in the shear layers between inflow and the recirculation zones and that the appearance of the reaction zones changed with flame parameters. The results of the multiscalar Raman measurements show a strong variation of the local mixture fraction allowing conclusions to be drawn about the premix quality. Furthermore, mixing effects of unburnt fuel and air with fully reacted combustion products are studied giving insights into the processes of the turbulence–chemistry interaction.     

LES of a Multi-burner Annular Gas Turbine Combustor

In this study, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) has been used to predict the flow, mixing and combustion in both a single burner laboratory gas turbine combustor and in an 18 burner annular combustor, having identical cross sections. The LES results for the single burner laboratory combustor are compared with experimental data for a laboratory model of this combustor, and with other LES predictions, with good agreement. An explicit finite volume based LES model, using the mixed subgrid model together with a partially stirred reactor model for the turbulence chemistry interactions, is used. For the annular combustor, with the swirlers parameterized by jet inflow boundary conditions, we have investigated the influence of the a-priori unknown combustor exit impedance, the influence of the swirler characteristics and the fuel type. The combustion chemistry of methane–air and n-decane–air combustion is modeled by a two-step reaction mechanism, whereas NOx is separately modeled with a one-step mechanism. No experimental data exists for the annular combustor, but these results are compared with the single burner LES and experimental results available. The combustor exit impedance, the swirler- and fuel characteristics all seem to influence the combusting flow through the acoustics of the annular combustor. To examine this in greater detail time-series and eigenmodes of the combustor flow fields are analyzed and comparisons are made also with results from conventional thermoacoustic eigenmode analysis, with reasonable agreement. The flow and pressure distributions in the annular combustor are described in some detail and the mechanisms by which the burners interact are outlined.     

Subgrid Model Influence in Large Eddy Simulations of Non-reacting Flow in a Gas Turbine Combustor

Fuel efficiency improvement and harmful emission reduction are the paramount driving forces for development of gas turbine combustors. Lean-burn combustors can accomplish these goals, but require specific flow topologies to overcome their sensitivity to combustion instabilities. Large Eddy Simulations (LES) can accurately capture these complex and intrinsically unsteady flow fields, but estimating the appropriate numerical resolution and subgrid model(s) still remain challenges. This paper discusses the prediction of non-reacting flow fields in the DLR gas turbine model combustor using LES. Several important features of modern gas turbine combustors are present in this model combustor: multiple air swirlers and recirculation zones for flame stabilisation. Good overall agreement is obtained between LES outcomes and experimental results, both in terms of time-averaged and temporal RMS values. Findings of this study include a strong dependence of the opening angle of the swirling jet inside the combustion chamber on the subgrid viscosity, which acts mainly through the air mass flow split between the two swirlers in the DLR model combustor. This paper illustrates the ability of LES to obtain accurate flow field predictions in complex gas turbine combustors making use of open-source software and computational resources available to industry.     

LES of Chemical and Acoustic Forcing of a Premixed Dump Combustor

This paper describes the first steps in the development of a large eddy simulation (LES) code able to compute combustion instabilities in gas turbines. This code was used to compute the forcing of an experimentally investigated premixed dump combustor. It is shown that the main effect of acoustic waves entering the combustion chamber is to create large vortices and unsteady heat release when these vortices burn. Another effect of waves entering the combustor is to modulate the fuel and air flow rates produced by the feeding lines. In this case the equivalence ratio of the mixture entering the combustor may also vary. This was investigated in a “chemical effect” simulation where the inlet equivalence ratio fluctuates but the total flow rate remains constant. For perturbations from stoichiometric burning, this mechanism was shown to induce less destabilizing effects than the purely aerodynamical mechanism due to vortex formation and combustion. It is shown that the LES methodology developed is able to reproduce the experimentally observed phase shift between acoustic excitation and total reaction rate in the chamber. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Large-Scale Turbulent Vortical Structures inside a Sudden Expansion Cylinder Chamber

A large eddy simulation (LES) is performed for turbulent flow around a bluff body inside a sudden expansion cylinder chamber, a configuration which resembles a premixed gas turbine combustor. To promote turbulent mixing and to accommodate flame stability, a flame holder is installed inside the combustion chamber. The Smagorinsky model and the Lagrangian dynamic subgrid-scale model are employed and tested. The calculated Reynolds number is 5,000 based on the bulk velocity and the diameter of inlet pipe. The simulation code is constructed by using a general coordinate system based on the physical contravariant velocity components. The predicted turbulent statistics are evaluated by comparing with the laser-doppler velocimetry (LDV) measurement data. The agreement of LES with the experimental data is shown to be satisfactory. Emphasis is placed on the time-dependent evolutions of turbulent vortical structures behind the flame holder. The numerical flow visualizations depict the behavior of large-scale vortices. The turbulent behavior behind the flame holder is analyzed by visualizing the sectional views of vortical structure. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Influences of acoustic instabilities on turbulent-flame propagation

Influences of acoustic instabilities on premixed turbulent-flames have been studied experimentally in a Taylor–Couette (TC) combustor for downward flame propagation in a turbulent flow-field generated in the annulus between two cylinders. Flow-field velocities were measured at a fixed location upstream of the propagating flame using laser-doppler velocimetry, while flame speeds were determined from video-recorded images. It is found that the existence of pre-ignition turbulence in the combustor (generated by rotation of the combustor-cylinder walls) does not eliminate acoustic instabilities, however as the level of pre-ignition turbulence is increased the influence of the secondary acoustic instability on the turbulent-flame speed becomes insignificant. For low intensities of pre-ignition turbulence the flame is found to accelerate during the latter stages of flame propagation, while for high levels of pre-ignition turbulence the flame propagates at a statistically constant speed, even though velocity fluctuations have been substantially amplified by the time the flame reaches the bottom end of the combustor as a result of acoustic instability.     

Laser-based investigations in gas turbine model combustors

Dynamic processes in gas turbine (GT) combustors play a key role in flame stabilization and extinction, combustion instabilities and pollutant formation, and present a challenge for experimental as well as numerical investigations. These phenomena were investigated in two gas turbine model combustors for premixed and partially premixed CH₄/air swirl flames at atmospheric pressure. Optical access through large quartz windows enabled the application of laser Raman scattering, planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of OH, particle image velocimetry (PIV) at repetition rates up to 10 kHz and the simultaneous application of OH PLIF and PIV at a repetition rate of 5 kHz. Effects of unmixedness and reaction progress in lean premixed GT flames were revealed and quantified by Raman scattering. In a thermo-acoustically unstable flame, the cyclic variation in mixture fraction and its role for the feedback mechanism of the instability are addressed. In a partially premixed oscillating swirl flame, the cyclic variations of the heat release and the flow field were characterized by chemiluminescence imaging and PIV, respectively. Using phase-correlated Raman scattering measurements, significant phase-dependent variations of the mixture fraction and fuel distributions were revealed. The flame structures and the shape of the reaction zones were visualized by planar imaging of OH distribution. The simultaneous OH PLIF/PIV high-speed measurements revealed the time history of the flow field–flame interaction and demonstrated the development of a local flame extinction event. Further, the influence of a precessing vortex core on the flame topology and its dynamics is discussed.     

微小尺度下氢气预混燃烧的实验研究

对内径为1.66mm的不锈钢管燃烧室的氢气预混燃烧实验进行了描述，采用 红外测温仪测量了燃烧室壁面的温度场分布，获得了不同燃烧热功率下的运行界限．在突扩 段内高温回流区的作用下，在带有5mm长突扩段的燃烧室内可以实现完全预混燃 烧，最高运行界限可达1.415．由于较高的进气速度和较大的燃烧室壁面散热，在不带突扩 段的不锈钢管内无法实现完全预混燃烧．结果表明突扩段对微小尺度燃烧具有稳定火焰、拓 宽燃烧运行界限的作用．通过对火焰形状和结构的观察，结合突扩段燃烧流场的分析，合理 解释了燃烧室壁面温度场随过量空气系数的变化规律．     

微型开缝钝体燃烧器燃烧特性数值分析

本文将开缝钝体稳燃技术应用于微型燃烧器中,采用详细化学反应机理模拟了不同速度下微型开缝钝体燃烧器与微型常规钝体燃烧器的燃烧情况．结果表明：开缝钝体燃烧器火焰宽度一致性较好,火焰中心温度沿轴向分布更加均匀,尤其在速度较大时,开缝钝体燃烧器优势更加明显;开缝钝体燃烧器燃烧效率高于常规钝体燃烧器,速度大于25m/s时,开缝钝体燃烧器效率高出常规钝体燃烧器5%左右;由于开缝钝体中钝体缝隙过大,濒临吹熄极限时,钝体后值班火焰被吹熄,开缝钝体燃烧器吹熄极限略有降低．     

Similarity Issues of Kerosene and Methane Confined Flames Stabilized by Swirl in Regard to the Weak Extinction Limit

One of the most promising methods for reducing NO _x emissions of jet engines is the lean combustion process. For realization of this concept the percentage of air flowing through the combustor dome has to be drastically increased, which implies high volume fluxes in the primary zone of the combustion chamber and represents a substantial challenge in regard to the flame stabilization. Swirl motion is thus applied to the air flux by the swirl generator and decisively contributes to the flame stabilization. The current paper reviews an atmospheric investigation of a burner configuration in regard to the weak extinction limit, comprising a confined non-premixed swirl-stabilized flame. The burner can be supplied with either kerosene or after a small adaption with natural gas (methane). Therefore, a comparison of a kerosene-fuelled flame (spray flame) to a natural gas fuelled one (methane flame) can be performed. Both are realized by almost identical burner configuration and at identical conditions. The main idea of this work is to align the stability characteristics of both flames by means of similarity. However, fundamental differences regarding the flame structures of the flames are detected through in-flame measurements. This determines the limits of the current approach and motivates an appropriate choice of flame modeling.     

AEROELASTICITY ANALYSIS OF AN INDUSTRIAL GAS TURBINE COMBUSTOR USING A SIMPLIFIED COMBUSTION MODEL

Lean premixed industrial gas turbine combustors are susceptible to flame instabilities, resulting in large unsteady pressure waves that may cause the discharge nozzle to experience excessive vibration levels. A detailed aeroelasticity analysis, aimed at investigating possible structural failure mechanisms, was undertaken using a time-accurate unsteady flow representation, a simplified combustion disturbance and a structural model of the discharge nozzle. The computational domain included the lower part of the combustor geometry as well as the nozzle guide vanes (NGVs) at the HP turbine inlet. A pressure perturbation, representing the unsteadiness due to the combustion process, was applied below the tertiary fuel inlet and its frequency was set to each structural natural frequency in turn. The propagation of the pressure perturbation through the combustor nozzle, its reflection from the NGVs and further reflections were monitored using two different models. The first one, the so-called “open” system, ignored the reflections from the upper part of the combustion chamber while the second one, the “closed” system, assumed full reflection with an appropriate time shift. The calculations have shown that the imposed excitation could generate unsteady pressure shapes that were correlated with the “flap” modes of the discharge nozzle. In addition, an acoustic resonance condition was observed when the forcing pressure wave had a frequency close to 550 Hz, the experimentally observed failure frequency of the nozzle. The co-existence of these two factors, i.e., excitation/structural-mode match and the possibility of acoustic resonance, was thought to have the potential of producing very high vibration response.     

Phase-Locked Temperature Measurements by Two-Line OH PLIF Thermometry of a Self-Excited Combustion Instability in a Gas Turbine Model Combustor

The phenomenon of periodic combustion instabilities has been investigated in a gas turbine model combustor by application of two-line planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) of OH for the determination of temperature distributions. The measurement technique has been evaluated using laser Raman scattering for comparison. The results showed that even with a lower accuracy compared to single-point techniques like CARS or Raman, valuable information concerning the stabilization mechanism can be drawn from the phase-locked mean temperature. The fact that the 2D technique is less time consuming compared to single-point techniques makes it attractive for phase-resolved measurements. The investigation showed that the two-line OH-PLIF thermometry technique can very well contribute to the understanding of combustion instabilities phenomena and assist the validation and the improvement of CFD models.     

The Effect of Partial Premixing and Heat Loss on the Reacting Flow Field Prediction of a Swirl Stabilized Gas Turbine Model Combustor

This work addresses the prediction of the reacting flow field in a swirl stabilized gas turbine model combustor using large-eddy simulation. The modeling of the combustion chemistry is based on laminar premixed flamelets and the effect of turbulence-chemistry interaction is considered by a presumed shape probability density function. The prediction capabilities of the presented combustion model for perfectly premixed and partially premixed conditions are demonstrated. The effect of partial premixing for the prediction of the reacting flow field is assessed by comparison of a perfectly premixed and partially premixed simulation. Even though significant mixture fraction fluctuations are observed, only small impact of the non-perfect premixing is found on the flow field and flame dynamics. Subsequently, the effect of heat loss to the walls is assessed assuming perfectly premixing. The adiabatic baseline case is compared to heat loss simulations with adiabatic and non-adiabatic chemistry tabulation. The results highlight the importance of considering the effect of heat loss on the chemical kinetics for an accurate prediction of the flow features. Both heat loss simulations significantly improve the temperature prediction, but the non-adiabatic chemistry tabulation is required to accurately capture the chemical composition in the reacting layers.     

Laser Diagnostic Study of the Mechanism of a Periodic Combustion Instability in a Gas Turbine Model Combustor

To investigate the mechanisms leading to sustained thermoacoustic oscillations in swirl flames, a gas turbine model combustor was equipped with an optically accessible combustion chamber allowing the application of various laser techniques. The flame investigated was a swirled CH₄/air diffusion flame (thermal power 10 kW, global equivalence ratio φ = 0.75) at atmospheric pressure which exhibited self-excited thermoacoustic oscillations at a frequency of 290 Hz. In separate experiments, the flow velocities were measured by laser Doppler velocimetry, the flame structures and heat release rates by planar laser-induced fluorescence of CH and by OH chemiluminescence, and the joint probability density functions of the major species concentrations, mixture fraction, and temperature by laser Raman scattering. All measurements were performed in a phase-locked mode, i.e., triggered with respect to the oscillating pressure level measured by a microphone. The results revealed large periodic variations of all measured quantities and showed that the heat release rate was correlated with the degree of mixing of hot products with unburned fuel/air mixtures before ignition. The thermal expansion of the reacting gases had, in turn, a strong influence on the flow field and induced a periodic motion of the inner and outer recirculation zones. The combination of all results yielded a deeper understanding of the events sustaining the oscillations in the flame under investigation. The results also represent a data base that can be used for the validation and improvement of CFD codes.     

Central recirculation zone analysis in an unconfined tangential swirl burner with varying degrees of premixing

Swirl-stabilised combustion is one of the most widely used techniques for flame stabilisation, uses ranging from gas turbine combustors to pulverised coal-fired power stations. In gas turbines, lean premixed systems are of especial importance, giving the ability to produce low NOx systems coupled with wide stability limits. The common element is the swirl burner, which depends on the generation of an aerodynamically formed central recirculation zone (CRZ) and which serves to recycle heat and active chemical species to the root of the flame as well as providing low-velocity regions where the flame speed can match the local flow velocity. Enhanced mixing in and around the CRZ is another beneficial feature. The structure of the CRZ and hence that of the associated flames, stabilisation and mixing processes have shown to be extremely complex, three-dimensional and time dependent. The characteristics of the CRZ depend very strongly on the level of swirl (swirl number), burner configuration, type of flow expansion, Reynolds number (i.e. flowrate) and equivalence ratio. Although numerical methods have had some success when compared to experimental results, the models still have difficulties at medium to high swirl levels, with complex geometries and varied equivalence ratios. This study thus focuses on experimental results obtained to characterise the CRZ formed under varied combustion conditions with different geometries and some variation of swirl number in a generic swirl burner. CRZ behaviour has similarities to the equivalent isothermal state, but is strongly dependent on equivalence ratio, with interesting effects occurring with a high-velocity fuel injector. Partial premixing and combustion cause more substantive changes to the CRZ than pure diffusive combustion.     

Modelling of a Premixed Swirl-stabilized Flame Using a Turbulent Flame Speed Closure Model in LES

This paper proposes a combustion model based on a turbulent flame speed closure (TFC) technique for large eddy simulation (LES) of premixed flames. The model was originally developed for the RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations) approach and was extended here to LES. The turbulent quantities needed for calculation of the turbulent flame speed are obtained at the sub grid level. This model was at first experienced via an test case and then applied to a typical industrial combustor with a swirl stabilized flame. The paper shows that the model is easy to apply and that the results are promising. Even typical frequencies of arising combustion instabilities can be captured. But, the use of compressible LES may also lead to unphysical pressure waves which have their origin in the numerical treatment of the boundary conditions.