Experimental Study of Flameless Combustion in Gas Turbine Combustors
Author
Summary, in English
This paper presents experimental data on investigation of novel flameless combustors in
application of gas turbine engines at atmospheric conditions. Flameless combustion is
characterized by distributed flame and even temperature distribution under the conditions
of high preheat air temperature and sufficient large amount of recirculating low oxygen
concentration exhaust gas. Extremely low emissions of NOx, CO, and UHC are reported in
this paper for flameless combustion in a multiple jets premixed gas turbine combustor and a
swirling jet combustor. Measurements on the flame chemiluminescence, CO and NOx
emissions, acoustic pressure, temperature field, and velocity field reveal the influence of
preheat temperature, inlet air mass flow rate, combustor exhaust nozzle contraction ratio,
and combustor chamber diameter on emissions and combustion dynamics. The data indicate
that greater air mass flow rate, thus larger pressure drop, promotes the formation of
flameless combustion and lower NOx emissions for the same flame temperature. This
flameless combustor is in nature a premixed combustion which NOx emission is an
exponential function of the flame temperature regardless of different preheated
temperature. High preheated temperature and flow rate also helps in forming stable
combustion therefore are favorable for flameless combustion. The effects on emissions and
combustion dynamics from the combustor exhaust contraction and the combustion chamber diameter are also discussed.
application of gas turbine engines at atmospheric conditions. Flameless combustion is
characterized by distributed flame and even temperature distribution under the conditions
of high preheat air temperature and sufficient large amount of recirculating low oxygen
concentration exhaust gas. Extremely low emissions of NOx, CO, and UHC are reported in
this paper for flameless combustion in a multiple jets premixed gas turbine combustor and a
swirling jet combustor. Measurements on the flame chemiluminescence, CO and NOx
emissions, acoustic pressure, temperature field, and velocity field reveal the influence of
preheat temperature, inlet air mass flow rate, combustor exhaust nozzle contraction ratio,
and combustor chamber diameter on emissions and combustion dynamics. The data indicate
that greater air mass flow rate, thus larger pressure drop, promotes the formation of
flameless combustion and lower NOx emissions for the same flame temperature. This
flameless combustor is in nature a premixed combustion which NOx emission is an
exponential function of the flame temperature regardless of different preheated
temperature. High preheated temperature and flow rate also helps in forming stable
combustion therefore are favorable for flameless combustion. The effects on emissions and
combustion dynamics from the combustor exhaust contraction and the combustion chamber diameter are also discussed.
Department/s
Publishing year
2006
Language
English
Publication/Series
[Host publication title missing]
Document type
Conference paper
Publisher
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Topic
- Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics
Conference name
44th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 2006
Conference date
2006-01-09 - 2006-09-12
Conference place
Reno, Nevada, United States
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- AIAA paper no. 2006-546