Combustion and Heat Transfer Volume 3: Combustion Studies

Abstract

The objective of the proposed research was to develop a fundamental understanding of the combustion process in a gas turbine combustor. Specifically, we performed WSR experiments, vortex-flame interaction studies, flame stabilization research, and studies of turbine blade film cooling. A toroidal WSR was used to study lean blowout, combustion efficiency, and emissions. We found that fuel hydrocarbons of different structure and (C/H) ratio produced a noticeable influence on the combustion and emissions performance of a gas turbine combustor. In the vortex-flame interaction, the extinction caused by internal vortex is primarily due to the unsteady transport effects on chemical kinetics and extinction due to external vortex is caused due to excess convective influx into the strained flame. We studied the structure and stability (especially LBO) of a turbulent swirling flame in a variety of model combustors and found that swirl promotes turbulence and creates a positive radial velocity component that increases flame spread and turbulent mixing. Our computations predicted the attached flame locations, the development of a strong inner recirculation zone, the flame lift-off height, the location of reattachment point of the recirculation bubble. In our research on turbine blade cooling, PIV measurements showed an almost doubling of the jet spread for an increase in free stream turbulence from 1% to 17%. and forcing of the film cooling flow resulted in a decrease in film cooling effectiveness by as much as 70%. Data obtained in these experiments are presented in a companion volume 4 entitled, "Combustion & Heat Transfer: Combustion Data Sets."

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1997
Accession Number
ADA359287

Entities

People

  • D. Pestian
  • D. R. Ballal
  • F. Takahashi
  • M. Vangsness
  • W. J. Schmoll

Organizations

  • University of Dayton

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Alkanes
  • Boundary Layer
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Combustion
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Flow Visualization
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Heat Transfer
  • Hydrocarbon Fuels
  • Hydrodynamics
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Measurement
  • Turbulent Mixing

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.
  • Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Technology.