Swirling flowfield for colorless distributed combustion

Ahmed E.E. Khalil and Ashwani K. Gupta

Applied Energy, 2014, vol. 113, issue C, 208-218

Abstract: Distributed combustion has been shown to provide significant improvements of gas turbine combustors performance including uniform thermal field in the entire combustion chamber (improved pattern factor), ultra-low emission of NOx and CO, low noise, enhanced stability and higher efficiency. The flowfield associated with swirl is investigated to seek colorless distributed combustion. Non-reacting Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) diagnostics is employed to determine the flow field characteristics of three different configurations with focus on velocity distribution, flow entrainment of reactive species, and turbulence. In all the configurations, air was injected tangentially into the combustor. The results for the configurations reported here represent both non-swirling “linear” flow and swirling flow. Results showed that swirling flowfield configuration is characterized by higher flow velocities and much enhanced entrainment ratios throughout the combustor as compared to non-swirling case. Swirling flow exhibited high velocity region at the core of the combustor to further promote mixing and entrainment of reactive species. Higher velocities and entrainment are of significant importance in distributed combustion to prevent flame anchoring and enhance mixing. Experimental results are compared with numerical simulation for seeking improved flow distribution. The flowfield for different configurations are integrated with earlier data on emissions that showed near zero emission for swirling distributed combustion in gas turbine combustors.

Keywords: Distributed combustion; Gas turbine combustion; Swirl combustion; Ultra low NOx emission; Flow velocity and entrainment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261913005953
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:113:y:2014:i:c:p:208-218

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.07.029

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().