Impact of Vitiation on a Swirl-Stabilized and Premixed Methane Flame

Mao Li, Yiheng Tong, Jens Klingmann and Marcus Thern
Additional contact information
Mao Li: Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University, Ole Römers väg 1, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Yiheng Tong: Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University, Ole Römers väg 1, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Jens Klingmann: Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University, Ole Römers väg 1, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Marcus Thern: Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University, Ole Römers väg 1, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Vitiation refers to the condition where the oxygen concentration in the air is reduced due to the mix of dilution gas. The vitiation effects on a premixed methane flame were investigated on a swirl-stabilized gas turbine model combustor under atmospheric pressure. The main purpose is to analyze the combustion stability and CO emission performance in vitiated air and compare the results with the flame without vitiation. The N 2 , CO 2 , and H 2 O (steam) were used as the dilution gas. Measurements were conducted in a combustor inlet temperature of 384 K and 484 K. The equivalence ratio was varied from stoichiometric conditions to the LBO (Lean Blowout) limits where the flame was physically blown out from the combustor. The chemical kinetics calculation was performed with Chemkin software to analyze the vitiation effects on the flame reaction zone. Based on the calculation results, the changes in the temperature gradient, CO concentration, and active radicals across the flame reaction zone were identified. The time-averaged CH chemiluminescence images were recorded and the results indicated the features of the flame shape and location. The CH signal intensity provided the information about the heat-release zone in the combustor. The combustion LBO limits were measured and the vitiation of CO 2 and H 2 O were found to have a stronger impact to elevate the LBO limits than N 2 . Near the LBO limits, the instability of the flame reaction was revealed by the high-speed chemiluminescence imaging and the results were analyzed by FFT (Fast Fourier Transfer). CO emission was measured with a water-cooled probe which is located at the exit of the combustor. The combustion vitiation has been found to have the compression effect on the operation range for low CO emission. However, this compression effect could be compensated by improving the combustor inlet temperature.

Keywords: vitiation effects; LBO limits; CO emission; CO 2 dilution; steam dilution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/10/1557/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/10/1557/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:10:p:1557-:d:114460

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().