An Investigation on Flame Shape and Size for a High-Pressure Turbulent Non-Premixed Swirl Combustion

Zhongya Xi, Zhongguang Fu, Xiaotian Hu, Syed Waqas Sabir and Yibo Jiang
Additional contact information
Zhongya Xi: National Thermal Power Engineering & Technology Research Center, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Zhongguang Fu: National Thermal Power Engineering & Technology Research Center, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Xiaotian Hu: National Thermal Power Engineering & Technology Research Center, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Syed Waqas Sabir: National Thermal Power Engineering & Technology Research Center, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Yibo Jiang: National Thermal Power Engineering & Technology Research Center, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Flame shape and size for a high-pressure turbulent non-premixed swirl combustion were experimentally investigated over a wide range of varying parameters including fuel mass flow rate, combustor pressure, primary-air mass flow rate, and nozzle exit velocity. A CFD simulation was conducted to predict the flame profile. Meanwhile, a theoretical calculation was also performed to estimate flame length. It was observed that flame length increased linearly with increasing fuel mass flow rate but decreased with the increment of combustor pressure in the power function. The flame diminished at a larger primary-air mass flow rate but remained unaffected by the increasing nozzle exit velocity. Considering the global effect of all parameters at a particular pressure, the flame length generally decreased as the primary-air to fuel ratio increased. This was attributed to the reduced air entrainment required to dilute the fuel to stoichiometric proportions. The CFD simulation offered a good prediction of the variation trends of flame length, although some deviations from experimental values were observed. The theoretical calculation estimated the trends of flame length variation particularly well. Nevertheless the difference between the theoretical and experimental results was found to be due to the swirl influence. Hence, a swirl factor was proposed to be added to the original equation for swirl flames.

Keywords: flame shape and size; high-pressure non-premixed swirl flame; effects of operating conditions; CFD numerical simulation; theoretical calculation (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: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/4/930/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/4/930/ (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:11:y:2018:i:4:p:930-:d:141018

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 ().