Effect of various inlet geometries on swirling flow in can combustor

W. Treedet; R.  Suntivarakorn

doi:10.15282/jmes.12.2.2018.16.0328

Authors

W. Treedet Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University 123 Mitraparp Road, Khon Kaen, Thailand, 40002
R. Suntivarakorn Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University 123 Mitraparp Road, Khon Kaen, Thailand, 40002

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15282/jmes.12.2.2018.16.0328

Keywords:

Can combustor; Swirling Flow; Flow behavior; Central Re-circulating Zone.

Abstract

This paper presents the effects of various inlet geometries on swirling flow and a study of the flow behavior of air in the can combustor using a CFD model. In this work, the standard k-ɛ turbulence model was used. Furthermore, for this study, the can combustor had an inner diameter, outer diameter, and length of 250 mm, 290 mm, and 406 mm, respectively. An annular swirler was used in order to generate a re-circulating velocity in the chamber of combustor. Various inlet geometries were designed and experiments were conducted to study the effects of these designs on the swirling flow inside the combustor. To understand the flow behavior, the snout angles varied at 30°, 45°, and 60° angles, and the hub to tip ratio of the vane swirler varied at 0.33 and 0.67. The results showed that the following had an influence upon the Central Re-circulating Zone (CRZ) and Pressure Loss factor (PLF) in a combustor: 1) the snout angle, 2) the hub to tip ratio of the annular swirler, and 3) the auxiliary primary holes. It was also found that the optimum design of this can combustor had a snout angle of 30 degrees and a hub to tip ratio of the swirler of 0.33. In order to create the optimum design for a large CRZ and lowest PLF, it was found that auxiliary primary holes should be also used.

References

Cohen H, Rogers GFC and Saravanamuttoo HIH. Gas turbine theory. Longman house. (1996).

Ibrahim TK and Rahman MM. Effects of isentropic efficiency and enhancing strategies on gas turbine performance. Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences. 2013;4;383-396.

Rolls-Royce plc. The jet engine. Renault printing. (1996).

Lefebvre AH. Gas turbine combustion. Hemisphere publishing corporation. (1983).

Eldrainy YA, Saqr KM, Aly HS and Jaafar MNM. CFD insight of the flow dynamics in a novel swirler for gas turbine combustors. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer. 2009;36;936-941.

Syred N and Beer JM. Combustion in swirling flows: A review. Combustion and Flame. 1974;23;143-201.

Xia JL, Smith BL, Benim AC, Schmidli J and Yadigaroglu G. Effect of inlet and outlet boundary conditions on swirler flows. Computer and Fluids. 1997;26;811- 823.

Dang XX, Zhao JX and Ji HH. Experimental study of effects of geometric parameters on combustion performance of dual-stage swirler combustor. Journal of Aerospace and Power. 2007;22;1639-1645.

Hamada KI, Rahman MM, Ramasamy D. Noor MM and Kadirgama K. Numerical investigation of in-cylinder flow characteristics of hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engine. Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences. 2016;10;1792-1802.

Reda E, Zulkifli R and Harun Z. Large eddy simulation of wind flow through an urban environment in its full-scale wind tunnel models. Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences. 2017;11;2665-2678.

Singh SN, Seshadri V, Singh RK and Mishra T. Flow characteristics of an annular gas turbine combustor model for reacting flows using CFD. Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research. 2006;65;921-934.

Grech N, Mehdi A, Zachos PK, Pachidis V and Singh R. Effect of combustion geometry on performance of airblast atomizer under sub-atmospheric conditions. Engineering Application of Computational Fluid Mechanics. 2012;2;203-213.

Eldrainy YA, Ridzwan JJM and Jaafar MNM. Prediction of the flow inside a micro gas turbine combustor. Jurnal Mekanikal. 2008;25;50-63.

Eldrainy YA, Jaafar MNM and Lazim TM. Numerical investigation of the flow inside primary zone of turbular combustor model. Jurnal Mekanikal. 2008;26;162-176.

Li Y, Li R, Li D, Bao J and Zhang P. Combustion charecteristic of a slotted swirler combustion: An experimental test and numerical validation. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer. 2015;66;140-147.

Pathan FH, Patel NK and Tadvi MV. Numerical investigation of the combustion of methane air mixture in gas turbine can-type combustion chamber. International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research. 2012;3;1-7.

Chowdhury SJ and Noman MS. Effect of cooling air on swirler combustor. Journal of Mechanical Engineering. 2007;37;1-9.

Green AS and Whitelaw JH. Isothermal models of gas turbine combustor. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 1983;126;399-412.

Lilley DG. Flow modeling in practical combustors: A review, Journal of Energy. 1979;3;193.

Gupta AK, Lilley DG and Syred N. Swirl Flows. Abacus press. (1984).

Sloan DG, Smith PJ and Smoot LD. Modeling of swirl in turbulence flow system. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science. 1986;12;163.

Khandelwal B, Lili D and Sethi V. Design and study on performance of axial swirler for annular combustor by changing different design. Journal of Energy Instutite. 2014;87;372-382.

Vondal J and Hajek J. Swirler flow prediction in model combustor with axial guide vane swirler. Chemical Engineering Transactions. 2012;29;1069-1074.

Shih LH, Koseff JR, Ivey GN and Ferziger JH. Parameterization of turbulent fluxes and scales using homogeneous sheared stably- stratified turbulence simulations. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 2005;525;193-214.

Muthakumar P and Balakrishnan SR. CFD analysis of recirculating flows induced by axial swirler. International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology. 2013;2;86-90.

Fu Y, Jeng SM and Tacina R. Characteristics of the swirler flow generated by an axial swirler. International Conference on ASME Turbo Expo. Nevada, USA. 2005.

Dhakiya AK, Shah BK and Mohite AS. Study of flow through combustion swirler with the effect of duffuser on the recirculation zone. International Journal of Engineering Research and Development. 2012;3;68-73.

Jaafar MNM, Osman KJMS and Ishak MSA. Combustion Aerodynamic using radial swirler. International Journal of the Physical Science. 2011;6;3091-3098.

Raj RTK and Ganesan V. Study on the effect of various parameters on flow development behind vane swirlers. International Journal of Thermal Sciences. 2008;47;1204-1225.

Kumari M and Jagruti S. Experimental analysis of flow through rotating swirler in combustion chamber. International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research. 2014;3;2105-2109.

Kumari M. CFD analysis of flow through rotating combustion swirler. Journal of Computer Science and Engineering and Technology. 2014;5;820-823.

Shah BK, Dhakiya AK and Mohite AS. Experimental study on the effect of various parameters of recirculating flows induced by vane swirler. International Journal of Educational Research and Technology. 2012;3;24-31.

Mattingly JD. Element of Gas Turbine Propulsion. McGraw-Hill Inc. (1996).

Walsh PP and Fletcher P. Gas Turbine Performance. Blackwell science. (2004).

Yakhot A and Orszag S. Renormalisation group analysis of turbulence: I, Basic theory. Journal of Scientific Computing. 1986;1;3-51.