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Micro

Gas turbines are reliable energy conversion systems since they are able to operate with variable fuels and independently from seasonal natural changes. Within that reality, micro gas turbines have been increasing the importance of its usage on the onsite generation. Comparatively, less research has been done, leaving more room for improvements in this class of gas turbines. Focusing on the study of a flexible micro turbine set, this work is part of the development of a low cost electric generation micro turbine, which is capable of burning natural gas, LPG and ethanol. It is composed of an originally automotive turbocompressor, a combustion chamber specifically designed for this application, as well as a single stage axial power turbine. The combustion chamber is a reversed flow type and has a swirl stabilized combustor. This paper is dedicated to the diagnosis of the natural gas combustion in this chamber using computational fluid dynamics techniques compared to measured experimental data of temperature inside the combustion chamber. The study emphasizes the near inner wall temperature, turbine inlet temperature and dilution holes effectiveness. The calculation was conducted with the Reynolds Stress turbulence model coupled with the conventional β-PDF equilibrium along with mixture fraction transport combustion model. Thermal radiation was also considered. Reasonable agreement between experimental data and computational simulations was achieved, providing confidence on the phenomena observed on the simulations, which enabled the design improvement suggestions and analysis included in this work.

No abstract