With the generalization of Lean Burn combustors, the flow field entering the turbine tends to feature higher levels of swirl, turbulence, while different hot streak patterns often emerge if compared to the previous generation of combustion chambers. In this context, the combustor-turbine interactions and more specifically the transport of hot streaks through the turbine need to be further analysed to gain engine performance and improved turbine life. Considering this new context, a non-reactive axial combustor simulator representative of a Lean Burn architecture, together with a 1.5 high pressure turbine stage is developed within the European project FACTOR. The interaction between these two modules is numerically investigated by performing Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of the combustor simulator equipped with two Nozzle Guide Vanes (NGVs). By using such an integrated approach, the combustor-turbine interface (plane 40) disappears, allowing: (i) more realistic inlet conditions to the turbine by suppressing all the assumptions associated with averaged profiles; (ii) to account for the potential effect of the vanes on the chamber. Note that if compared to classical approaches, the use of time-resolved LES has the advantage of well predicting the combustor mean flow and turbulence, resulting in more realistic flow properties at the turbine inlet as confirmed by previous works on this configuration. This paper focuses first on two LESs of the combustor-turbine specific configurations: i.e., two clocking positions of the hot streak relative to the NGVs. Significant changes on the thermal field around the vanes are highlighted. When the hot streak is injected in front of a vane leading edge, it considerably heats up the pressure side compared to the adjacent vane although the temperature field is quite uniform at the NGV exit because of the enhanced mixing of the hot streak. On the other hand, when the hot streak is injected in the passage between two adjacent vanes, it remains away from the vane walls preventing them from heating up. The hot streak however crosses the vane passage without being significantly distorted resulting in a more heterogeneous flow field at the rotor inlet. Second, the potential effect induced by the presence of the vanes is investigated by comparing the flow field inside the chamber with and without NGVs. It is found that the potential effect does not alter temperature patterns while a significant radial and azimuthal mass flow redistribution is observed up to about 25% axial chord length upstream of the vanes. The turbulence level is affected by the presence of vanes up to plane 40 when the hot streak is aligned with the passage.

Development of an Engine Representative Combustor Simulator Dedicated to Hot Streak GenerationNowadays, the lack of confidence in the prediction of combustor-turbine interactions and more specifically our ability to predict the migration of hot spots through this interface leads to the application of extra safety margins, which are detrimental to an optimized turbine design and efficiency. To understand the physics and flow at this interface, a full 360 deg nonreactive combustor simulator (CS) representative of a recent lean burn chamber together with a 1.5 turbine stage is instrumented at DLR in Gottingen (Germany) within the European project FACTOR. The chamber operates with axial swirlers especially designed to reproduce engine-realistic velocity and temperature distortion profiles, allowing the investigation of the hot streaks transport through the high pressure (HP) stage. First, a true scale three injector annular sector of the CS without turbine is assembled and tested at the University of Florence. To generate the hot steaks, the swirlers are fed by an air flow at 531 K, while the liners are cooled by an effusion system fed with air at ambient temperature. In addition to static pressure taps and thermocouples, the test rig will be equipped with an automatic traverse system which allows detailed measurements at the combustor exit by means of a 5-hole probe, a thermocouple, and hot wire anemometers. This paper presents the design process and instrumentation of the trisector CS, with a special focus on large Eddy simulations (LES) which were widely used to validate the design choices. It was indeed decided to take advantage of the ability and maturity of LES to properly capture turbulence and mixing within combustion chambers, despite an increased computational cost as compared to usual Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) approaches. For preliminary design, simulations of a single periodic sector (representative of the DLR full annular rig) are compared to simulations of the trisector test rig, showing no difference on the central swirler predictions, comforting the choice for the trisector. In parallel, to allow hot wire anemometry (HWA) measurements, the selection of an isothermal operating point, representative of the nominal point, is assessed and validated by use of LES.

Setting up outlet boundary conditions in configurations which have a strong rotating motion is a crucial question for turbomachinery simulations. This is usually done using the so called 'radial equilibrium assumption' (REA) which is used before the simulation and provides an approximate expression for the pressure profile to impose in the outlet plane. This paper shows that recent methods developed for compressible flows, based on characteristic methods, including the effects of transverse terms, can capture radial equilibrium naturally without having to impose a pre-computed pressure profile. In addition, these methods are also designed to control acoustic reflections on boundaries and the present work suggests that they could replace classical REA approximations when non reflecting boundary conditions are required at the outlet of a turbomachine simulation, for example in LES. This is demonstrated in two cases: (1) a simple annulus flow with swirl imposed at the inlet and (2) a transonic turbine vane. * PhD student, Turbomeca and CFD Team CERFACS, charlie.koupper@turbomeca.fr.

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In order to deepen the knowledge of the interaction between modern lean burn combustors and high pressure turbines, a real scale annular three sector combustor simulator has been assembled at University of Florence, with the goal of investigating and characterizing the generated aerothermal field and the hot streaks transport between combustor exit and the high pressure vanes location. To generate hot streaks and simulate lean burn combustors behavior, the rig is equipped with axial swirlers, fed by main air flow that is heated up to 531 K, and liners with effusion cooling holes that are fed by air at ambient temperature. The three sector configuration is used to reproduce the periodicity on the central sector and to allow to perform measurements inside the chamber, through the lateral walls. Ducts of different length have been mounted on the swirlers, preserving the hot mainflow from the interaction with coolant. Such configurations, together with the one without ducts, have been tested, using different measurement techniques, in order to highlight the differences in the resulting flow fields. First of all, isothermal PIV measurements have been performed on the combustion chamber symmetry plane, to highlight the mixing phenomena between the mainflow and cooling flows. Then a detailed investigation of the mean aerothermal field at combustor exit has been carried out, for nominal operating conditions, by means of a five hole pressure probe provided with a thermocouple, installed on an automatic traverse system. With the aim of analyzing the hot streaks transport and the flow field modification towards the vanes location, such measurements have been performed on two different planes: one located in correspondence of the combustor exit and the further one placed downstream, in the virtual location of the vanes leading edges. Therefore, an experimental database, describing the evolution of the flow field in a combustor simulator with typical traits of modern lean burn chambers, for different injector geometries, has been set up.