Experimental and theoretical studies are made of the factors governing the blowoff velocities of stabilized flames supplied with flowing gaseous combustible mixtures. The test program includes wide variations in effective pressure, obtained using the water injection technique, and also covers wide ranges of velocity, flameholder size, and flameholder blockage. An equation is derived for predicting blowoff velocities which shows good agreement with the experimental data.

Experimental and numerical investigations are carried out on an annular, straight flow, swirl-stabilized aero engine combustor. In this work, the effect of degree and direction of swirl at the inlet of combustion chamber is examined on the liner wall temperature and hot spots. This is carried out by experimentally measuring the liner outer wall temperature at discrete positions along the circumferential and axial directions of the combustor liner in the engine test facility. The RANS based turbulence modeling with reacting flow approach is used to simulate the flow domain. Conjugate heat transfer analysis is used to estimate the liner wall temperature using Ansys CFX frame work. The degree and direction of swirl at the inlet of combustion chamber is found to alter the velocity and temperature profiles inside the combustor and hence found to have a significant effect on the liner hot spots and its location. Hotspot with 43 % increase in temperature near the secondary zone is observed with the increase in swirl angle from 5° to 15° at the combustor inlet. The location of the hotspot is found to be dependent on the swirl direction.

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Can type combustors are robust, with ease of design, manufacturing and testing. They are extensively used in industrial gas turbines and aero engines. This paper is mainly based on the work carried out in designing and testing a can type combustion chamber which is operated using JET-A1 fuel. Based on the design requirements, the combustor is designed, fabricated and tested. The experimental results are analysed and compared with the design requirements. The basic dimensions of the combustor, like casing diameter, liner diameter, liner length and liner hole distribution are estimated through a proprietary developed code. An axial flow air swirler with 8 vanes and vane angle of 45 degree is designed to create a re-circulation zone for stabilizing the flame. The Monarch 4.0 GPH fuel nozzle with a cone angle of 80 degree is used. The igniter used is a high energy igniter with ignition energy of 2J and 60 sparks per minute. The combustor is modelled, meshed and analysed using the commercially available ansys-cfx code. The geometry of the combustor is modified iteratively based on the CFD results to meet the design requirements such as pressure loss and pattern factor. The combustor is fabricated using Ni-75 sheet of 1 mm thickness. A small combustor test facility is established. The combustor rig is tested for 50 Hours. The experimental results showed a blow-out phenomenon while the mass flow rate through the combustor is increased beyond a limit. Further through CFD analysis one of the cause for early blow out is identified to be a high mass flow rate through the swirler. The swirler area is partially blocked and many configurations are analysed. The optimum configuration is selected based on the flame position in the primary zone. The change in swirler area is implemented in the test model and further testing is carried out. The experimental results showed that the blow-out limit of the combustor is increased to a good extent. Hence the effect of swirler flow rate on recirculation zone length and flame blow out is also studied and presented. The experimental results showed that the pressure loss and pattern factor are in agreement with the design requirements.

The Gas turbine combustion chamber is the highest thermally loaded component where the temperature of the combustion gases is higher than the melting point of the liner that confines the gases. Combustor liner temperatures have to be evaluated at all the operating conditions in the operating envelope to ensure a satisfactory liner life and structural integrity. On experimental side the combustion chamber rig testing involves a lot of time and is very expensive, while the numerical computations and simulations has to be validated with the experimental results. This paper is mainly based on the work carried out in validating the liner temperatures of a straight flow annular combustion chamber for an aero engine application. Limited experiments have been carried out by measuring the liner wall temperatures using k-type thermocouples along the liner axial length. The experiments on the combustion chamber testing are carried out at the engine level testing. The liner temperature which is numerically computed by CHT investigations using CFX code is verified with the experimental data. This helped in better understanding the flow characterization around and along the liner wall. The main flow variables used are the mass flow rate, temperature and the pressure at the combustor inlet. Initially, the fuel air ratio is used accordingly to maintain the same T4/T3 ratio. The effect of liner temperature with T3 is studied. Since T4 is constant, the liner temperature is only dependent on T3 and follows a specific temperature distribution for the given combustor geometry. Hence this approach will be very useful in estimating the liner temperatures at any given T3 for a given combustor geometry. Further the liner temperature is also estimated at other fuel air ratios (different T4/T3 ratios) by using the verified CHT numerical computations and found that TL/T3 remains almost constant for any air fuel ratio that is encountered in the operating envelope of the aero engine.