In most dry, low NOx combustor designs, the front panel impingement cooling air is directly injected into the combustor primary zone. As this air partially mixes with the swirling flow of premixed reactants from the burner prior to completion of heat release, it reduces the effective equivalence ratio in the flame and has a beneficial effect on NOx emissions. However, the fluctuations of the equivalence ratio in the fiame potentially increase heat release fluctuations and influence flame stability. Since both effects are not yet fully understood, isothermal experiments are made in a water channel, where high speed planar laser-induced fluorescence (HSPLIF) is applied to study the cooling air distribution and its fluctuations in the primary zone. In addition, the flow field is measured with high speed particle image velocimetry (HSFIV). Both mixing and flow field are also analyzed in numerical studies using isothermal large eddy simulation (LES), and the simulation results are compared with the experimental data. Of particular interest is the influence of the injection configuration and cooling air momentum variation on the cooling air penetration and dispersion. The spatial and temporal quality of mixing is quantified with probability density functions (FDF). Based on the results regarding the equivalence ratio fluctuations, regions with potential negative effects on combustion stability are identified. The strongest fluctuations are observed in the outer shear layer of the swirling flow, which exerts a strong suction effect on the cooling air. Interestingly, the cooling air dilutes the recirculation zone of the swirling flow. In the reacting case, this effect is expected to lead to a decrease of the temperature in the flame-anchoring zone below the adiabatic flame temperature of the premixed reactant, which may have an adverse effect on flame stability.

In most diy, low-NO^ combustor designs of stationary gas turbines, the front panel impingement cooling air is directly injected into the combustor primaiy zone. This air partially mixes with the swirling flow of premixed reactants from the burner and reduces the effective equivalence ratio in the flame. However, local unmixedness and the lean equivalence ratio are supposed to have a major impact on combustion performance. The overall goal of this investigation is to answer the question of whether the cooling air injection into the primary combustor zone itas a beneficial effect on combustion stability andNOjc emissions or not. The flame stabilization of a typical swirl burner with and without front panel cooling air injection is studied in detail under atmospheric conditions close to the lean blowout limit (LBO) in a full-scale, single-burner combustion test rig. Based on previous isothermal investigations, a typical injection configuration is implemented for the combustion tests. Isothermal results of experimental studies in a water test rig adopting high-speed planar laser-induced fluorescence (HSPLIF) reveal the spatial and temporal mixing characteristics for the experimental setup studied under atmospheric combustion. This paper focuses on the effects of cooling air injection on both flame dynamics and emissions in the reacting case. To reveal dependencies of cooling air injection on combustion stability and NO^ emissions, the amount of injected cooling air is varied. OH*-chemiluminescence measurements are applied to characterize the impact of cooling air injection on the flame front. Emissions are collected for different cooling air concentrations, both global measurements at the chamber exit, and local measurements in the region of the flame front close to the burner exit. The effect of cooling air injection on pulsation level is investigated by evaluating the dynamic pressure in the combustor.The flame stabilization at the burner exit changes with an increasing degree of dilution with cooling air. Depending on the amount of cooling, only a specific share of the additional air participates in the combustion process.

This work presents a study of the effect of the inflow condition on the flame flashback performance of a gas turbine burner. A generic swirl burner for basic combustion research on engine scale is investigated both under atmospheric conditions in a combustion test rig and numerically to reveal the impact of inflow conditions on the burner stability. Flashback resistance is examined with highly reactive hydrogen fuel and numerical studies with isothermal large eddy simulations (LES) are performed to investigate transient flow field data. Earlier publications showed excellent flashback resistance of a down scaled burner version of similar design, which was tested in a rig with strongly restricted cross sectional inflow area. An influence of the test rig setup on the flashback limits was not expected. However, the results presented in the paper reveal that the inflow conditions at the swirler and the distribution of axial velocity inside the swirler are crucial for flame stability. The inflow conditions upstream of the swirler were modified to redistribute the axial velocity field inside the swirler. Velocity fluctuations both inside the swirler and downstream of the burner outlet were reduced and consequently the susceptibility to perturbations in the flow field. This measure prevents the formation and propagation of local zones of negative axial velocity upstream of the flame position and increases the robustness of the flow field. After modification of the inflow condition the excellent flashback limit data of the down scaled burner was fully reproduced.

In most dry low NOx combustor designs of stationary gas turbines the front panel impingement cooling air is directly injected into the combustor primary zone. This air partially mixes with the swirling flow of premixed reactants from the burner and reduces the effective equivalence ratio in the flame. However, local unmixedness and the lean equivalence ratio are supposed to have a major impact on combustion performance. Overall goal of this investigation is to answer the question whether the cooling air injection into the primary combustor zone has a beneficial effect on combustion stability and NOx emissions or not. The flame stabilization of a typical swirl burner with and without front panel cooling air injection is studied in detail under atmospheric conditions close to the lean blowout limit (LBO) in a full scale single burner combustion test rig. Based on previous isothermal investigations a typical injection configuration is implemented for the combustion tests. Isothermal results of experimental studies in a water test rig adopting high speed planar laser-induced fluorescence (HSPLIF) reveal the spatial and temporal mixing characteristics for the experimental setup studied under atmospheric combustion. This paper focuses on the effects of cooling air injection on both flame dynamics and emissions in the reacting case. To reveal dependencies of cooling air injection on combustion stability and NOx emissions, the amount of injected cooling air is varied. OH*-chemiluminescence measurements are applied to characterize the impact of cooling air injection on the flame front. Emissions are collected for different cooling air concentrations, both global measurements at the chamber exit and local measurements in the region of the flame front close to the burner exit. The effect of cooling air injection on pulsation level is investigated by evaluating the dynamic pressure in the combustor. The flame stabilization at the burner exit changes with an increasing degree of dilution with cooling air. Depending on the amount of cooling only a specific share of the additional air participates in the combustion process.

Lean blow out (LBO) has a big impact on emission formation at part load of gas turbines, where flame temperature is low and flame stabilization is an issue. With improved combustion behavior at LBO conditions the operation flexibility of a silo gas turbine can be increased within the scope of retrofitting. In multi burner arrangements a part of the preheated air designated for combustion is used for impingement cooling of the burner front panel and subsequently injected into the primary combustion zone. In this region of flame stabilization air and unburned fuel as well as burned products are mixed to sustain stable combustion. The object of this study is to determine the level of dilution of the flow field by the cooling air with the focus on the conditions below LBO that can impair flame stability. The question addressed in this paper is how mixing of the front panel cooling air with the incoming reactants and the combustion products in multi burner arrangements can be computed in a numerically efficient way. As test case for the methodology the local distribution of cooling air in a silo combustor is presented. In this numerical study mixing processes of air-fuel mixture and cooling air as well as aerodynamic interaction of adjacent burners in a multi burner systems are investigated using isothermal Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulations. Former published single burner water channel experiments and Large Eddy Simulations (LES) [1] serve as a baseline. Single burner RANS simulations are done and compared to measurement and LES to validate the velocity and scalar fields. A Schmidt number variation is used to modify the mixing process in the RANS single burner calculations. Based on the LES the single burner is modified to address the multi burner conditions and calculated with LES and RANS. Finally the multi burner system is computed with the settings applied in the single burner configuration. Using the symmetry of the investigated burner matrix an efficient methodology is implemented that allows computation of one sixth of a silo combustor. The results expose a strong burner-burner interaction of the recirculation zones and in contrast to the single burner configuration regions of concentrated cooling air.