Conjugate Heat Transfer Analysis of a Small Annular Combustor With Centrifugal Fuel Injection System

Abstract

Over the years, the requirements of higher specific thrust and lower specific fuel consumption have been necessitating a continual increase in the maximum temperature and pressure in gas turbine engines. However, such an increase has a direct impact on the structural integrity of various modules of the engine; combustor being one of the severely affected modules. This makes the combustor designer’s task of achieving the targeted life of liner, the hottest component of combustor, a challenging one. Estimation of liner metal temperature, thereby arriving at the combustor life, is an essential part of the design process. In the present study, CHT analysis of a radial annular combustor has been carried out. RANS based analysis of a sector combustor with periodicity in flow and geometry has been performed at realistic engine operating conditions using ANSYS Fluent. Predicted liner metal temperatures have been compared with the measured data and a close agreement has been noted between them, the maximum variation being ± 10%.