Prediction of the NOx Emissions of a Swirl Burner in Partially and Fully Premixed Mode on the Basis of Water Channel Laser Induced Fluorescence and Particle Image Velocimetry Measurements

Abstract

The paper describes the development and validation of an efficient and cost effective method for the prediction of the NOx emissions of turbulent gas turbine burners in the early burner design phases, which are usually focused on the optimization of the swirler aerodynamics and the fuel-air mixing. Since the method solely relies on nonreacting tests of burner models in the water channel, it can be applied before any test equipment for combustion experiments exists. In order to achieve optimum similarity of fuel-air mixing in the water channel tests with engine operation the model is operated at the engine momentum ratio. During the laser induced fluorescence (LIF) measurements the water flow representing the fuel is doped with fluorescent dye, a plane perpendicular to the length axis near the burner exit plane is illuminated with a 5W Ar-ion laser, and the fluorescence is recorded with a video camera from downstream. From the video sequence,s the local probability density functions (PDF) of the dye concentration fluctuations are calculated from the data. Furthermore, the time mean velocity fields are measured with particle image veiocimetry (PIV). The PDF s of the local equivalence ratio are derived from the LIF data. Assuming flamelets, the NO^ generation in the entire equivalence ratio range observed in the water channel tests is computed using the unstrained freely propagating one-dimensional flame model in Cantera and the GRI3.0 reaction scheme. Although neither flame stretch nor post flame NO^ generation were considered, the computed NOx values were in excellent agreement with the experimental data from perfectly premixed combustion experiments. The local time averaged NO^ mole fraction is obtained by integrating the flamelet NO^ over the mixture PDF. Finally the global NO y emission of the burner at the considered operating point is obtained by spatial integration, considering the measured velocity field. The method was validated using a conical swirl burner with two fuel injection stages, allowing the degree of premixedness to be adjusted over a wide range, depending on the specific fuel injection scenario. For the case with fuel injection along the air inlet slots NO^ values slightly above the minimum NOx limit for perfectly premixed combustion were computed. This is consistent with the emission measurements and indicates the finite mixing quality of this injection method. In the partially premixed regime the configurations with potential for low NOx emissions were reliably identified with the LIF and PIV based water channel method. The method also shows the steep increase of the NOx emissions with the decreasing degree ofpremixing observed in the experiments, however, quantitative predictions would have required a postprocessing of the data from the LIF mixing study with a higher spatial resolution than available.

Investigation on combustion characteristics and emissions of biogas/hydrogen blends in gas turbine combustors

“…A critical observation is that NO emissions are smaller at a low H 2 enrichment % and low ϕ. According to the literature, NO decreases by increasing the swirl number [61][62][63]. These observations from the past are in line with current NOx emission results shown in Fig.…”

The Effect of Swirl Number and Oxidizer Composition on Combustion Characteristics of Non-Premixed Methane Flames

“…In this section, the effect of swirl number on the exhaust and centerline thermal NOx are going to be presented. As per the open literature, it is well-known that the thermal NOx is reduced by increasing the swirl number; this can be attributed to the increase in the turbulence levels − and, hence, the increase on the mixing between the air and fuel. Consequently, the thermal NOx is going to be reduced. , The thermal NOx mole fraction concentration has been significantly dropped by 95%, as shown in Figure .…”

Πειραματική Διερεύνηση Του Τυρβώδους Πεδίου Ανάμειξης Και Καύσης Σε Πρωτεύουσα Ζώνης Σταθεροποίησης Φλόγας Με Διαστρωμάτωση Μείγματος Και Υπό Την Επίδραση Ενός Συρρέοντος Δακτυλιοειδούς Στροβιλιζόμενου Ρεύματος

“…Στους περισσότερους καυστήρες, ο στροβιλισμός επί της ροής εφαρμόζεται στην πρωτεύουσα ζώνη σταθεροποίησης με στόχο την βελτίωση της ανάμειξης του καυσίμου και του αέρα, της αγκίστρωσης της φλόγας, της μεταφοράς θερμότητας καθώς και της μεταφοράς και ανάμειξης των διαφόρων συστατικών (π.χ [75][76][77]). Η μείωση των εκπεμπόμενων ρύπων εξαρτώνται από τη διάταξη ( [78][79][80][81]), ενώ η βέλτιστη απόδοση για συγκεκριμένο εύρος λειτουργίας εξαρτάται από το πόσο καλά είναι προσαρμοσμένος σε αυτή είναι ο στροβιλισμός ( [39,[82][83][84]). Η πολυπλοκότητα και η πολλαπλότητα τέτοιων διατάξεων απαιτεί συνεχιζόμενες έρευνες για πιθανές παραλλαγές και αλληλεπιδράσεις μεταξύ του στροβιλισμού και της διαμόρφωσης της ζώνης της φλόγας.…”

“…[5,75]) όσο και πλήρους κλίμακας προσομοιώσεις (π.χ. [81,85]) προκειμένου να ευρεθεί η επίδραση των ροϊκών και γεωμετρικών διαφοροποιήσεων από τον αρχικό σχεδιασμό ή από τις ονομαστικές συνθήκες λειτουργίας.…”