Numerical Study of the Swirl Effect on a Coaxial Jet Combustor Flame Including Radiative Heat Transfer

A numerical study of the swirl effect on a coaxial jet combustor flame including radiative heat transfer is presented. In this work, the standard k-ε model is applied to investigate the turbulence effect, and the eddy dissipation model (EDM) is used to model combustion. The radiative heat transfer and the properties of gases and soot are considered using a coupled of the finite-volume method (FVM), and the narrow-band based weighted-sum-of-gray gases (WSGG-SNB) model. The results of this work are validated by experiment data. The results clearly show that radiation must be taken into account to obtain good accuracy for turbulent diffusion flame in combustor chamber. Flame is very influenced by the radiation of gases, soot, and combustor wall. However, swirl is an important controlling variable on the combustion characteristics and pollutant formation.     

Hydrogen addition effects in a confined swirl-stabilized methane-air flame

The effect of hydrogen addition in methane-air premixed flames has been examined from a swirl-stabilized combustor under confined conditions. The effect of hydrogen addition in methane-air flame has been examined over a range of conditions using a laboratory-scale premixed combustor operated at 5.81 kW. Different swirlers have been investigated to identify the role of swirl strength to the incoming mixture. The flame stability was examined for the effect of amount of hydrogen addition, combustion air flow rates and swirl strengths. This was carried out by comparing adiabatic flame temperatures at the lean flame limit. The combustion characteristics of hydrogen-enriched methane flames at constant heat load but different swirl strengths have been examined using particle image velocimetry (PIV), micro-thermocouples and OH chemiluminescence diagnostics that provided information on velocity, thermal field, and combustion generated OH species concentration in the flame, respectively. Gas analyzer was used to obtain NO_x and CO concentration at the combustor exit. The results show that the lean stability limit is extended by hydrogen addition. The stability limit can reduce at higher swirl intensity to the fuel-air mixture operating at lower adiabatic flame temperatures. The addition of hydrogen increases the NO_x emission; however, this effect can be reduced by increasing either the excess air or swirl intensity. The emissions of NO_x and CO from the premixed flame were also compared with a diffusion flame type combustor. The NO_x emissions of hydrogen-enriched methane premixed flame were found to be lower than the corresponding diffusion flame under same operating conditions for the fuel-lean case.     

Predictions of Flow and Heat Transfer in Low Emission Combustors

Flow and heat transfer predictions in modern low emission combustors are critical to maintaining the liner wall at reasonable temperatures. This study is the first to focus on a critical issue for combustor design. The objective of this paper is to understand the effect of different swirl angle for a dry low emission (DLE) combustor on flow and heat transfer distributions. This paper provides the effect of fuel nozzle swirl angle on velocity distributions, temperature, and surface heat transfer coefficients. A simple test model is investigated with flow through fuel nozzles without reactive flow. The fuel nozzle angle is varied to obtain different swirl conditions inside the combustor. The effect of flow Reynolds number and swirl number are investigated using FLUENT. Different RANS-based turbulence models are tested to determine the ability of these models to predict the swirling flow. For comparison, different turbulence models such as standard k ? ε, realizable k ? ε, and shear stress transport (SST) k?ω turbulence model were studied for non-reactive flow conditions. The results show that, for a high degree swirl flow, the SST k?ω model can provide more reasonable predictions for recirculation and high velocity gradients. With increasing swirl angle, the average surface heat transfer coefficient increases while the average static temperature will decrease. Preliminary analysis shows that the k?ω model is the best model for predicting swirling flows. Also critical is the effect of the swirling flows on the liner wall heat transfer. The strength and magnitude of the swirl determines the local heat transfer maxima location. This location needs to be cooled more effectively by various cooling schemes.     

Development of a One-Dimensional Model to Predict the Flame Temperature in Cylindrical Micro Combustors

Measurement of the flame temperature in a micro combustor is essentially difficult due to the size constraint. A one-dimensional (1D) flame model coupled with the heat conduction in the solid wall is employed to analyze the heat transfer occurring in a cylindrical micro combustor. The flame temperature is given explicitly by taking into account the effects of the heat loss (from the flame to the wall) in the reaction zone and heat recirculation through the solid wall. With the data obtained from the simulation results of the 1D adiabatic freely propagating CH₄–air laminar flames, the flame temperature in a cylindrical micro combustor can be solved iteratively. In order to validate the 1D model, the two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulations of premixed combustion of the CH₄–air mixtures are carried out in a 0.5 mm radius cylindrical micro combustor. The comparisons of the flame temperature and heat recirculation between the 1D model and 2D numerical simulation indicate that despite the simplifications and assumptions made in the present study, the 1D theoretical model is able to predict the flame temperature to a reasonable accuracy.     

The effect of chemical energy release on heat transfer from flames in small channels

Stable combustion in a heated tube, with a radius on the order of the flame thickness, is investigated experimentally and numerically. The downstream portion of the tube is heated by an external heat source resulting in a steady, axially varying temperature gradient along the tube wall. Strongly burning, axisymmetric methane/air flames are stabilized inside this wall temperature profile which are observed to be “flat” for sufficiently small tube dimensions. The position of these flames is dictated by a competition between the energy required to preheat the reactants, that released by combustion, and the heat lost to the wall. To model such flames, an extension to the standard 1-D, volumetric flame formulation is proposed to solve for wall/gas heat transfer by employing a thermal boundary layer. The boundary layer utilizes a non-linear, radially-varying heat source to account for combustion and captures the effect of enhanced interfacial heat transfer inside the reaction zone. The proposed numerical model gives improved quantitative predictions for flame stabilization position than approaches which neglect the effect of heat release by modeling heat transfer with Newton’s law of cooling and a local Nusselt number.     

Flame characteristics of hydrogen-enriched methane–air premixed swirling flames

The effect of hydrogen addition in methane–air premixed flames has been examined from a swirl-stabilized combustor under unconfined flame conditions. Different swirlers have been examined to investigate the effect of swirl intensity on enriching methane–air flame with hydrogen in a laboratory-scale premixed combustor operated at 5.81 kW. The hydrogen-enriched methane fuel and air were mixed in a pre-mixer and introduced into the burner having swirlers of different swirl vane angles that provided different swirl strengths. The combustion characteristics of hydrogen-enriched methane–air flames at fixed thermal load but different swirl strengths were examined using particle image velocimetry (PIV), OH chemiluminescence, gas analyzers, and micro-thermocouple diagnostics to provide information on flow field, combustion generated OH radical and gas species concentration, and temperature distribution, respectively. The results show that higher combustibility of hydrogen assists to promote faster chemical reaction, raises temperature in the reaction zone and reduces the recirculation flow in the reaction zone. The upstream of flame region is more dependent on the swirl strength than the effect of hydrogen addition to methane fuel. At lower swirl strength condition the NO concentration in the reaction zone reduces with increase in hydrogen content in the fuel mixture. Higher combustibility of hydrogen accelerates the flow to reduce the residence time of hot product gases in the high temperature reaction zone. At higher swirl strength the NO concentration increases with increase in hydrogen content in the fuel mixture. The effect of dynamic expansion of the gases with hydrogen addition appears to be more dominant to reduce the recirculation of relatively cooler gases into the reaction zone. NO concentration also increases with decrease in the swirl strength.     

多孔介质稳焰器对旋流火焰振荡燃烧特性影响的试验研究

为研究多孔介质稳焰器孔密度变化对贫预混旋流火焰振荡燃烧特性的影响,通过光电倍增管测量全局火焰热释放率,采用双麦克风方法测量旋流器入口速度脉动,获得不同孔密度多孔介质稳焰器火焰传递函数;并通过高速相机测量不同孔密度多孔介质稳焰器振荡火焰结构的变化。试验结果表明：多孔介质能够改变燃烧室声模态,有效抑制燃烧振荡,但孔密度对受迫燃烧火焰热释放率和压力脉动影响具有非线性;高频入口扰动对火焰响应特性影响较弱,火焰受迫响应呈现低通滤波特性;火焰传递函数增益峰值对应入口激励频率存在差异,但相位分布斜率基本一致;多孔介质导致火焰向稳焰器中心轴线聚拢,相干结构更加明显;宽频扰动范围内的火焰张角分布趋势与火焰传递函数增益曲线的分布趋势相反。     

辐射与导热复合换热熵产率传统公式质疑

以冬季太阳照射下建筑物窗户玻璃内部辐射与导热复合换热过程为例,对传统的辐射换热局部熵产率计算公式进行了质疑.通过对窗户玻璃内部复合换热过程局部熵产率的分析,结果表明传统的辐射换热局部熵产率公式与热力学第二定律相矛盾,因而是错误的.其根源在于传统的辐射换热局部熵产率公式认为辐射热流密度由局部温度梯度所驱动.事实上,由于辐射传递过程的容积效应,辐射热流与所考虑的半透明介质系统整体温度分布有关.     

Experimental study of vortex-flame interaction in a gas turbine model combustor

The interaction of a helical precessing vortex core (PVC) with turbulent swirl flames in a gas turbine model combustor is studied experimentally. The combustor is operated with air and methane at atmospheric pressure and thermal powers from 10 to 35 kW. The flow field is measured using particle image velocimetry (PIV), and the dominant unsteady vortex structures are determined using proper orthogonal decomposition. For all operating conditions, a PVC is detected in the shear layer of the inner recirculation zone (IRZ). In addition, a co-rotating helical vortex in the outer shear layer (OSL) and a central vortex originating in the exhaust tube are found. OH chemiluminescence (CL) images show that the flames are mainly stabilized in the inner shear layer (ISL), where also the PVC is located. Phase-averaged images of OH-CL show that for all conditions, a major part of heat release takes place in a helical zone that is coupled to the PVC. The mechanisms of the interaction between PVC and flame are then studied for the case P = 10 kW using simultaneous PIV and OH-PLIF measurements with a repetition rate of 5 kHz. The measurements show that the PVC causes a regular sequence of flame roll-up, mixing of burned and unburned gas, and subsequent ignition of the mixture in the ISL. These effects are directly linked to the periodic vortex motions. A phase-averaged analysis of the flow field further shows that the PVC induces an unsteady lower stagnation point that is not present in the average flow field. The motion of the stagnation point is linked to the periodic precession of the PVC. Near this point burned and unburned gas collide frontally and a significant amount of heat release takes place. The flame dynamics near this point is also coupled to the PVC. In this way, a part of the reaction zone is periodically drawn from the stagnation point into the ISL, and thus serves as an ignition source for the reactions in this layer. In total, the effects in the ISL and at the stagnation point showed that the PVC plays an essential role in the stabilization mechanism of the turbulent swirl flames. In contrast to the PVC, the vortices in the OSL and near the exhaust tube have no direct effect on the flame since they are located outside the flame zone.     

Confined swirling jet impingement onto an adiabatic wall

Impinging swirling jets generate interesting flow fields and depending on the magnitude of the swirl velocity, circulation cells develop in the region close to the solid wall. Moreover, axial momentum of the jet is influenced by the magnitude of the swirl velocity. This, in turn, results in considerable entropy generation in the flow field. In the present study, confined swirling jet impingement onto an adiabatic wall is investigated. The flow and temperature fields are computed numerically for various flow configurations. Different jet exit velocity profiles are considered and their effects on the flow field are examined. The entropy production due to different flow configurations is computed and the irreversibility ratios due to fluid friction and heat transfer are determined. It is found that the jet axis tilts towards the radial direction as swirl velocity increases and reducing the velocity profile number enhances the entropy generation due to heat transfer. The irreversibility ratio variation with the velocity profile number behaves opposite for the fluid friction and heat transfer.     

Flame structure and NOx emission characteristics in a single hydrogen combustor

In this study, the effects of fuel-induced swirl number on the flame structure and NOx emissions are observed. A tube-type nozzle with four fuel injection holes is used. The fuel injection holes are located away from the centerline of the nozzle to induce a low swirl effect in the flow. First, the flame structure changes with the fuel-induced swirl number, separating into four small flames in the high-swirl region; the flames are classified into three types. Subsequently, NOx emissions decrease with an increase in the fuel-induced swirl number. However, this shows a stepwise discontinuous change rather than a gradual change. The NOx emission is linearly proportional to the residence time of the combustion gas, which is calculated using the flame volume and flame structure. In conclusion, the change in the flame structure by the fuel-induced swirl is a decisive factor in the reduction of the NOx.     

Experimental investigation of the stability and emission characteristics of premixed formic acid-methane-air flames in a swirl combustor

Formic acid (FA) is a potential hydrogen energy carrier and low-carbon fuel by reversing the decomposition products, CO₂ and H_2, back to restore FA without additional carbon release. However, FA-air mixtures feature high ignition energy and low flame speed; hence stabilizing FA-air flames in combustion devices is challenging. This study experimentally investigates the flame stability and emission of swirl flames fueled with pre-vaporized formic acid-methane blends over a wide range of formic acid fuel fractions. Results show that by using a swirl combustor, the premixed formic acid-methane-air flames could be stabilized over a wide range of FA fuel fractions, Reynolds numbers, and swirl numbers. The addition of formic acid increases the equivalence ratios at which the flashback and lean blowout occur. When Reynolds number increases, the equivalence ratio at the flashback limit increases, but that decreases at the lean blowout limit. Increasing the swirl number has a non-monotonic effect on stability limits variation because increasing the swirl number changes the axial velocity on the centerline of the burner throat non-monotonically. In addition, emission characteristics were investigated using a gas analyzer. The CO and NO concentrations were below 20 ppm for all tested conditions, which is comparable to that seen with traditional hydrocarbon fuels, which is in favor of future practical applications with formic acid.     

Effect of turbulent motions at different length scales on turbulent premixed swirl-stabilised flame topology

Three-dimensional direct numerical simulation data of H₂-air turbulent swirling premixed combustion at two different swirl numbers are analysed to investigate the local reaction zone morphology and its relation with local turbulent motions at different length scales. The effect of small scale turbulent mixing on local flames is investigated, and the results have shown that the contribution of microscale turbulent diffusivity on the local flamelet is insignificant, although there is some evidence of flame thinning for the higher swirl number case. The flame morphology such as high-level convolution and interacting flames, on the other hand, shows greater influence on local flamelets, suggesting the importance of local reaction zone topology on overall combustion processes. The local reaction zones are analysed by using the shapefinders to quantify their topology. Although the shapefinders showed various local reaction zone shapes consisting of “pancakes” and “tubes” and intermissive intense reaction zone distributions, the smallest characteristic length scale shows that the local reaction zones are thin. Finally, the relationship between these local reaction zone topology and turbulent motions at different sizes were discussed. The local reaction zone topology has a direct relation with Taylor microscale, integral length scale and their associated velocity scale, whereas almost no correlation is observed with Kolmogorov length scale, in the presence of inhomogeneous turbulence and strong mean shears. The present results suggest the importance of Taylor microscale on flame surface topology, which is often understated in turbulent combustion modelling frameworks.     

Effect of hydrogen addition on combustion and emission characteristics of methane fuelled upward swirl can combustor

The present research aims to assess the potential of hydrogen in the form of a supplementary fuel to accelerate combustion chemistry and reduce CO emissions of methane fuelled upward swirl gas turbine combustor. Effects of hydrogen enrichment on flame characteristics and chemical kinetics are analysed using Large Eddy Simulations (LES). Flame visualization is performed and measurements of temperature and emissions at the exit of combustor are reported. For the same energy input, flames are relatively broader and shorter at higher hydrogen concentrations. Augmentation of hydrogen is advantageous in terms of flame velocity, temperature, rate of chemical reactions and CO emissions. Higher flame temperature favours NO_x emissions at higher hydrogen content. At a constant volumetric fuel flow, reduction in carbon-generated species is attributed to hydrocarbon substitution and chemical kinetic effects are less. Hydrogen addition increases flame temperature, decreases flame dimensions and reduces CO emissions with marginal increase in NO_x emissions.     

Heat release and flame structure measurements of self-excited acoustically-driven premixed methane flames

An open-open organ pipe burner (Rijke tube) with a bluff-body ring was used to create a self-excited, acoustically-driven, premixed methane-air conical flame, with equivalence ratios ranging from 0.85 to 1.05. The feed tube velocities corresponded to Re = 1780-4450. Coupled oscillations in pressure, velocity, and heat release from the flame are naturally encouraged at resonant frequencies in the Rijke tube combustor. This coupling creates sustainable self-exited oscillations in flame front area and shape. The period of the oscillations occur at the resonant frequency of the combustion chamber when the flame is placed ∼¼ of the distance from the bottom of the tube. In this investigation, the shape of these acoustically-driven flames is measured by employing both OH planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and chemiluminescence imaging and the images are correlated to simultaneously measured pressure in the combustor. Past research on acoustically perturbed flames has focused on qualitative flame area and heat release relationships under imposed velocity perturbations at imposed frequencies. This study reports quantitative empirical fits with respect to pressure or phase angle in a self-generated pressure oscillation. The OH-PLIF images were single temporal shots and the chemiluminescence images were phase averaged on chip, such that 15 exposures were used to create one image. Thus, both measurements were time resolved during the flame oscillation. Phase-resolved area and heat release variations throughout the pressure oscillation were computed. A relation between flame area and the phase angle before the pressure maximum was derived for all flames in order to quantitatively show that the Rayleigh criterion was satisfied in the combustor. Qualitative trends in oscillating flame area were found with respect to feed tube flow rates. A logarithmic relation was found between the RMS pressure and both the normalized average area and heat release rate for all flames.     

Entropy generation analysis of two-dimensional high-temperature confined jet

In high-temperature systems, thermal radiation becomes the dominant mode of heat transfer. The analysis of entropy generation mechanism is very important to optimize the second-law performance of these energy conversion devices. In this paper, the entropy generation in a two-dimensional high-temperature confined jet flow is analyzed. The computation of combined radiation and convection heat transfer is carried out with the help of a CFD code, and the entropy generation due to heat transfer and fluid friction is calculated as post-processed quantities with the computed data of velocity, temperature and radiative intensity. Numerical results show the entropy generation due to radiative transfer cannot be omitted in high-temperature systems such as boilers and furnaces, in which thermal radiation is one of the main modes of heat transfer. In the case that the temperatures of the inlet gas and the top and bottom are not changed, the total entropy generation number decreases with the increase of jet Reynolds number and Boltzmann number, respectively. For enhancing heat transfer and advancing energy conversion efficiency, large jet Reynolds number and Boltzmann number should be selected.     

The influence of radiation on the flame propagation through micro organic dust particles with non-unity Lewis number

In this paper, the analytical study of effects of radiation and non-unity Lewis number on the laminar premixed flames of organic dust clouds has been done. The research is focused on a combustion model for premixed flames and the flame structure is composed of preheat-vaporization, narrow reaction and finally the post-flame zone. The normalized governing equations with help of boundary and matching conditions are solved by perturbation method. The results show that increasing equivalence ratio and decreasing Lewis number are resulted in the increase of flame temperature and burning velocity. For the sake of this model validation, fuel conversion is compared by published experimental data and shows an acceptable agreement.     

Modelling and simulation of lean premixed turbulent methane/hydrogen/air flames with an effective Lewis number approach

Recent work on reaction modelling of turbulent lean premixed combustion has shown a significant influence of the Lewis number even at high turbulence intensities, if different fuels and varied pressure is regarded. This was unexpected, as the Lewis number is based on molecular transport quantities (ratio of molecular thermal diffusivity to mass diffusivity), while highly turbulent flames are thought to be dominated from turbulent mixing and not from molecular transport. A simple physical picture allows an explanation, assuming that essentially the leading part of the wrinkled flame front determines the flame propagation and the average reaction rate, while the rear part of the flame is of reduced importance here (determining possibly the burnout process and the flame brush thickness but not the flame propagation). Following this argumentation, mostly positively curved flame elements determine the flame propagation and the average reaction rate, where the influence of the preferential molecular diffusion and the Lewis number can easily seen to be important. Additionally, an extension of this picture allows a simple derivation of an effective Lewis number relation for lean hydrogen/methane mixtures. The applicability and the limit of this concept is investigated for two sets of flames: turbulent pressurized Bunsen flames, where hydrogen content and pressure is varied (from CNRS Orléans), and highly turbulent pressurized dump combustor flames where the hydrogen content is varied (from PSI Baden). For RANS simulations, comparison of flame length data between experiment and an effective Lewis number model shows a very good agreement for all these flames with hydrogen content of the fuel up to 20 vol.%, and even rather good agreement for 30% and 40% hydrogen.     

Reactor performance with primary/secondary swirl intensity and direction in coal gasification process

In order to evaluate the effect of swirl direction and intensity of primary/secondary stream on pulverized coal gasification performance, a numerical study was conducted. Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches are used for the gas and solid phase, respectively. The computation code was formulated with PSI‐cell method, k–? model for turbulence flow, Monte‐Carlo method for radiative heat transfer, and eddy dissipation model for gas‐phase reaction rate. A one‐step two‐reaction model is employed for the devolatilization of Kideco coal. Flow and reactor performance are varied by primary/secondary swirl intensity and direction. For weak primary swirl, the WSF region is minimized at the secondary vane angle beginning generation of internal recirculation zone and having peak coal burnout. The flame stability is improved at counterswirl rather than coswirl due to its intense shear. Meanwhile, for strong primary swirl, flow distribution and coal burnout are the reverse trend with those of weak swirl and the flame stability is somewhat enhanced at coswirl rather than counterswirl. To improve coal burnout and flame stability, it is confirmed that the swirl condition be proposed for moving the flame front position toward upstream. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.