Artur Krzysztof Pozarlik

Bioethanol Combustion in an Industrial Gas Turbine Combustor: Simulations and Experiments

Combustion tests with bioethanol and diesel as a reference have been performed in OPRAs 2 MWe class OP16 gas turbine combustor. The main purposes of this work are to investigate the combustion quality of ethanol with respect to diesel and to validate the developed CFD model for ethanol spray combustion. The experimental investigation has been conducted in a modified OP16 gas turbine combustor, which is a reverse-flow tubular combustor of the diffusion type. Bioethanol and diesel burning experiments have been performed at atmospheric pressure with a thermal input ranging from 29 to 59 kW. Exhaust gas temperature and emissions (CO, CO2, O2, NOx) were measured at various fuel flow rates while keeping the air flow rate and air temperature constant. In addition, the temperature profile of the combustor liner has been determined by applying thermochromic paint. CFD simulations have been performed with ethanol for five different operating conditions using ANSYS FLUENT. The simulations are based on a 3D RANS code. Fuel droplets representing the fuel spray are tracked throughout the domain while they interact with the gas phase. A liner temperature measurement has been used to account for heat transfer through the flame tube wall. Detailed combustion chemistry is included by using the steady laminar flamelet model. Comparison between diesel and bioethanol burning tests show similar CO emissions, but NOx concentrations are lower for bioethanol. The CFD results for CO2 and O2 are in good agreement, proving the overall integrity of the model. NOx concentrations were found to be in fair agreement, but the model failed to predict CO levels in the exhaust gas. Simulations of the fuel spray suggest that some liner wetting might have occurred. However, this finding could not be clearly confirmed by the test data

Vibro-acoustical instabilities induced by combustion dynamics in gas turbine combustors

The lean premixed combustion suffers from a high sensitivity to thermo-acoustic instabilities which may occur in a combustion chamber of a gas turbine. The high level of acoustic excitation is hazardous to the combustion chamber walls (liner). The situation is even worse when mutual interaction between thermo-acoustic instabilities and liner vibration is present; then both processes may enhance each other. This behaviour reduces the life time of the gas turbine significantly. Therefore, the possibilities of thermo-acoustic instabilities to appear and their interaction with vibrating walls must be predicted in advance to avoid combustion system destruction. This multi-phenomena interaction is presented and studied in this thesis. The experimental and numerical techniques are employed to investigate the interaction between coupled fields. The experimental part of the study is done on the laboratory scale combustion test rig, which mimics the combustion conditions as encountered in the full scale gas turbine. Experiments are performed at operating conditions, which differ with respect to power and absolute pressure, using two different liner configurations. The obtained results are used for validation of the numerical models. In the fluid-structure interaction analysis (FSI), the thermo-acoustic instabilities are correlated with walls vibration using partitioning approach. Here, two numerical solvers applying CFD (Ansys-CFX) and FEM (Ansys-Multiphysics) are employed to calculate phenomena occurring in the fluid and structural domain, respectively. These solvers exchange information about mechanical loads and structural displacement every time step through the interface connection created between them. Both one-way and two-way data transfer is studied. For the acousto-elastic analysis (AE) a hybrid approach is used. First the combustible flow is calculated by CFD and latter a pressure data from the near-flame region is transferred to FEM code as the input conditions. This solution allows solving acoustics inside the combustion chamber more precise than the FSI model, but in costs of only one-way interaction between pressure waves and flame. Additionally, a modal analysis of acoustic, structural and coupled modes is performed. The results of the numerical investigations have shown a good agreement with experimental data. Both models were able to predict correctly the frequencies of thermo-acoustic instabilities and liner vibration.

Sensitivity of the Numerical Prediction of Turbulent Combustion Dynamics in the LIMOUSINE Combustor

The objective of this study is to investigate the sensitivity and accuracy of the reaction flow-field prediction for the LIMOUSINE combustor with regard to choices in computational mesh and turbulent combustion model. The LIMOUSINE combustor is a partially premixed, bluff body-stabilized natural gas combustor designed to operate at 40–80 kW and atmospheric pressure and used to study combustion instabilities. The transient simulation of a turbulent combusting flow with the purpose to study thermoacoustic instabilities is a very time-consuming process. For that reason, the meshing approach leading to accurate numerical prediction, known sensitivity, and minimized amount of mesh elements is important. Since the numerical dissipation (and dispersion) is highly dependent on, and affected by, the geometrical mesh quality, it is of high importance to control the mesh distribution and element size across the computational domain. Typically, the structural mesh topology allows using much fewer grid elements compared to the unstructured grid; however, an unstructured mesh is favorable for flows in complex geometries. To explore computational stability and accuracy, the numerical dissipation of the cold flow with mixing of fuel and air is studied first in the absence of the combustion process. Thereafter, the studies are extended to combustible flows using standard available ansys-cfx combustion models. To validate the predicted variable fields of the combustors transient reactive flows, the numerical results for dynamic pressure and temperature variations, resolved under structured and unstructured mesh conditions, are compared with experimental data. The obtained results show minor dependence on the used mesh in the velocity and pressure profiles of the investigated grids under nonreacting conditions. More significant differences are observed in the mixing behavior of air and fuel flows. Here, the numerical dissipation of the (unstructured) tetrahedral mesh topology is higher than in the case of the (structured) hexahedral mesh. For that reason, the combusting flow, resolved with the use of the hexahedral mesh, presents better agreement with experimental data and demands less computational effort. Finally, in the paper, the performance of the combustion model for reacting flow is presented and the main issues of the applied combustion modeling are reviewed

Numerical Simulation of a Turbulent Flow Over a Backward Facing Step With Heated Wall: Effect of Pulsating Velocity and Oscillating Wall

An accurate prediction of the flow and the thermal boundary layer is required to properly simulate gas to wall heat transfer in a turbulent flow. This is studied with a view to application to gas turbine combustors. A typical gas turbine combustion chamber flow presents similarities with the well-studied case of turbulent flow over a backward facing step, especially in the near-wall regions where the heat transfer phenomena take place. However, the combustion flow in a gas turbine engine is often of a dynamic nature and enclosed by a vibrating liner. Therefore apart from steady state situations, cases with an oscillatory inlet flow and vibrating walls are investigated. Results of steady state and transient calculations for the flow field, friction coefficient, and heat transfer coefficient, with the use of various turbulence models, are compared with literature data. It has been observed that the variations in the excitation frequency of the inlet flow and wall vibrations have an influence on the instantaneous heat transfer coefficient profile. However, significant effect on the time mean value and position of the heat transfer peak is only visible for the inlet velocity profile fluctuations with frequency approximately equal to the turbulence bursting frequency.

Fluid-Structure Interaction in Combustion System of a Gas Turbine—Effect of Liner Vibrations

Prediction of mutual interaction between flow, combustion, acoustic, and vibration phenomena occurring in a combustion chamber is crucial for the reliable operation of any combustion device. In this paper, this is studied with application to the combustion chamber of a gas turbine. Very dangerous for the integrity of a gas turbine structure can be the coupling between unsteady heat release by the flame, acoustic wave propagation, and liner vibrations. This can lead to a closed-loop feedback system resulting in mechanical failure of the combustor liner due to fatigue and fatal damage to the turbine. Experimental and numerical investigations of the process are performed on a pressurized laboratory-scale combustor. To take into account interaction between reacting flow, acoustics, and vibrations of a liner, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational structural dynamics (CSD) calculations are combined into one calculation process using a partitioning technique. Computed pressure fluctuations inside the combustion chamber and associated liner vibrations are validated with experiments performed at the state-of-the-art pressurized combustion setup. Three liner structures with different thicknesses are studied. The numerical results agree well with the experimental data. The research shows that the combustion instabilities can be amplified by vibrating walls. The modeling approach discussed in this paper allows to decrease the risk of the gas turbine failure by prediction, for given operating conditions, of the hazardous frequency at which the thermoacoustic instabilities appear

Numerical and Experimental Study of Ethanol Combustion in an Industrial Gas Turbine

The application of ethanol as a biomass-derived fuel in OPRA’s 2 MWe class OP16 radial gas turbine has been studied both numerically and experimentally. The main purpose of this work is to validate the numerical model for future work on biofuel combustion.For the experimental investigation a modified OP16 gas turbine combustor has been used. This reverse-flow tubular combustor is a diffusion type combustor that has been adjusted to be suitable for numerical validation. Two series of ethanol burning experiments have been conducted at atmospheric pressure with a thermal input ranging from 16 to 72 kW. Exhaust gas temperature and emissions (CO, CO2, O2, NOx) were measured at various fuel flow rates while keeping the air flow rate and air temperature constant. In addition, the temperature profile of the combustor liner has been determined by applying thermochromic paint.CFD simulations have been performed in Ansys Fluent for four different operating conditions considered in the experiments. The simulations are based on a 3D RANS code. Fuel droplets representing the fuel spray are tracked throughout the domain while they interact with the gas phase. A temperature profile based on measurements has been prescribed on the liner to account for heat transfer through the flame tube wall. Detailed combustion chemistry is included by using the steady laminar flamelet model.The predicted levels of CO2 and O2 in the exhaust gas are in good agreement with the experimental results. The calculated and measured exhaust gas temperatures show a close match for the low power condition, but more significant deviations are observed in the higher load cases. Also, the comparison pointed out that the CFD model needs to be improved regarding the prediction of the pollutants CO and NOx.Chemiluminescence of CH radicals in the flame front indicated that the flame extends up to the liner, suggesting the presence of fuel near the surface. However, this result was not confirmed by liner temperature measurements using thermochromic paint.Copyright

Numerical prediction of interaction between combustion, acoustics and vibration in gas turbines

The turbulent flame in the lean combustion regime in a gas turbine combustor generates significant thermo‐acoustic instabilities. The flame can amplify fluctuations in the released heat, and thus in the acoustic field as well. The induced pressure oscillations will drive vibrations of the combustor walls and burner parts. Stronger fluctuating pressure results in stronger fluctuations in the wall structure. Due to fatigue the remaining life time of the hard ware will be reduced significantly. This paper investigates modeling of acoustic oscillations and mechanical vibrations induced by lean premixed natural gas combustion. The mutual interaction of the combustion processes, induced oscillating pressure field in the combustion chamber, and induced vibration of the liner walls are investigated with numerical techniques. A partitioned procedure is used here: CFX‐10 for the CFD analysis and Ansys‐10 for the CSD analysis are coupled to give insight into a correlation between acoustic pressure oscillations and l...

Eulerian–Lagrangian RANS Model Simulations of the NIST Turbulent Methanol Spray Flame

A methanol spray flame in a combustion chamber of the NIST was simulated using an Eulerian–Lagrangian RANS model. Experimental data and previous numerical investigations by other researchers on this flame were analyzed to develop methods for more comprehensive model validation. The inlet boundary conditions of the spray were generated using semi-empirical models representing atomization, collision, coalescence, and secondary breakup. Experimental information on the trajectory of the spray was used to optimize the parameters of the pressure-swirl atomizer model. The standard k-ϵ turbulence model was used with enhanced wall treatment. A detailed reaction mechanism of gaseous combustion of methanol was used in the frame of the steady laminar flamelet model. The radiative transfer equations were solved using the discrete ordinates method. In general, the predicted mean velocity components of the gaseous flow and the droplets, the droplet number density, and the Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of the droplets at various heights in the present study show good agreement with the experimental data. Special attention is paid to the relative merits of the employed method to set inlet boundary conditions compared to the alternative method of using a measured droplet size and velocity distribution.

Study of Unsteady Heat Transfer as a Key Parameter to Characterize Limit Cycle of High Amplitude Pressure Oscillations

The objective of the studies presented in this paper is the numerical prediction of unsteady heat flux and pressure fluctuations during the unstable regime of a combustor. The studied laboratory-scale lean partially premixed combustor was built in the LIMOUSINE project, to explore the mechanisms driving thermo-acoustic instabilities in conditions representative of gas turbine combustors.Due to the thermal interaction between hot gases and the colder liner wall, and also the correlation between gas temperature, density and speed of sound, prediction of the transient heat transfer rate is of high importance. In this paper analysis of transient heat transfer is conducted by coupling of fluid flow and solid body (liner) in one computational domain and thereby taking into account the thermal convection with the environment around the combustor and also the heat conduction transients within the liner. Conjugate heat transfer modeling can give access to the transient temperature distribution in the structure of the combustor which is important for the dynamic heat storage. Also this can be used to estimate the thermal stresses and creep strain as required to evaluate the lifetime assessment of the combustor. In this work the commercial CFD code ANSYS CFX is used to solve the problem, in which fluid and solid regions are solved simultaneously with a finite volume approach. In the fluid region, three dimensional compressible Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved, while for the solid region only the enthalpy conservation equation is solved. To remove any interpolation errors, in all cases the skin (interface) mesh cells for both the fluid and solid are similar in resolution on either side of the interface. By comparing heat release and pressure data available from the measurements it follows that this simulation can give more accurate prediction of the amplitudes of thermoacoustic instabilities as compared to the solution with imposed thermal boundary conditions (such as isothermal). In the latter case the time history of heat accumulation in the solid is predicted incorrectly. Because the spatial scales of the solid temperature profiles are different in case of steady state or transient oscillatory heat transfer, care has to be taken in the meshing in these two situations. When meshing for a transient oscillatory heat transfer case, the solid mesh resolution needs to be adapted to the thermal penetration depth of the surface temperature oscillations. Hence for the transient heat transfer in limit cycle combustion oscillations, the meshing strategy and size of the grid in the solid part of the domain will play a very important role in determining the magnitude for the pressure fluctuations.Copyright

Strongly Coupled Fluid–Structure Interaction in a Three-Dimensional Model Combustor During Limit Cycle Oscillations

Due to the high temperature of the flue gas flowing at high velocity and pressure, the wall cooling is extremely important for the liner of a gas turbine engine combustor. The liner material is heat-resistant steel with relatively low heat conductivity. To accommodate outside wall forced air cooling, the liner is designed to be thin, which unfortunately facilitates the possibility of high-amplitude wall vibrations (and failure due to fatigue) in case of pressure fluctuations in the combustor. The latter may occur due to a possible occurrence of a feedback loop between the aerodynamics, the combustion, the acoustics, and the structural vibrations. The structural vibrations act as a source of acoustic emitting the acoustic waves to the confined fluid. This leads to amplification in the acoustic filed and hence the magnitude of instability in the system. The aim of this paper is to explore the mechanism of fluid–structure interaction (FSI) on the LIMOUSINE setup which leads to limit cycle of pressure oscillations (LCO). Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis using a RANS approach is performed to obtain the thermal and mechanical loading of the combustor liner, and finite element model (FEM) renders the temperature, stress distribution, and deformation in the liner. Results are compared to other numerical approaches like zero-way interaction and conjugated heat transfer model (CHT). To recognize the advantage/disadvantage of each method, validation is made with the available measured data for the pressure and vibration signals, showing that the thermoacoustic instabilities are well predicted using the CHT and two-way coupled approaches, while the zero-way interaction model prediction gives the largest discrepancy from experimental results.