Ram Srinivasan

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Convective Heat Transfer in a Gas Turbine Can Combustor

Experiments and numerical computations are performed to investigate the convective heat transfer characteristics of a gas turbine can combustor under cold flow conditions in a Reynolds number range between 50,000 and 500,000 with a characteristic swirl number of 0.7. It is observed that the flow field in the combustor is characterized by an expanding swirling flow, which impinges on the liner wall close to the inlet of the combustor. The impinging shear layer is responsible for the peak location of heat transfer augmentation. It is observed that as Reynolds number increases from 50,000 to 500,000, the peak heat transfer augmentation ratio (compared with fully developed pipe flow) reduces from 10.5 to 2.75. This is attributed to the reduction in normalized turbulent kinetic energy in the impinging shear layer, which is strongly dependent on the swirl number that remains constant at 0.7 with Reynolds number. Additionally, the peak location does not change with Reynolds number since the flow structure in the combustor is also a function of the swirl number. The size of the corner recirculation zone near the combustor liner remains the same for all Reynolds numbers and hence the location of shear layer impingement and peak augmentation does not change.

Numerical Investigation of Effect of Geometry Changes in a Model Combustor on Swirl Dominated Flow and Heat Transfer

Numerical computations are performed on three configurations of a model gas turbine combustor geometry for cold flow conditions. The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of changes to combustor passage section on the location of peak convective heat transfer along the combustor liner. A Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations based turbulence model is used for all the numerical computations. Simulations are performed on a 3D sector geometry. The first geometry is a straight cylindrical combustor section. The second model has an upstream diverging section before the cylindrical section. Third one has a converging section following the upstream cylindrical section. The inlet air flow has a Reynolds number of 50000 and a swirl number of 0.7. The combustor liner is subjected to a constant heat flux. Finally, liner heat transfer characteristics for the three geometries are compared. It is found that the peak liner heat transfer occurs far downstream of the combustor for full cylinder and downstream convergent cases compared to that in the upstream divergent case. This behavior may be attributed to the resultant pressure distribution due to the combustor passage area changes. Also the magnitude of peak liner heat transfer is reduced for the former two cases since the high turbulent kinetic energy regions within the combustor are oriented axially instead of expanding radially outward. As a consequence, the thermal load on the liner is found to reduce.Copyright

Flow Field and Liner Heat Transfer for a Model Annular Combustor Equipped with Radial Swirlers

Swirling flows for combustion stabilization, flame confinement, and proper fuel mixing and recirculation are prevalent in gas turbine combustor applications. Modern gas turbines use swirlers to induce strong rotating vortices and recirculation of the combustion gases to enhance combustion efficiency and stability. This study presents an experimental investigation of the flow field and wall heat transfer characteristics inside a model annular combustor equipped with radial swirlers. 2D Particle Image Velocimetry (2D-PIV) was used to characterize the flow field inside the combustor model. PIV measurements were taken for a single Reynolds number of 70000. To study the recirculation zone, data along the axial direction of the combustor were captured. The data show a slightly asymmetric flow, with the recirculation zone extending up to , where D is the hydraulic diameter of the entire annulus ( m). To study the evolution of the rotating vortex and the flow velocity close to the liner walls, PIV data was also captured at six cross-sections of the annular combustor. The vortex center was observed to be below the center of the swirler, consistent with the asymmetry observed in the axial measurements. Infrared (IR) thermography was used to measure the steady state heat transfer coefficients along the outer and inner liner walls for Reynolds numbers of , , and . The comparison between the heat transfer results for the different Reynolds numbers reveals a relatively constant position for the peak heat transfer at from the swirler exit for both walls. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) calculations were also performed to better understand the characteristics of the flow inside the model combustor. The CFD model reproduces the experimental setup with a mesh of 25 million cells. A ReynoldsAveraged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model was used in the simulation, qualitatively reproducing the overall characteristics observed in the experiment.

Combustor Heat Shield Impingement Cooling and its Effect on Liner Convective Heat Transfer for a Model Annular Combustor With Radial Swirlers

Increasing pressure to reduce pollutant emissions such as NOx and CO, while simultaneously increasing the efficiency of gas turbines, has led to the development of modern gas turbine combustors operating at lean equivalence ratios and high compression ratios. These modern combustors use a large portion of the compressor air in the combustion process and hence efficient use of cooling air is critical. Backside impingement cooling is one alternative for advanced cooling in gas turbine combustors. The dome of the combustor is a primary example where backside impingement cooling is extensively used. The dome directly interacts with the flame and hence represents a limiting factor for combustor durability. The present paper studies two aspects of dome cooling: the impingement heat transfer on the dome heat shield of an annular combustor and the effect of the outflow from the spent air on the liner heat transfer. A transient measurement technique using Thermochromic Liquid Crystals (TLCs) was used to characterize the convective heat transfer coefficient on the backside of an industrial heat shield design provided by Solar Turbines, Inc. for Reynolds numbers (with respect to the hole diameter) of ∼ 1500 and ∼ 2500. Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) calculations using the k-ω SST turbulence model were found to be in good agreement with the experiment. A standard heat transfer correlation for impingement hole arrays overestimated the mean heat transfer coefficient compared to the experiment and computations, however this could be explained by low biases in the results.Steady state IR measurements were performed to study the effects that the spent air from the heat shield impingement cooling had on the liner convective heat transfer. Measurements were taken for three Reynolds numbers (with respect to the hydraulic diameter of the combustor annulus) including 50000, 90000, and 130000. A downstream shift in the flow features was observed due to the secondary flow introduced by the outflow, as well as a significant increase in the convective heat transfer close to the dome wall.Copyright

Separation of Radiative and Convective Wall Heat Fluxes Using Thermal Infrared Measurements Applied to Flame Impingement

Flame impingement is critical for the processing and energy industries. The high heat transfer rates obtained with impinging flames are relevant in metal flame cutting, welding, and brazing; in fire research to understand the effects of flames on the structures of buildings; and in the design of high temperature combustion systems. Most of the studies on flame impingement are limited to surfaces perpendicular to the flame, and measurements are often performed using heat flux sensors (such as Schmidt-Boelter heat flux transducers) at discrete locations along the target surface. The use of in-situ probes provides high accuracy but heavily limits the spatial resolution of the measurement. Moreover, flame radiation effects are often neglected, due to the small contribution in non-luminous flames, and the entire heat flux to the target is assumed to be due to convection. Depending on the character of the flame and the impingement surface, local radiative heat transfer can be significant, and the contribution of radiation effects has not been fully quantified.This study presents a novel non-intrusive method with high spatial resolution to simultaneously determine the convective and radiative heat fluxes at a wall interacting with a flame or other high temperature environment. Two initial proof of concept experiments were conducted to evaluate the viability of the technique: one consisting of a flame impinging normal to a target and another with a flame parallel to the target surface. Application of the methodology to the former case yielded a stagnation convective heat flux in the order of 106kWm−2 that decreased radially away from the stagnation point. The radiation field for the direct impingement case accounted on average for 4.4% of the overall mean heat flux. The latter experiment exemplified a case with low convective heat fluxes, which was correctly predicted by the measurement. The radiative heat fluxes were consistent between the parallel and perpendicular cases.Copyright

Comparison of Flow and Heat Transfer Distributions in a Can Combustor for Radial and Axial Swirlers Under Cold Flow Conditions

A comparison study between axial and radial swirler performance in a gas turbine can combustor was conducted by investigating the correlation between combustor flow field geometry and convective heat transfer at cold flow conditions for Reynolds numbers of 50,000 and 80,000. Flow velocities were measured using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) along the center axial plane and radial cross sections of the flow. It was observed that both swirlers produced a strong rotating flow with a reverse flow core. The axial swirler induced larger recirculation zones at both the backside wall and the central area as the flow exits the swirler, and created a much more uniform rotational velocity distribution. The radial swirler however, produced greater rotational velocity as well as a thicker and higher velocity reverse flow core. Wall heat transfer and temperature measurements were also taken. Peak heat transfer regions directly correspond to the location of the flow as it exits each swirler and impinges on the combustor liner wall.Copyright