CHAPTER-2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In general, there exists a range of complex, interacting physical and chemical phenomena in a
combustor flow field. Fuel spray atomization and vaporization, turbulent transport, finite rate
chemistry of combustion and pollutant formation, radiation and particle behavior, and
recirculation zones involving multiple flow streams are included. However when taken
together in the context of multi-dimensional flows rigorous description of these phenomena
are either not available or require mathematical models which are too complex for
computation. For these reasons, models of varying degrees of sophistication have been used
depending on the particular application. Over the last three decades, the level of
sophistication of the predictive models has been continuously increased with improvements
in numerical methods, computer capabilities and physical understanding.

Prediction of flow in gas turbine combustor has been a subject of several

investigations owing to the fact that aerodynamics plays a key role in dictating the
performance of gas turbine combustor. A summary of significant research investigation
carried out so far in the field of gas turbine combustor and its components, aerodynamics of
combustor, Jet mixing and penetration, turbulent models etc. is presented here.

A review of the literature reveals extensive works in the areas of “mixed-is-burned”

model along with k- eddy viscosity turbulence model, SIMPLE algorithm, TEACH code,
turbulent jet diffusion flames, finite-rate chemistry models for turbulent combustion, flame
extinction, penetration of multiple-jet configurations etc. This includes review papers,
experimental studies and numerical efforts for computation and modeling.

2.1 Gas Turbine

Development of Gas, or combustion, turbines was originally started in the 18th century. The
first patent was issued to England’s John Barber in 1791 for a combustion turbine. Patents for
modern versions of combustion turbines were awarded in the late nineteenth century to Franz
Stolze and Charles Curtis, however early versions of gas turbines were all impractical
because the power necessary to operate the compressors outweighed the amount of power
generated by the turbine. To achieve positive efficiencies, engineers would have to increase
combustion and inlet temperatures beyond the maximum allowable turbine material
temperatures of the day. It was not until the middle of this century that gas turbines evolved

55
into practical machines, primarily as jet engines. Although some prototype combustion
turbine units were designed, the developments that led to their practical use were a result of
World War II military programs. The actual race for jet engines was prompted by World War
II and therefore government started subsidization on R&D. Later gas turbines for power
generation were to emerge to from these military advances in technology. Only Germany’s
Junkers and Great Britain’s Rolls- Royce were successful to enter general production with
their engines during the war. [1]
Technology transfers began to take place as early as 1941, when Great Britain began working
with the US on turbine engines. The sharing of engineering drawings between England’s
Power Jets Ltd. and America’s GE Company was done during this period. American
companies such as GE and Westinghouse began development of gas turbines for land, sea
and air use which would not prove deployable until the end of the war [5]. Solar Turbines (the
“Solar” refers only to the name of the company, not the source of energy) also emerged later
during the war by fabricating high temperature materials, such as steel for airplane engine
exhaust manifolds. The knowledge gained by manufacturers during this time would help
them manufacture other gas turbine products in the post war period.
After World War II, gas turbine R&D was spurred in some areas and stunted in others.
In an example of R&D expansion, the transfer of detailed turbine plans from Rolls-Royce to
Pratt & Whitney was made as a repayment to the US for its assistance to Great Britain under
the Lend- Lease agreement.[2],[3] This allowed Pratt & Whitney, previously specialists in
reciprocating engines, to emerge as a strong developer of combustion turbines. In contrast,
German and Japanese companies were expressly barred from manufacturing gas turbines.
These companies were able to emerge later. For example, Siemens began recruiting engineers
and designers from the jet engine industry as soon as it were allowed, beginning in 1952. [4]
For aircraft use most of developments in gas turbines took place during 1950s and 1960s. GE
and Pratt & Whitney engines were used turbofan engines in early Boeing and Douglas
commercial planes which promote the R&D in this field. This advance of combustion
turbines into the commercial aviation market, and in some cases the boat propulsion market,
allowed manufacturers to sustain their development efforts even though entrance into the
base load electric power generation market was not yet even on the horizon. Gas turbines also
began to emerge slowly in the peaking power generation market. The independent power
generation design group was formed by GE and Westinghouse for their aircraft engine
designers. Westinghouse would later exit the jet engine business in 1960 while keeping its
stationary gas turbine division. Among US turbine manufacturers, only GE was especially
56
able to transfer knowledge between its ongoing aircraft engine and power generation turbine
businesses. The beginning of gas turbine power generation “packages” occurred early 1960s
when GE and Westinghouse engineers were able to standardize (within their own companies)
designs for gas turbines [5]. There were two main regions for marketing innovation took place.
First, providing better power generation option in place of steam engine or reciprocating
engine that will attract the more customers. Second, this standardization helped for multiple
sales with little redesign for each order, easing the engineering burden and lowering the costs
of gas turbines. This introduction of cooling technologies advance was the single most
important breakthrough in gas turbine development since their practical advent during World
War II. The cooling involved the circulation of fluids through and around turbine blades and
vanes. These cooling advances were originally part of the military turbojet R&D program,
but began to diffuse into the power generation turbine programs about five years later.
Advancing cooling technology, along with improvements in turbine materials, permitted
manufacturers to increase their firing and rotor inlet temperatures and therefore improve
efficiencies. Although manufacturers were making great technological strides in gas turbine
development, it was not until the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965 that the US utility market
truly awoke to need for additional peaking generation capacity. This peaking is exactly what
gas turbines were good for; their fast startup times would allow generators to match periods
of high demand. Even though simple-cycle gas turbines of the day had dismal efficiencies
(only about 25%) compared to those of coal-fired plants, their ability to handle peak loads led
to an increase in demand and renewed R&D from manufacturers.
2.2. Combustor Design
The simultaneous involvement of evaporation, turbulent mixing, ignition, and chemical
reaction in gas turbine combustion is too complex for complete theoretical treatment. Instead,
large engine manufacturers undertake expensive engine development programs to modify
previously established designs through trial-and-error. [26]
They also develop their own proprietary combustor design rules from

57
 Figure 2.1: Modern combustor components.
the experimental results of these programs. These design rules provide a means of specifying
the combustor geometry to meet a set of requirements at the given inlet conditions.
Combustor designers without access to proprietary design procedures must derive their own
methods from the literature or from experimentation. Numerous published empirical, semi-
empirical, and analytical tools have been developed to reduce the need for costly
experiments. The two extreme cases, empirical and analytical, differ by the method of
derivation [27-32]. Empirical design tools are correlations derived from experimental datasets
whereas analytical ones are discretized versions of the governing equations. Simple empirical
correlations provide accurate results quickly and are easily implemented into design codes,
yet they are only applicable to cases for which the measured data was based on. Analytical
methods, less accurate in comparison to empirical methods, are much more flexible as they
are only restricted by the simplifying assumptions necessary to reduce their complexity and
computation time. Hybrid semi-empirical tools combine both empirical and analytical

58
methods to provide a reasonable balance between accuracy and computation time.

Figure 2.2: Reference dimensions.

lists of empirical, semi-empirical, and analytical models for the design of conventional
aircraft combustors. The authors also provide information and references on new modern
combustors that enable the formulation a of preliminary design [33, 34, 35].

2.3. Gas Turbine Combustor Model

Basic material on combustion theory and models can be found in the paper, Some
Fundamentals of Combustion, which provides the idea about the modeling of combustor [22]
[23]
.

Numerical procedures used to be based on the SIMPLE algorithm and rectangular grid
systems, as illustrated by the highly popular TEACH code and its derivatives .It may be noted
that other techniques are available however these have not found wide spread use in
combustor simulation because of lack of flexibility, robustness and experience. Only the
broad features of such flow field have been simulated with TEACH-based codes. It is not
trivial, however, to improve the fidelity of these simulations. The models for turbulence and
chemistry and the numerical procedures are together responsible for the problems
encountered. [19, 20, 21]

Performance enhancements and control of heat transfer in high pressure gas turbine vanes
and rotors is dependent on understanding the flow and thermal fields approaching the turbine.
The flow field exiting the combustor has highly non-uniform pressure and temperature

59
variations in both the radial and circumferential directions as well as high turbulence levels
[25]
.

Finite-rate chemistry models for turbulent combustion have been developed and
assessed in jet flames. These models have been used in calculations of simple flow field when
kinetically influenced behavior is of interest. For example, the emission of thermal and
prompt nitric oxides (NOX) is a very prominent issue in the design of stationary gas-turbine
systems [25].The formation of nitric oxides is limited kinetically and so the equilibrium models
are not adequate. The model must recognize the fluctuations in the NOX production rate due
to turbulence. Extensions of the “fast” chemistry model have been proposed (Kent and Bilzer
1976) but have difficulties in accounting for super-equilibrium free radicals, which increase
NOX levels (as demonstrated by Drake et al. 1987). Prompt NOx is more problematic as it
involves the chemistry of hydrocarbon fragments (Iveraiah et al. 1972); the challenge is to
describe the chemical kinetics with a computationally tractable yet realistic scheme. Other
pollutants such as unburned hydrocarbons and CO also detract from the applicability of “fast”
chemistry models. Efforts are being made (e.g., Dasgupta et al. 1993) to predict droplet
evaporation and NOX formation in gas turbine combustor environment.

Flame extinction is another important non-equilibrium phenomenon. Reductions in fuel

flow rate (to reduce power in engines) or the inlet air density (because of increasing altitude)
may cause combustors to reach their blowout limits. The nature of turbulent flame extinction
is currently under scrutiny in both premixed and non-premixed flames (Liew et al. 1981,
1984; Peters 1984, Miller et al. 1984, Chen et al. 1989). These phenomena further emphasize
the importance of non-equilibrium chemistry and provide incentives to improve the models.
The knowledge acquired by the application of such codes to the developments of new codes
to the development of new engines will help expand blowout and reignition limits and will
increase the performance envelopes of practical combustors. [6][7]

Several experimental studies have been carried out on the mixing characteristics of
single air jets. Among them the work of Norster is most relevant to gas turbine combustors.
Sridhara investigated the mixing of air jets injected into hot gas streams under conditions that
allowed the temperature and velocity of the hot and cold streams, the injection hole diameter,
the angle of injection and the mixing length to be accurately controlled and varied over a
wide range. Holderman et al. have been reported the results of various NASA studies of a

60
rectangular duct in which jet diameter, jet spacing and jet-to-gas-stream momentum flux
varied.

Studies on the penetration of multiple-jet configurations have been carried out by

Sridhara, Holderman, Walker, and Kars. For a circular duct, Sridhar found that the
penetration of multiple jet was lower than that for a single jet; he attributed this to the
blockage effect of the jets in producing a local increase in main-stream velocity.

Many workers have attempted to trace the paths of round jets injected at right angles
into airstreams. For example, Callaghan and Rugger injected heated air into a cold air stream
and defined the penetration by the maximum pressure total-head traverse. Norster injected
cold air jets into a hot gas stream and took temperature traverse in line with the jet at various
distances downstream of its origin. The position of lowest temperature in the traverse defined
the center of the jet, and the maximum penetration was equated to the depth at which the
centerline of the jet became asymptotic to the mainstream flow. [8]

Bharani have shown that the bulk of the flow remains close to the outer liner wall
between the rows of primary and dilution holes while it shifts towards the liner mid plane
after the row of dilution holes. Ahmed and Nejad have carried out experimental investigation
of turbulent swirling flow in a combustor model for coaxial swirling jets with dump diffusers.
Green and Whitelaw have suggested that the standard k- model gives better results than the
other turbulence models in turbulence combustion prediction. Mongia has shown difficulty in
the specification of boundary conditions, inferior resolution of which hampers the ability of
computational models to predict combustor characteristics. Mohan el al. have numerically
investigated annuli flow and effect of inlet swirl on the flow split through the liner holes of
annular reverse flow combustor model. [9]

An investigation of combustion instabilities was conducted using an approximate

analysis which allows any relevant physical processes to be included. The resulting system of
coupled nonlinear oscillator equations was studied using the methods of dynamical systems
theory. Previous investigations have further simplified the system using the method of time-
averaging and truncation to a small number of modes. We have investigated the
consequences of using these additional approximations, a case which had not been addressed
completely in the literature. It was determined that application of the method of time-
averaging introduces a stability boundary which limits the range in which the averaged
equations are valid.

61
 Transverse oscillations in a cylindrical chamber were also treated. It was established
that in addition to its role in energy transfer between modes, nonlinear gas dynamics also
provides a means of shifting the frequencies of oscillations to integral multiples of the
fundamental. This additional role can reduce the efficiency of energy transfer, thus increasing
the acoustic amplitudes. An example of a low amplitude transverse oscillation was produced
suggesting a means by which the amplitudes of transverse modes, as well as non-integral
longitudinal modes, may be reduced.

The coupling between combustion processes and acoustic oscillations was studied as a
possible explanation of the phenomenon known as triggering. Using several ad hoc models,
the effects of nonlinear pressure coupling and velocity coupling on the behavior of the system
were investigated. Substantial regions of possible triggering were produced when using a
model of velocity coupling with a threshold, but only if nonlinear gas dynamics was also
included.

The interaction between combustion noise and acoustic instabilities has received
relatively little attention. The sources of noise in a combustion chamber are associated with
vorticity and entropy waves. By including these contributions in the approximate analysis, the
general forms of the stochastic excitations were obtained. Subsequently, the effects of these
excitations on the amplitudes of acoustic modes were studied. When only nonlinear gas
dynamics was included, no cases of bimodal probability density functions, characteristic of
triggering, were found. However, when the model of velocity coupling with a threshold is
added, bimodal probability densities can occur. [10]

For understanding the fundamental properties of unsteady motions in combustion

chambers, and for applications of active feedback control, reduced-order models occupy a
uniquely important position. A framework exists for transforming the representation of
general behavior by a set of infinite-dimensional partial differential equations to a finite set of
nonlinear second-order ordinary differential equations in time. The procedure rests on an
expansion of the pressure and velocity fields in modal or basis functions, followed by spatial
averaging to give the set of second-order equations in time. Nonlinear gas dynamics is
accounted for explicitly, but all other contributing processes require modeling. Reduced-order
models of the global behavior of the chamber dynamics, most importantly of the pressure, are
obtained simply by truncating the modal expansion to the desired number of terms. Central to
the procedures is a criterion for deciding how many modes must be retained to give accurate

62
results. Addressing that problem is the principal purpose of this paper. Our analysis shows
that, in case of longitudinal modes, a first mode instability problem requires a minimum of
four modes in the modal truncation whereas, for a second mode instability, one needs to
retain at least the first eight modes. A second important problem concerns the conditions
under which a linearly stable system becomes unstable to sufficiently large disturbances.
Previous work has given a partial answer, suggesting that nonlinear gas dynamics alone
cannot produce pulsed or 'triggered' true nonlinear instabilities; that suggestion is now
theoretically established. Also, a certain form of the nonlinear energy addition by combustion
processes is known to lead to stable limit cycles in a linearly stable system. A second form of
nonlinear combustion dynamics with a new velocity coupling function that naturally displays
a threshold character is shown here also to produce triggered limit cycle behavior. [11]

An emission model that combines the analytical capabilities of three-dimensional

combustor performance codes with mathematical expressions based on detailed chemical
kinetic scheme is formulated. The expressions provide the trends of formation and/or the
consumption of NOx, CO, and UHC in various regions of the combustor utilizing the details
of the flow and combustion characteristics given by the three-dimensional analysis. By this
means, the optimization of the combustor design to minimize pollutant formation and
maintain satisfactory stability and performance could be achieved. The developed model was
used to calculate the emissions produced by several engine combustors that varied
significantly in design and concept, and operated on both conventional and high-density
fuels. The calculated emissions agreed well with the measurements. The model also provided
insight into the regions in the combustor where excessive emissions were formed, and helped
to understand the influence of the combustor details and air admissions arrangement on
reaction rates and pollutant concentrations. [12]

A mathematical model for calculating the three-dimensional flow, gas composition and
temperature fields in gas-turbine combustion chambers is described. The model makes use of
the density-weighted average forms of the governing conservation equations with the two
equation k-ε model for turbulent transport. The chemical reactions associated with heat
release are assumed to be fast and fluctuations in scalar properties accounted for by use of a
β-probability density function. For liquid spray fuelled combustors the droplet concentration
field is described via an equation for droplet size. For a propane fuelled model gas turbine
combustor the method yields calculated fields of gas composition and pollutants (NO, CO
and UHC) which are in good overall agreement with measured values. [13]

63
3.2. Gas Turbine Combustor Modeling with CFD

Understanding of the flow dynamics, chemical kinetics and heat transfer mechanism within
micro-combustors is essential for the development of combustion-based power MEMS
devices. In Part I, CFD based numerical simulation has been proven to be an effective
approach to analyze the performance of the micro-combustor under various conditions. In
this paper, numerical simulations are performed to analyze the combustion behavior in a
three-dimensional micro-combustor based on the prototype used in the MIT micro-gas
turbine engine. The CFD model of the micro-combustor includes fuel/air flow path,
combustion chamber as well as solid walls used to construct the combustor. The simulation
analysis includes not only the detailed chemical reactions occurred in the combustion
chamber, but also the fluid flow dynamics, heat transfer within the combustor and heat loss to
the ambient. The performance of the combustor is evaluated under various fuel/air ratio, flow
rate and heat loss conditions. Through such systematic numerical analysis, a proper operation
space for the micro-combustor is suggested, which may be used as the guideline for micro-
combustor design. In addition, the results reported in this paper illustrate that the numerical
simulation can be one of the most powerful and beneficial tools for the micro-combustor
design, optimization and performance analysis. [14]

Gas turbine combustors are often susceptible to self-excited oscillations, which lead to
unacceptable levels of pressure, velocity, and heat release fluctuations. Although instabilities
can occur in systems with locally constant equivalence ratio, it is very important to take into
account the influence of equivalence ratio fluctuations, which are generated in the fuel air
mixer in the unstable case. These fluctuations are convicted into the flame and lead to an
additional mechanism for the generation of heat release fluctuations. Moreover, entropy
waves are produced in the flame, which travel through the combustor and generate additional
pressure waves during the acceleration of the flow at the combustor exit. To date, available
theories use the physically unrealistic assumption that the equivalence ratio waves as well as
the entropy waves are convected downstream without any spatial dispersion due to the
combustor aerodynamics. An analytical approach is presented, which allows us to take the
spatial dispersion into consideration. For that purpose, the response of the burner and the
combustor to an equivalence ratio impulse or an entropy impulse is calculated using the
Laplace transformation and a more general transfer function for harmonic waves is derived.
The obtained expression has three parameters, which represent the influence of the burner or
the combustor aerodynamics, respectively. This equation can be used in numerical codes,
64
which represent the combustion system through a network of acoustic multiports, if the
equivalence ratio and the entropy are added to the vector of variables considered. The
parameters required for the dynamic combustor model can be deduced from a detailed CFD
analysis of the combustor flow in case of the application of the theory to a particular
combustor design. As an example, a simple model combustor is used to demonstrate the
application of the theory. It is highlighted how the spatial dispersion of the equivalence ratio
and entropy fluctuations can be included in the stability analysis. The calculated examples
reveal that the influence of both variables on the generation of instabilities is highly over
predicted if the spatial dispersion is not taken into account. Furthermore, it can be deduced
from the study that burner and combustor designs with a wide range of convective time scales
have advantages with respect to the stability of the combustor. [15]

The objective of work was to develop a three-dimensional numerical simulation on the

basis of the finite volume method for predicting the penetration and mixing characteristics of
a single row of coolant jets injected normally into a heated cross flow in a constant area duct.
Two types of mesh size were developed to evaluate the ability of the standard and the (RNG)
k –  turbulence models. The effects of jet-to-mainstream momentum flux ratio, in the range
of 6.0–23.5 and duct height to hole diameter ratio and relative spacing of adjacent jets to hole
diameter ratio, within the range of 4.0–12.0 and 2.0–4.0, respectively, were investigated.
Comparisons between the present numerical results on the temperature profiles and the
experimental results of Holdeman and Walker (AIAA J. 15 (2) (1977) 243) demonstrated
reasonable agreement. [11]

A novel method for the simulation of combustion instabilities in annular combustors is

presented. It is based on the idea to solve the equations governing the acoustics in the time
domain and couple them to a model for the heat release in the flames. The linear wave
equation describing the temporal and spatial evolution of the pressure fluctuations is
implemented in a finite element code. Providing high flexibility, this code in principle allows
both the computational domain to be of arbitrary shape and the mean flow to be included.
This yields applicability to realistic technical combustors. The fluctuating heat release acting
as a volume source appears as a source term in the equation to be solved. Employing a time-
lag model, the heat release rate at each individual burner is related to the velocity in the
corresponding burner at an earlier time. As saturation also is considered, nonlinearity is
introduced into the system. Starting the simulation from a random initial perturbation with
suitable values for the parameters of the heat release model, a self-excited instability is

65
induced, leading to a finite-amplitude limit cycle oscillation. The feasibility of the approach
is demonstrated with three-dimensional simulations of a simple model annular combustor.
The effect of the model parameters and of axial mean flow on the stability and the shape of
the excited modes is shown. [12]

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is increasingly applied in industry due to its

capability to provide early detailed information of different technical design variants. Three
examples of CFD analysis are outlined in this paper. In the first, the non-reacting flow
through the hybrid burner is investigated. At the burner outlet a quite good agreement
between measurements and predictions of the swirl flow have almost been found. Deviations
are found near the burner axis for the swirl velocity component which can be explained by a
weak turbulence representation of the k-ε model. In the second example, the reacting flow of
the premixed flame in the annular combustor has been analyzed. Special emphasis has been
put on the convective wall heat transfer. It has been pointed out that the purge air discharged
through the gaps between the tiles significantly reduces the convective wall heat load. In the
third example, the reacting flow of the diffusion flame in the annular combustor has been
investigated using three different flame models. It could be shown that the calculated
convective wall heat load does not depend on the formulation of the flame model. [13]

Gas turbine combustor design represents an ambitious task in numerical and

experimental analysis. A significant number of competing criteria must be optimized within
specified constraints in order to satisfy legislative and performance requirements. Currently,
preliminary combustor flow and heat transfer design procedures, which by necessity involve
semi-empirical models, are often restricted in their range of application. The objective of this
work is the development of a versatile design tool able to model all conceivable gas turbine
combustor types. A network approach provides the foundation for a complete flow and heat
transfer analysis to meet this goal. The network method divides the combustor into a number
of independent interconnected sub-flows. A pressure-correction methodology solves the
continuity equation and a pressure-drop/flow-rate relationship. A constrained equilibrium
calculation, incorporating mixing and recirculation models, simulates the combustion
process. The new procedures are validated against numerical and experimental data within
three annular combustors and one reverse flow combustor. A full conjugate heat transfer
model is developed to allow the calculation of liner wall temperature characteristics. The
effects of conduction, convection and radiation are included in the model. Film cooling and
liner heat pick-up effects are included in the convection calculation. Radiation represents the

66
most difficult mode of heat transfer to simulate in the combustion environment. A discrete
transfer radiation model is developed and validated for use within the network solver. The
effects of soot concentration on radiation are evaluated with the introduction of radial
properties profiles. The accuracy of the heat transfer models are evaluated with comparisons
to experimental thermal paint temperature data on a reverse flow and annular combustors.
The resulting network analysis code represents a powerful design tool for the combustion
engineer incorporating a novel and unique strategy. [14]

Measurements of velocity, temperature, and species concentrations have been obtained

in a gas turbine combustor comprising two rectangular sectors and for air-fuel ratios of 29
and 37. The primary vortex was driven by the air-flow through three film-cooling slots and
was limited in its downstream extent by primary jets. Two further film-cooling slots and
dilution holes controlled the exit flow properties. Natural gas was used as fuel and supplied
through a T-vaporizer. Measurements were obtained with two arrangements. The first
arrangement corresponded to the geometry of a small combustor used in helicopter engines
and had its vaporizer exists in line with the primary holes which, in turn, were in line with the
gaps between the dilution holes. The second arrangement was used to quantify the effect of
moving the primary holes by (1/2 - pitch) so that the primary and dilution holes were in line
with each other but out of line with the vaporizer exits.

The results showed that the position of the eye of the primary vortex varied in the cross-
stream direction. In the gaps between the primary holes, it was located near the midplane of
the combustor and moved toward the upper wall in regions close to the primary jets. The
usual in-line arrangement of the primary holes with vaporizer exits resulted, therefore, in hot
regions in the primary zone which were in line with vaporizer exits and positioned close to
the upper wall. Moving the primary holes by (1/2 - pitch) caused the downward movement of
the hot regions in the primary zone and with this arrangement excess fuel was transported out
of the primary zone along a path further from the center plane so that in the exit plane hot
regions were located away from the vaporizer exists contrary to the usual arrangement where
the general temperature pattern of the primary zone was maintained at the exit. The effect of
air---fuel ratio was found to be small in the primary zone and modest in the exit plane and the
exit plane pattern factors were higher than those of engine practice mainly due to the
atmospheric conditions of the present experiments. Results also showed that in the primary
zone, reaction was controlled more by physical than chemical processes and that in the

67
intermediate and dilution zone fuel breakdown and CO oxidation were chemical kinetic rate
limited. [15]

A three-dimensional CFD analysis of a non-reactive annular combustor simulator has been

performed using Star-DesignTM and Star- CDTM with 1/45th sector model .With the CFD
model, the correct amount of flow in each region can be approximately determined to set a
desired pressure and temperature resultant profile. Dilution jets of row one impinges and
pinch off much of the core flow creating a stagnation point and recirculation zones. This
results in turbulence generation which corresponds to the momentum flux ratio of these jets.
Dilution jets of row two remain relatively unmixed producing pitchwise variations in total
pressure and velocity exit profiles. Row one Dilution jet flow is confined towards the middle
of the exit plane and the film cooling jet flow is restrained to the ID and OD endwall regions.
The CFD will help guide the experimental tasks enabling desired flow conditions to be
obtained. This will allow future research to be performed investigating the effects of these
profiles on vane and rotor loading and heat transfer. [18]

A methodology for computing steady turbulent combusting flow in combustors of complex

shape is presented. Included is discussion of fully- or partially-equilibrated chemical kinetic
models, the interaction of turbulence and combustion, grid systems, discretization operators
and solution procedures for recirculating flows. Examples that demonstrate the influence of
these issues are reviewed. A package of three-dimensional codes for grid generation and flow
analysis-developed in the course of these studies-is applied to the flow in a sector of a
modern annular gas-turbine combustor. Results are compared with available data. The study
demonstrates the utility of modern computational methods and indicates directions for future
work. [16]

The chamber had to be designed so that the flame is self-sustaining and the temperature of the
products of combustion is sufficiently below the maximum working temperature of the
turbine. The inner shell, the flame tube, is made of 22-gauge perforated steel. Air flow from
the compressor is fed through the flame tube as well as around its sides. The air in the flame
tube is burned with the propane, while the air on the outside of the flame tube is used to cool
the products of combustion before they enter the turbine. The molar flow rate of propane is
0.028 C3H8 mol./sec. This corresponds to a mass flow rate of propane, mC3 H8, of 0.001232
Kg/Sec. to stoichiometrically balance the air with the propane, the mass of burned air per
second must be 0.019 kg/ sec. Therefore the percentage of air flow from the compressor that

68
must be burned is 15.3% of that air flow should be directed through the flame tube section of
the combustion chamber [17].

2.3. Summary of literature Survey

On the basis of literature review it can be concluded that the fluid flow has very complex and
essential to observe it for proper combustion of fuel. Prediction of flow in gas turbine
combustor has been a subject of several investigations owing to the fact that aerodynamics
plays a key role in dictating the performance of gas turbine combustor. The estimation of
pressure drop is very much required for effective combustion of fuel inside the combustor.
The air distribution through different zone holes has very much effect on the mixing the fuel
and its combustion. The velocity in all directions is also gives the information of mixing and
burning of fuel. For stability of flame the flow pattern of air and fuel is very essential.

69