COMPUTATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FLOW AND COMBUSTION CHARACTERISTICS IN A CAN-TYPE COMBUSTOR

Abstract

The main aim of this work is to study the flow field of can-combustor as preliminary approach for gas turbine combustor application. Can-combustor geometry is modeled using solid works, meshing and analysis is carried out using Ansys workbench. Mass flow distribution through the various zones of the Can-combustor has been calculated by cold flow CFD analysis. Can-combustor contains various components like swirler, dome, primary holes, dilution holes andcooling holes. Total pressure loss through each componenet decides the mass flow distribution in the various zones of combustor. Hot flow CFD analysis of Can-combustor has been carried out with propane gas as fuel. It shows the presence high temperature region in the central region of the liner. This combustor is designed for an overall equivalence ratio of 0.125 for preheating applications with the exit temperature of 650ºK. In hot flow analysis fuel intake in to the can-combustor is varied for wide range of equivalence ratio (0.125 to 0.5), considering air inlet a constant value. The hot flow analysis depicts a clear picture regarding temperature distribution in the can-combustor. The distribution of recirculation region is estimated with the flow analysis. While species transport without combustion made us to evaluate the effect of mixing and the formation of stoichiometric equivalence ratio.