Volumetric PIV measurement for capturing the port flow characteristics within annular gas turbine combustors

© 2020, The Author(s). Abstract: The three-dimensional flows within a full featured, unmodified annular gas turbine combustor have been investigated using a scanned stereoscopic PIV measurement technique. Volumetric measurements have been achieved by rigidly translating a stereoscopic PIV system to scan measurements around the combustor, permitting reconstruction of volumetric single-point statistics. Delivering the measurements in this way allows the measurement of larger volumes than are accessible using techniques relying upon high depth of field imaging. The shallow depth of field achieved in the stereoscopic configuration furthermore permits measurements in close proximity to highly detailed geometry. The measurements performed have then been used to assess the performance of the combustor port flows, which are central to the emissions performance and temperature/velocity profile at turbine inlet. Substantially differing performance was observed in the primary ports with circumferential position, which was found to influence the behaviour of the second secondary port jets. The measurements indicated that the interaction between the primary and secondary jets occurred due to variations in the external boundary conditions imposed by the annular passages in which the combustor is located. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Annular diffusers with large downstream blockage effects for gas turbine combustion applications

In engineering applications, diffuser performance is significantly affected by its boundary conditions. In a gas turbine combustion system, the space envelope is limited, the inlet conditions are generated by upstream turbomachinery, and the downstream geometry is complex and in close proximity. Published work discusses the impact of compressor-generated inlet conditions, but little work has been undertaken on designing diffusers to accommodate a complex downstream geometry. This paper considers the design of an annular diffuser in the presence of a large downstream blockage. This is most applicable in the combustion system of a low-emission landbased aero-derivative gas turbine, where immediately downstream of the diffuser approximately 85% of the flow moves outboard and 15% moves inboard to supply the various flame-tube and turbine-cooling features. Several diffuser concepts are numerically developed and demonstrate 1) the interaction between the diffuser and downstream geometry and 2) how this varies with changes in diffuser geometry. A preferred concept is experimentally evaluated on a low-speed facility that simulates the combustion system and provides compressorgenerated inlet conditions. A conventionally designed aero-derivative diffuser system is also evaluated and, with reference to this datum, the system total pressure losses are reduced by between 20 and 35%

Intercooled aero-gas-turbine duct aerodynamics: core air delivery ducts

The development of radical new aero engine technologies will be key to delivering the step-changes in aircraft environmental performance required to meet future emissions legislation. Intercooling has the potential for higher overall pressure ratios, enabling reduced fuel consumption, and/or lower compressor delivery air temperatures and therefore reduced NOx. This paper considers the aerodynamics associated with the complex ducting system that would be required to transfer flow from the core engine path to the heat exchanger system. The cycle benefits associated with intercooling could be offset by the pressure losses within this ducting system and/or any detrimental effect the system has on the surrounding components. A suitable branched S-shaped duct system has been numerically developed which diffuses and delivers the flow from the engine core to discrete intercooler modules. A novel swirling duct concept was used to locally open larger spacing between certain duct branches in order to provide engine core access whilst hiding the resultant pressure field from the upstream turbomachinery. The candidate duct system was experimentally evaluated on a bespoke low speed, fully annular isothermal test facility. Aerodynamic measurements demonstrated the ability of the design to meet the stringent aerodynamic and geometric constraints

Experimental and computational study of hybrid diffusers for gas turbine combustors

The increasing radial depth of modern combustors poses a particularly difficult aerodynamic challenge for the pre-diffuser. Conventional diffuser systems have a finite limit to the diffusion that can be achieved in a given length and it is, therefore, necessary for designers to consider more radical and unconventional diffuser configurations. This paper will report on one such unconventional diffuser; the hybrid diffuser which, under the action of bleed, has been shown to achieve high rates of diffusion in relatively short lengths. However, previous studies have not been conducted under representative conditions and have failed to provide a complete description of the relevant flow mechanisms making optimization difficult. Utilizing an isothermal representation of a modern gas turbine combustor an experimental investigation was undertaken to study the performance of a hybrid diffuser compared to that of a conventional, single-passage, dump diffuser system. The hybrid diffuser achieved a 53% increase in area ratio within the same axial length generating a 13% increase in the pre-diffuser static pressure recovery coefficient which, in turn, produced a 25% reduction in the combustor feed annulus total pressure loss coefficient. A computational investigation was also undertaken in order to investigate the governing flow mechanisms. A detailed examination of the flow field, including an analysis of the terms within the momentum equation, demonstrated that the controlling flow mechanisms were not simply a boundary layer bleed but involve a more complex interaction between the accelerating bleed flow and the diffusing mainstream flow. A greater understanding of these mechanisms enabled a more practical design of hybrid diffuser to be developed that not only simplified the geometry but also improved the quality of the bleed air making it more attractive for use in component cooling

Experimental and computational study of hybrid diffusers for gas turbine combustors

The increasing radial depth of modern combustors poses a particularly difficult aerodynamic challenge for the prediffuser. Conventional diffuser systems have a finite limit to the diffusion that can be achieved in a given length and it is, therefore, necessary for designers to consider more radical and unconventional diffuser configurations. This paper will report on one such unconventional diffuser; the hybrid diffuser which, under the action of bleed, has been shown to achieve high rates of diffusion in relatively short lengths. However, previous studies have not been conducted under representative conditions and have failed to provide a complete description of the relevant flow mechanisms making optimisation difficult. Utilising an isothermal representation of a modern gas turbine combustor an experimental investigation was undertaken to study the performance of a hybrid diffuser compared to that of a conventional, single passage, dump diffuser system. The hybrid diffuser achieved a 53% increase in area ratio within the same axial length generating a 13% increase in the pre-diffuser static pressure recovery coefficient which, in turn, produced a 25% reduction in the combustor feed annulus total pressure loss coefficient. A computational investigation was also undertaken in order to investigate the governing flow mechanisms. A detailed examination of the flow field, including an analysis of the terms within the momentum equation, demonstrated that the controlling flow mechanisms were not simply a boundary layer bleed but involve a more complex interaction between the accelerating bleed flow and the diffusing mainstream flow. A greater understanding of these mechanisms enabled a more practical design of hybrid diffuser to be developed that not only simplified the geometry but also improved the quality of the bleed air making it more attractive for use in component cooling

The influence of geometric and aerodynamics boundary conditions on fuel injector feed and external aerodynamics for lean burn combustors

Lean burn combustion is currently a preferred technology to meet the future low emission requirements faced by aero gas turbines. Previous work has shown that the increased air mass flow and size of lean burn fuel injector alters the necessary redistribution of the airflow leaving the high-pressure compressor. This can lead to flow field non-uniformities in the feed to combustor annuli and the fuel injectors which have the potential to impact the overall performance of the combustion system. This paper presents a systematic assessment of the effect of several aerodynamic parameters on the air flow feed to the fuel injectors and the external combustion system aerodynamics for a generic lean burn system. This includes the effect of changes to the flow splits between various combustor cooling features and annulus flows and the effect of a biased compressor exit profile. Flow field data are generated using an isothermal RANS CFD model which is validated against test rig data. The data show that changes in the flow split between the annuli modified the flow uniformity and loss to both the combustor annuli and the fuel injector feed. Changes in the compressor exit profile have a larger effect introducing more notable variations in both flow uniformity and loss. Changes to the angle of the flame tube did not greatly affect the pre-diffuser but did modify annulus loss. Further analysis showed that changes to the combustor annulus flow split, compressor exit profile and flame tube angle modified the location, at compressor exit, of the flow captured by the annuli or each fuel injector passage. The loss to each of these depends on the flow quality (total pressure and uniformity) and from the source more than the flow uniformity delivered

Experimental investigation of the effect of bleed on the aerodynamics of a low-pressure compressor stage in a turbofan engine [GT2023-102260]

The compression system in modern turbofan engines is split into several stages linked by s-shaped transition ducts. Downstream of the low-pressure system, a handling bleed is often required for off-design performance and/or to extract ice/water and foreign debris prior to the air entering the highpressure compression stages. The inclusion of this bleed and various structural vanes can introduce unwanted component interactions and compromise the aerodynamic performance of the upstream low-pressure compressor stage and downstream transition duct. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the aerodynamic performance of a compressor transition duct and bleed for a very high bypass ratio turbofan. A fully annular, low-speed test facility incorporating a 1½ stage axial compressor was used to examine the mean and unsteady flow in the last stage of a low-pressure compressor and the downstream transition duct. The transition duct incorporated load bearing struts, including a so-called King strut with twice the thickness of the regular struts. The bleed utilized a 360° annular slot located on the casing immediately downstream of the low-pressure rotor and upstream of the outlet guide vane. The results showed that the King strut, caused a similar flow distortion and redistribution in the OGV like the Regular struts, and had otherwise imposed a negligible effect on overall performance over a range of rotor flow coefficients. The addition of bleed had a more notable effect, generating an increasing outboard bias in the rotor efflux, as the flow migrated towards the offtake. At the design flow operating point, the OGV were relatively insensitive to this until the highest bleed rate (18%) where evidence of stall was observed. At a lower operating point, the change of rotor swirl and additional OGV incidence caused earlier onset of stall and a full OGV stall was observed above 10% bleed. Increasing bleed was observed to cause a gradual increase in duct loss up to the point of OGV stall when losses increased more rapidly.</p

Experimental investigation of the effect of bleed on the aerodynamics of a low-pressure compressor stage in a turbofan engine

The compression system in modern turbofan engines is split into stages linked by transition ducts. Downstream of the low-pressure system, a handling bleed is often required and, in conjunction with structural vanes, can introduce component interactions which compromise aerodynamic performance. In this paper a fully annular, low-speed test facility incorporating a 1½ stage axial compressor is used to examine the flow in the last stage of a low-pressure compressor and the downstream transition duct. The transition duct incorporated load bearing struts, including a socalled king strut with twice the thickness of the regular struts. The bleed utilized a 360o annular slot located on the casing immediately downstream of the low-pressure rotor and upstream of the outlet guide vane. The results showed that both the regular and king strut caused a similar flow distortion in the vane row but overall imposed a negligible effect on overall performance. The addition of bleed had a larger effect, generating an increasing outboard bias at rotor exit as the bleed flow migrated towards the offtake. At the design operating point, the outlet guide vanes were relatively insensitive to this until the highest bleed rate (18%) where evidence of stall was observed. At a lower operating point, a modification to the rotor swirl caused additional incidence onto the vanes resulting in earlier onset of stall; a full stall was observed above 10% bleed. Increasing bleed caused a gradual increase in duct loss up to stall when losses increased rapidly.  </p

Study of an effusion-cooled plate with high level of upstream fluctuation

The flow field and surface adiabatic coolant-film effectiveness (ACE) distribution of a combustor representative effusion cooling array with cylindrical cooling holes has been studied both experimentally and numerically. Both studies focus on the influence of inflow turbulence, especially the high inflow turbulence which is always present in the combustor environment but rarely studied in the literature. A fluctuating inflow at roughly 20% intensity level is generated in the wind tunnel, and distributions of ACE measured for blowing ratios (BR) between 1.8 and 4.1. For comparison, ACE distributions are also measured at a low inflow turbulence intensity of 5%. For further investigation on the mechanism of inflow turbulence effects, hybrid large eddy simulations (LES) are carried out at a BR of around 1.8 under both low and high inflow turbulence intensities. The fluctuating inflow is generated using the Synthetic Eddy Method (SEM) with similar turbulence intensity. The predicted surface ACE distributions of the 2 cases are compared with the measurements. More detailed studies of the flow field are carried out based on the numerical results. The effects of inflow fluctuation levels are studied by comparing various flow statistics between the low and high fluctuation cases. The formation of the coolant film is also studied based on the development of the coolant film thickness. The interaction between the upstream and downstream coolant jets is investigated by visualising the coolant jet centre trajectory, as well as analyzing the turbulence structures, spectra and coherence at selected positions. These analysis clearly show that the highly fluctuating inflow results in an enhanced mixing of the coolant and mainstream. In the high turbulence intensity case, this leads to wider span-wise and shorter stream-wise film coverage over the first few rows of the array. These effects diminish as soon as a thick coolant film is formed in the downstream, especially at high BR conditions

Effect of compressor unsteady wakes on a gas turbine combustor flow

In gas turbines, combustor inlets are characterised by significant levels of unsteady circumferential distortion due to compressor wakes and secondary flows, together with additional radial non-uniformity induced by the adverse pressure gradients in the pre-diffuser. This can cause non-uniform velocity distributions across the fuel injector, although the exact interaction mechanism, and the effects it has on the downstream air-fuel mixing, is not fully understood. This paper investigates the flow in an a single sector of a fully featured isothermal rig comprising of compression and combustion systems, exploiting the synchronous coupling of a compressible unsteady RANS simulation with a low-Mach LES. Validation against five-hole probe measurements shows that the coupled approach can correctly predict distortion onset and development, with no solution discontinuity at the coupling interface, and is able to preserve unsteady information. The coupled prediction is then compared against a standalone combustor simulation carried out using a circumferentially uniform inlet profile, showing that the additional turbulence from the wakes interacts with the injector, reducing the coherence of the precessing vortex core and potentially affecting the air-fuel mixing characteristics