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Massively-Parallel Spectral Element Large Eddy Simulation of a Ring-Type Gas Turbine Combustor
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Abstract
The average and fluctuating components in a model ring-type gas turbine combustor are characterized using a Large Eddy Simulation at a Reynolds number of 11,000, based on the bulk velocity and the mean channel height. A spatial filter is applied to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, and a high pass filtered Smagorinsky model is used to model the sub-grid scales. Two cases are studied: one with only the swirler inlet active, and one with a single row of dilution jets activated, operating at a momentum flux ratio J of 100. The goal of both of these studies is to validate the capabilities of the solver NEK5000 to resolve important flow features inherent to gas turbine combustors by comparing qualitatively to the work of Jakirlic. Both cases show strong evidence of the Precessing Vortex Core, an essential flow feature in gas turbine combustors. Each case captures other important flow characteristics, such as corner eddies, and in general predicts bulk flow movements well. However, the simulations performed quite poorly in terms of predicting turbulence shear stress quantities. Difficulties in properly emulating the turbulent velocity entering the combustor for the swirl, as well as mesh quality concerns, may have skewed the results. Overall, though small length scale quantities were not accurately captured, the large scale quantities were, and this stress test on the HPF LES model will be built upon in future work that looks at more complex combustors