CFD Assisted Design of Micro GT Combustor

The work presents the development of a micro-combustor design, where the combustion process was simulated by CFD and tested experimentally. The inner diameter of the first model was 5.5 mm, the exit diameter 2.5 mm, and the length 24.5 mm. The designed heat release was 200W. Some modifications of the microcombustor were studied. Three-dimensional model for combustion simulations was used. The ‘conjugate heat transfer’ methodology, based on a simultaneous solution of the heat transfer equations for gas and combustor walls, coupled with equations for the working fluid, enabled the prediction of the combustor wall temperatures. To check model convergence 2 simulations with different number of cells were carried out. Effect of heat radiation was also studied by the CFD simulation. The fuel is methane and stoichiometric ratio was simulated. Reactive flow calculations were carried out with a two-step reaction. The analysis of the simulated results was based on the obtained velocity profiles, concentration and temperature distributions within the liner. Preliminary simulations showed that the first combustor design had inefficient combustion. The reason was poor mixing of methane and air inside the mixing chamber and deterioration of the combustion by dilution holes. Consequently, the combustor design was modified and simulated. The simulation showed that the modification significantly improved mixing and combustion process and better combustion was provided. Due to complexity associated with performing combustion experiments in such small dimensions, only limited data could be recorded. A small combustor was manufactured and tests and demonstrated its successful operation. Measurements of temperature and optical UV-VIS-IR - emissions at the combustor exit were obtained. The experimental and simulation results are compared and a good qualitative agreement was found between the experiments and the predicted values.