• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.04b
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• pp.847-852
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• 2000

Three dimensional CFD investigations are carried out to understand the complex flow field in a gas turbine combustor with multi-element fuel injectors. The gas turbine considered here is the GE7FA model which has aye fuel injectors in each combustor can and utilizes lean-premixed combustion to meet nitric oxide emission requirements. Detailed three-dimensional flow characteristics and fuel-air mixture formation process inside the fuel nozzle and gas turbine combustor including five swirl nozzle tips are analyzed using commercial FLUENT code.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.04a
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• pp.201-202
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• 2012

The isothermal flow structure and mixing characteristics of a hybrid/dual swirl jet combustor for micro-gas turbine were numerically investigated. Location of pilot nozzle, angle and direction of swirl vane were varied as main parameters with constant fuel flow rates for each nozzle. As a result, the variation in location of pilot nozzle resulted in significant change in turbulent flow field near burner exit, in particular, center toroidal recirculation zone (CTRZ) as well as turbulent intensity, and thus flame stability and emission characteristics might be significantly changed. The swirl angle of $45^{\circ}$ provided similar recirculating flow patterns in a wide range of equivalence ratio (0.5~1.0). Compared to the co-swirl flow, the counter-swirl flow leaded to the reduction in CTRZ and fuel-air mixing near the burner exit and a weak interaction between the pilot partially premixed flame and the lean premixed flame. With the comparison of experimental results, it was confirmed that the case of co-swirl flow and swirl $angle=45^{\circ}$ would provided an optimized combustor performance in terms of flame stability and pollutant emissions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.225-232
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• 2012

A chemical reactor network (CRN) was developed for a lean premixed gas turbine combustor to predict the emission of pollutants such as NOx and CO. In this study, the predictions of NOx and CO emissions from lean premixed methane-air combustion in the gas turbine were carried out using CHEMKIN and a GRI 3.0 methane-air combustion mechanism, which includes the four NO formation mechanisms for various load conditions. The calculated results were compared with experimental data obtained from a modified test combustor to validate the model. The contributions of the four NO pathways were investigated for various load conditions. The effects of nonuniformity of the mass flux and of the equivalence ratio of the injector on the NOx formation were investigated, and a method of reducing the pollutant formation was suggested for the development of a sub-10 ppm gas turbine combustor.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.12a
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• pp.183-190
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• 2002

In order to reduce NOx emissions in the 20kw class microturbines under development, the low NOx characteristics, as being an application to the lean premixed combustion technology, have been investigated. The study has been conducted at the conditions of high temperature and pressure. Air from a compressor with the temperature of 500K to 650K and the pressure of 0.3bar gauge to 0.7bar gauge, was supplied to the combustor through an air preheat-treatment. Sampling exhaust gases were measured at the immediate exit of the combustor. for the effect of temperature on NO and CO emissions. though NOx was increased, CO was decreased with increasing inlet air temperature. With increasing inlet air pressure, NOx and CO were increased also. NOx was decreased, but CO was increased with increasing inlet air mass flow rate. The test has been performed on the equivalent ratios of 0.10 to 0.25 in a lean region. NOx was increased with increasing equivalent ratios, but CO was decreased as an influence of flame temperature. In the very lean region of the equivalent ratio below 0.12, CO was increased suddenly, due to instability. As the results of this study, NOx and CO are found to be reduced to the similar level at the same time when operated at optimal conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.1257-1264
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• 2011

This paper presents 3D simulation by STAR-CCM+ for lean premixed combustion in a stationary gas turbine combustor with separate pilot and main nozzles. The constant for the source term in the flame area density transport equation was modified to account for a low global equivalence ratio and validated against measurement data. A Partially-premixed Coherent Flame Model(PCFM) involves propagation of a laminar premixed flame with the predicted flame surface density and equilibrium assumption in the burned gas with spatial inhomogeneity. The conditions for cooling by radiation and convection are considered for accurate determination of the heat flux on the wall. A parametric study is of the pilot-fuel-to-total-fuel-ratio is carried out. A chemical reactor network (CRN) was constructed on the basis of the 3D simulation results and compared against measurements of NOx.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.35-40
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• 2011

An experimental study of the flame response in a turbulent premixed combustor has been conducted in order to investigate mechanisms for combustion instabilities in a lean premixed gas turbine combustor. A lab-scale combustor and mixing section system were fabricated to measure the flame transfer function. Measurements are made of the velocity fluctuation in the nozzle using hot wire anemometry and of the heat release fluctuation in the combustor using chemiluminescence emission. The results show that the flame transfer functions are greatly dependent on the modulation frequency as well as operating conditions such as equivalence ratio. Flame dynamics can be generalized as a function of Strouhal number which is a ratio of flame length to modulation wave length.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.430-432
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• 2011

An experimental study of the flame response in a turbulent premixed combustor has been conducted in order to investigate mechanisms for combustion instabilities in lean premixed gas turbine combustor. A lab-scale combustor and mixing section system were fabricated to measure the flame transfer function. Measurements are made of the velocity fluctuation in the nozzle using hot wire anemometry and of the heat release fluctuation in the combustor using chemiluminescence emission. The results are analyzed to determine the phase and gain of the flame transfer function as a function of the modulation frequency and operating conditions.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3264-3269
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• 2007

Combustion instability is a serious obstacle for the lean premixed combustion of gas turbines, and can even cause fatal damage to the combustor and the entire system. Thus, improved understanding of the mechanisms of combustion instability is necessary for designing and operating gas turbine combustors. In this study, in order to understand the instability phenomena, an experimental study was conducted in a rearwardstep dump combustor with LPG and air. The fluctuations of pressure and heat release were measured by piezoelectric pressure sensor and High speed Intensified Charge Coupled Device (ICCD) camera respectively. Various types of combustion modes occurred in accordance with the equivalence ratio and the fuel supplying conditions. The unmixedness of the fuel and air can be controlled by changing the mixing distance ($L_{fuel}$). It is found that the unmixedness of the fuel and air affects the characteristics of flame behavior and pressure fluctuations in a lean premixed flame.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.17-23
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• 2012

In this study, thermoacoustic analysis model was developed in order to predict both eigenfrequencies and initial growth rate of combustion instabilities for lean premixed gas turbine combustors. As a first step, a model combustor and nozzle were selected and analytical linear equations for thermoacoustic waves were derived for a given combustion system. Then, methods showing how the equations can be used for analysis of the combustion instability were suggested. It was found that the prediction results showed a good agreement with the measurements. However, there were some limitation in growth rate predictions, which were related with over-simplification of flame structure, acoustic boundary conditions, and temperature distribution in the combustor.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.425-432
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• 2004

The objective of this study is a qualitative comparison between line-integrated OH chemiluminescence(OH$\^$*/) image and its Abel inverted image to investigate the flame structure at different phase of the oscillating pressure field. PIV(Particle Image Velocimetry) measurements were conducted under non-reacting conditions to see the global flow structure and NOx emission was measured to investigate the effect of fuel-air premixing on combustion instability and emission characteristics. Experiments were carried out in an atmospheric pressure, laboratory-scale dump combustor operating on natural gas. Combustion instabilities in present study exhibited a longitudinal mode with a dominant frequency of ∼341.8㎐, which corresponded to a quarter wave mode of combustor. Heat release and pressure waves were in-phase when instability occurred. Results gave an insight about the location where the strong coherence of pressure and heat release existed. Also an additional information on active control to suppress the combustion instabilities was obtained. For lean premixed combustion, strong correlation between OH$\^$*/ and NOx emissions was expected largely due to the exponential dependence of thermal NOx mechanism on flame temperature.