Analysis of Gas Turbine Combustor Exhaust Emissions: Effects of Transient Inlet Air Pressure

Abstract

Gas turbine combustors are often subjected to combustion instabilities because of variability of operating conditions, affecting components, and altering exhaust emissions. Herein, the analysis focuses on simulating numerically the non‐premixed combustion as unsteady flamelet combustion and detailed kinetic mechanism. The goal is analyzing exhaust gases under unsteady inlet airflow conditions to define operation guidelines. The numerical approach is validated using data from the literature for nonperturbed cases. Three periodical perturbations of different amplitude show differences with the nonperturbed case. Besides emission of exhaust gases, the temperature field is sensitive to airflow inlet conditions. According to the simulation results, a strong dependence of temperature and pressure in primary and dilution zones of combustor exists on the inlet air pressure condition. Emissions of flue gases like CO and NOx respond to combustor thermal behavior showing high sensitivity to inlet air pressure as well. Results indicate that moderate pressure oscillations may derive into flashback effects.