CFD Modeling of a Gas Turbine Combustor From Compressor Exit to Turbine Inlet

Abstract

Gas turbine combustor CFD modeling has become an important combustor design tool in the past few years, but CFD models are generally limited to the flow field inside the combustor liner or the diffuser/combustor annulus region. Although strongly coupled in reality, the two regions have rarely been coupled in CFD modeling. A CFD calculation for a full model combustor from compressor diffuser exit to turbine inlet is described. The coupled model accomplishes the following two main objectives: (1) implicit description of flow splits and flow conditions for openings into the combustor liner, and (2) prediction of liner wall temperatures. Conjugate heat transfer with nonluminous gas radiation (appropriate for lean, low emission combustors) is utilized to predict wall temperatures compared to the conventional approach of predicting only near wall gas temperatures. Remaining difficult issues such as generating the grid, modeling Swirled vane passages, and modeling effusion cooling are also discussed.

Heat transfer and film-cooling for the endwall of a first stage turbine vane

“…Some typical profiles are given in the literature by Suo [10], Halls [11], and computed by Crocker et al [12]. As shown in the literature, downstream of dilution jets, which are typically used to promote mixing in a combustor design, distinct radial and circumferential variations in the velocity field, and total pressure field can be expected.…”

Large Eddy Simulation of Impinging Jets in a Confined Flow

“…The effects of simulating the core/annulus coupling mechanism have been previously studied by Manners [15], Baker [4], Crocker et al [6], Bain et al [3] and McGuirk and Spencer [18] using a k-ε model. These studies show the k-ε model to considerably under predict turbulence levels within the combustor core and provide a poor representation of the upstream RFZ characteristics.…”

“…Numerical simulation is becoming an increasingly essential part of the design process [9,14], particularly for modern combustion chambers [6]. The majority of studies are however often severely restricted in detail with the feed annulus geometry neglected and the air admission jets represented by applied boundary conditions alone.…”

Flow characteristics in an annular burner with fully film cooling

“…With the development of numerical calculation techniques and high speed, high capable computers, numerical simulation of flow and combustion in gas turbine combustors became very popular and was widely employed in various practical applications in the last decades [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. This really provides an invaluable tool for considerably accelerating the development of a new engine and helping engineers find an optimized solution for specified problems.…”