Les Software for the Design of Low Emission Combustion Systems for Vision 21 Plants

Abstract

In this project, an advanced computational software tool was developed for the design of low emission combustion systems required for Vision 21 clean energy plants. Vision 21 combustion systems, such as combustors for gas turbines, combustors for indirect fired cycles, furnaces and sequestrian-ready combustion systems, will require innovative low emission designs and low development costs if Vision 21 goals are to be realized. The simulation tool will greatly reduce the number of experimental tests; this is especially desirable for gas turbine combustor design since the cost of the high pressure testing is extremely costly. In addition, the software will stimulate new ideas, will provide the capability of assessing and adapting low-emission combustors to alternate fuels, and will greatly reduce the development time cycle of combustion systems.The revolutionary combustion simulation software is able to accurately simulate the highly transient nature of gaseous-fueled (e.g. natural gas, low BTU syngas, hydrogen, biogas etc.) turbulent combustion and assess innovative concepts needed for Vision 21 plants. In addition, the software is capable of analyzing liquid-fueled combustion systems since that capability was developed under a concurrent Air Force Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program. The complex physics of the reacting flow field are captured using 3D Large Eddy Simulation (LES) methods, in which large scale transient motion is resolved by time-accurate numerics, while the small scale motion is modeled using advanced subgrid turbulence and chemistry closures. In this way, LES combustion simulations can model many physical aspects that, until now, were impossible to predict with 3D steady-state Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) analysis, i.e. very low NO x emissions, combustion instability (coupling of unsteady heat and acoustics), lean blowout, flashback, autoignition, etc. LES methods are becoming more and more practical by linking together tens to hundreds of PCs and performing parallel computations with fine grids (millions of cells). Such simulations, performed in a few weeks or less, provide a very cost-effective complement to experimental testing. In 5 years, these same calculations can be performed in 24 hours or less due to the expected increase of computing power and improved numerical techniques.This project was a four-year program. During the first year, the project included the development and implementation of improved chemistry (reduced GRI mechanism), subgrid turbulence (localized dynamic), and subgrid combustion-turbulence interaction (Linear Eddy) models into the CFD-ACE+ code. University expertise (Georgia Tech and University of California, Berkeley) was utilized to help develop and implement these advanced submodels into the unstructured, parallel CFD flow solver, CFD-ACE+. Efficient numerical algorithms that rely on in situ look-up tables or artificial neural networks were implemented for chemistry calculations. In the second year, the combustion LES software was ev...