<title>Fiber optic probe for primary zone fuel distribution measurements in actual liquid-fueled gas turbine combustors</title>

Abstract

A laser induced fluorescence (LIF)-based optical fiber probe has been developed for spatially and temporally resolved measurements of the equivalence ratio in actual gas turbine combustors. By using the probe to simultaneously detect laser induced fluorescence and Mie-scattering, its applicability has been extended to liquid-fueled combustors. The probe has been tested in a simple flow system consisting of a four-inch diameter flow tube with a spray nozzle at the center and Jet-A as the fuel. PDPA(Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer) measurements are made to correlate the Mie-scattering signal with the number density of liquid droplets. The results indicate that the probe can be used for qualitative characterization of liquid fuel vaporization, and that quantitative measurement of fuel vapor concentration in liquid-fueled gas turbine combustion is possible with calibration of the temperature dependence of the fluorescence.