LES of an ignition sequence in a gas turbine engine

Being able to ignite or reignite a gas turbine engine in a cold and rarefied atmosphere is a critical issue for many manufacturers. From a fundamental point of view, the ignition of the first burner and the flame propagation from one burner to another are phenomena that are usually not studied. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Combustion and flame 2008-07, Vol.154 (1), p.2-22
Main Authors: Boileau, M., Staffelbach, G., Cuenot, B., Poinsot, T., Bérat, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AERODYNAMICS
Aerospace engines
Applied sciences
Chambers
COMBUSTION
Complex geometry
Computer simulation
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
ENGINEERING
Engineering Sciences
Engines and turbines
Equipments for energy generation and conversion: thermal, electrical, mechanical energy, etc
Euler-Euler approach
Exact sciences and technology
FLAME PROPAGATION
Fluids mechanics
GAS TURBINE ENGINES
IGNITION
INJECTION
Large eddy simulation
LIQUID FUELS
Mechanics
Reactive fluid environment
SIMULATION
THERMAL EXPANSION
Turbulent combustion
Turbulent flames
TWO-PHASE FLOW
Two-phase flows
VELOCITY
VORTEX FLOW
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Summary:Being able to ignite or reignite a gas turbine engine in a cold and rarefied atmosphere is a critical issue for many manufacturers. From a fundamental point of view, the ignition of the first burner and the flame propagation from one burner to another are phenomena that are usually not studied. The present work is a large eddy simulation (LES) of these phenomena. To simulate a complete ignition sequence in an annular chamber, LES has been applied to the full 360° geometry, including 18 burners. This geometry corresponds to a real gas turbine chamber. Massively parallel computing (700 processors on a Cray XT3 machine) was essential to perform such a large calculation. Results show that liquid fuel injection has a strong influence on the ignition times. Moreover, the rate of flame progress from burner to burner is much higher than the turbulent flame speed due to a major effect of thermal expansion. This flame speed is also strongly modified by the main burner aerodynamics due to the swirled injection. Finally, the variability of the combustor sectors and quadrant ignition times is highlighted.
ISSN:0010-2180
1556-2921
DOI:10.1016/j.combustflame.2008.02.006