Simulations of flame propagation during the ignition process in an annular multiple-injector combustor

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1947-1964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongmei Zhao ◽  
Yifan Xia ◽  
Haiwen Ge ◽  
Qizhao Lin ◽  
Jianfeng Zou ◽  
...  

Purpose Ignition process is a critical issue in combustion systems. It is particularly important for reliability and safety prospects of aero-engine. This paper aims to numerically investigate the burner-to-burner propagation during ignition process in a full annular multiple-injector combustor and then validate it by comparing with experimental results. Design/methodology/approach The annular multiple-injector experimental setup features 16 swirling injectors and two quartz tubes providing optical accesses to high-speed imaging of flames. A Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes model, adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and complete San Diego chemistry are used to predict the ignition process. Findings The ignition process shows an overall agreement with experiment. The integrated heat release rate of simulation and the integrated light intensity of experiment is also within reasonable agreement. The flow structure and flame propagation dynamics are carefully analyzed. It is found that the flame fronts propagate symmetrically at an early stage and asymmetrically near merging stage. The flame speed slows down before flame merging. Overall, the numerical results show that the present numerical model can reliably predict the flame propagation during the ignition process. Originality/value The dedicated AMR method together with detailed chemistry is used for predicting the unsteady ignition procedure in a laboratory-scale annular combustor for the first time. The validation shows satisfying agreements with the experimental investigations. Some details of flow structures are revealed to explain the characteristics of unsteady flame propagations.

Author(s):  
Kaixing Wang ◽  
Fuqiang Liu ◽  
Haitao Lu ◽  
Jinhu Yang ◽  
Qianpeng Zhao ◽  
...  

In order to explore the influence of low pressure on ignition process, the ignition performance of a linear combustor with five burners was experimentally investigated at ambient temperature and low pressure. At air pressure drops of 1%, 2% and 3%, the influence of low pressure on the lower boundary of the ignition equivalence ratio and ignition delay have been carried, and the high-speed camera was used to record the flame propagation at various time. The results indicate that the minimum ignition equivalence ratio increases with the decrease of pressure. And, the lower the pressure, the more obvious the influence of pressure on the ignition boundary. At the same air pressure, the minimum ignition equivalent ratio decreases with the increase of the air pressure drop. For the process of ignition delay, the air pressure mainly affects the evaporation of droplets and the chemical delay process, and the air pressure drop mainly affects the physical delay stage. For the process of flame propagation, the flame moves between adjacent burners in a symmetrical pattern under various pressures. The air pressure mainly affects the ignition delay process, and the air pressure drop influences the ignition delay and the flame propagation in the early stage (the light-around from single burner to three-burners). The time needed to achieve stable combustion is the shortest at the air pressure drop of 2%.


Author(s):  
Alexios-Dionysios Martinos ◽  
Nikolaos Zarzalis ◽  
Stefan-Raphael Harth

Abstract The ability to re-ignite at high altitude after a flameout event is critical for flight safety. One reason that makes the relight process of the engine difficult is the low temperature and pressure, which leads to poor atomization, low degree of evaporation and slow reaction rate of the vaporized fuel. For this research work a rectangular, one sector RQL combustion chamber was utilized for experimental investigations at high altitude conditions. The design of the chamber is modular so that experiments for two configurations, i.e. without and with effusion cooling holes can be conducted. The fuel injection and the ignition system are representative of the ones used in commercial aviation. The investigations were performed in the frame of the European research project SOPRANO at the ISCAR rig. The ISCAR rig is capable of generating low pressure and temperature conditions for flowing kerosene-air mixtures. The investigation focuses on the characterization of the ignition process, in terms of probability, minimum fuel to air ratio (FAR) and ignition timing for a successful ignition event. In addition, the unsteady flame kernel generation and propagation were analyzed by high-speed imaging recording. An in-house image processing code was developed in order to derive quantitative spatial information of the flame and overall trends among ignition sequences for the same or different operating conditions. In order to achieve comparability between the investigated configurations (liners without and with effusion cooling), the pressure drop across the nozzle and the liners was the same depending on the operating condition. Results show that both pressure and temperature affect the ignition process, with the former being the dominant parameter in the investigated conditions. In both configurations, the minimum FAR increased as long as the conditions in the chamber became more adverse, indicating that at high altitude low-pressure situations, the performance of the airblast atomizer deteriorated causing poor ignition. This is overcome by creating a richer fuel-air mixture in the primary zone. Finally, the air injected through the effusion cooling holes near the spark seems to create favorable conditions for the ignition process.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 659-688
Author(s):  
Cosimo Magazzino ◽  
Francesco Felici ◽  
Vanja Bozic

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the information content of the variables that can help detecting external and internal imbalances in an early stage. The starting point is the Scoreboard, where nine indicators are chosen in order to increase macroeconomic surveillance of all member states. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides an overview of the variables that could be informative for imbalances by focusing on EU-27 countries over the period 1960-2010. The number of chosen variables is 28, and they are aggregated in six macro-areas. Therefore, once an imbalance is observed in any of those areas, it is possible to detect in a simple way which specific variable is determining such outcome. Findings – In general, this approach provides reliable signal to the policy-makers about the indicators that can drive imbalances within the area, shedding light on the relationship among the variables included in the analysis, too. Research limitations/implications – In fact, the empirical results underline some well-known critical issue for several countries, and is largely in line with results obtained in a variety of EC and OECD studies. Originality/value – The main added value of the approach adopted in this paper is the introduction of more variables than those initially proposed by the European Commission in the construction of the Scoreboard. This provides more information about the macroeconomic situation in each country, preserving, however, the simplicity of the analysis as the variables are aggregated by homogeneous areas.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 521-532
Author(s):  
Daisuke Doi ◽  
Hiroshi Seino ◽  
Shinya Miyahara ◽  
Masayoshi Uno

Author(s):  
Brandon Sforzo ◽  
Hoang Dao ◽  
Sheng Wei ◽  
Jerry Seitzman

The effects of jet fuel composition on ignition probability have been studied in a flowfield that is relevant to turbine engine combustors, but also fundamental and conducive to modeling. In the experiments, a spark kernel is ejected from a wall and propagates transversely into a crossflow. The kernel first encounters an air-only stream before transiting into a second, flammable (premixed) stream. The two streams have matched velocities, as verified by hot-wire measurements. The liquid fuels span a range of physical and chemical kinetic properties. To focus on their chemical differences, the fuels are prevaporized in a carrier air flow before being injected into the experimental facility. Ignition probabilities at atmospheric pressure and elevated crossflow temperature were determined from optical measurements of a large number of spark events, and high speed imaging was used to characterize the kernel evolution. Eight fuel blends were tested experimentally; all exhibited increasing ignition probability as equivalence ratio increased, at least up to 1.5. Statistically significant differences between fuels were measured that have some correlation with fuel properties. To elucidate these trends, the forced ignition process was also studied with a reduced order numerical model of an entraining kernel. The simulations suggest ignition is successful if sufficient heat release occurs before entrainment of colder crossflow fluid quenches the exothermic oxidation reactions. As the kernel is initialized in air, it remains lean during the initial entrainment of the fuel-air mixture; thus richer crossflows lead to quicker and higher exothermicity.


Author(s):  
Théa Lancien ◽  
Kevin Prieur ◽  
Daniel Durox ◽  
Sébastien Candel ◽  
Ronan Vicquelin

A combined experimental and numerical study of light-round, defined as the flame propagation from burner to burner in an annular combustor, under perfectly premixed conditions has previously demonstrated the ability of large-eddy simulation (LES) to predict such ignition processes in a complex geometry using massively parallel computations. The present investigation aims at developing light-round simulations in a configuration closer to real applications by considering liquid n-heptane injection. The large-eddy simulation of the ignition sequence of a laboratory scale annular combustion chamber comprising sixteen swirled two-phase injectors is carried out with a mono-disperse Eulerian approach for the description of the liquid phase. The objective is to assess this modeling approach to describe the two-phase reactive flow during the ignition process. The simulation results are compared in terms of flame structure and light-round duration to the corresponding experimental images of the flame front recorded by a high-speed intensified CCD camera. The dynamics of the flow is also analyzed to identify and characterize mechanisms controlling flame propagation during the light-round process.


Author(s):  
Arun Prabhakar ◽  
Yousif Abdalla Abakr ◽  
Kathy Simmons

In civil aircraft aeroengine bearing chambers it is sometimes difficult to feed oil to bearings using the traditional under-race or targeted jet approaches. In such situations one proposed solution is that of a scoop delivery system. Published experimental investigations into scoop performance show that scoop collection efficiency (the percentage of oil delivered by the scoop system to its destination compared to that supplied by the feed jet) is a function of many operational and geometric parameters. However even with high speed imaging it is impossible to experimentally determine in detail the factors that most contribute to reduction in collection efficiency and it is here particularly that a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigation has value. In the work reported here a commercial CFD code (ANSYS Fluent) is used to investigate vortex formation at the scoop tips and the effect these structures have on scoop collection efficiency. The computational domain, a 2D slice through the chosen scoop system, is discretized utilizing ANSYS Meshing. A Volume of fluid (VOF) method is used to model the multiphase flow of oil and air in the system and the RNG k-ε turbulence model is employed. The results obtained show that the formation of vortices from the tip of the rotating scoops leads to a reduction in pressure in the region near the tip of the oil jet, subsequently causing part of the jet to divert upwards away from the scoop creating a plumed tip. The pluming effect reduces capture efficiency because the oil plume moves outwards under centrifugal effects and this oil is not captured. The frequency of vortex shedding from the scooped rotor was investigated and the Strouhal numbers obtained were around 0.132. This compares well to 0.15 for an inclined flat plate. Two potential methods to reduce the jet pluming effect are investigated one in which the sharp tip of the scoop is blunted and the other in which the jet direction is reversed. The blunt tip increased capture efficiency by almost 2%. Reversing the jet orientation reduces jet pluming but also significantly reduces capture efficiency; it was found to be 10% lower for the case investigated.


2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 1705-1717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milad Azarmanesh ◽  
Mousa Farhadi ◽  
Pooya Azizian

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a practical way to create three kinds of double emulsions such as double emulsion, double-component double emulsion and viscoelastic double emulsion. Design/methodology/approach – A hierarchical T-junction microfluidic device is selected to simulate this phenomenon. A system of the three-phase flows consists of the inner, middle and outer phases were simulated by the direct numerical simulation (DNS) method. The dripping regime is considered for the droplet formation in both T-junctions. The adaptive mesh refinement technique is used to simulate the droplet formation and determine the interface rupture. Findings – The one-step and two-step encapsulation are used to create the double emulsion and the viscoelastic double emulsion, respectively. In both T-junctions, droplets are created by the balance of three parameters which are instability, viscous drag and pressure buildup. The one-step formation of double emulsion is presented for encapsulates the viscoelastic fluid. Originality/value – The simulated hierarchical microchannel shows some desirable features for creating the complex compounds. The encapsulation process is simulated in micro-scale that is useful for drug delivery applications.


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