Study of flow and combustion characteristics of optimized low swirl premixed nozzle for micro gas turbine

ABSTRACT

With the micro gas turbine is used more and more widely, the operating conditions become complex and fluctuating which impacts the environmental friendliness of combustor. In this work, a low swirl premixed nozzle (LSPN) is designed based on the original premixed nozzle (OPN) of a 60 kW micro gas turbine, in order to adapt the flexibility of load and operating environment by improving the mixing performance of fuel and air. The flow and combustion characteristics of LSPN and OPN fed by natural gas is numerically studied using the standard k-ε model and the combined Finite Rate Chemistry/Eddy Dissipation Model (FRC/EDM) under various operating conditions. The results show that the mixing performance of air and fuel in LSPN has been improved. The flow unmixedness in LSPN is always smaller than OPN, and it is 41.74% lower at the outlet of the nozzle. While the equivalence ratio decreases, the mean temperature in the combustor decline. Furthermore, under the majority of operating conditions, the emission performance of LSPN is better than OPN.

KEYWORDS:

• Combustor
• distributed energy system
• emission
• lean premixed nozzle
• micro gas turbine

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National High-tech R&D Program of China (863 Program No: 2014AA052803) and Research Foundation of Gas Turbine Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National High-tech R&D Program of China (863 Program) [2014AA052803].