Numerical Investigation of Merged and Non-merged Flame of a Twin Cavity Annular Trapped Vortex Combustor

Pravendra Kumar and D. P. Mishra*

Combustion Laboratory, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur – 208016, India.

Carbon – Science and Technology 8/3 (2016) 118 – 128. 

© Applied Science Innovations Private Limited, India.

Full Text (OPEN ACCESS): CST-212.pdf

Keywords: Merged Flame, Trapped vortex combustor and Power loading parameter, Annular Trapped Vortex Combustor, gas turbine engine, fuel

Abstract: The present work is focused to characterize numerically the merged and non-merged flame emanating from the cavities in downstream of twin cavity Annular Trapped Vortex Combustor (ATVC).The isotherm corresponding to the auto-ignition temperature is used to locate the merging point of the flame in the mainstream region along the combustor length. In present study, the cavity flame is said to be merged only if this isotherm corresponding to self-ignition temperature of methane is located within 20 percentage of the combustor length from aft wall of cavities. It is interesting to note that on increasing the power loading parameter (PLP) in mainstream for a constantpower loading parameter ratio (outer to inner cavity), the merging point gets shifted towards the cavity aft-wall. This leads to the reduction of combustor length and subsequent reduction in overall weight of the gas turbine engine.