School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing (SATM)

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Browsing School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing (SATM) by Author "Abbott, David"

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    Characterising hydrogen micromix flames: combustion model calibration and evaluation
    (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2021-01-11) López-Juárez, Marcos; Sun, Xiaoxiao; Sethi, Bobby; Gauthier, Pierre Q.; Abbott, David
    Hydrogen micromix combustion is a promising concept to reduce the environmental impact of both aero and land-based gas turbines by delivering carbon-free and ultra-low-NOx combustion without the risk of autoignition or flashback. The ENABLEH2 project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of such a switch to hydrogen for civil aviation, within which the micromix combustion, as a key enabling technology, will be matured to TRL3. The micromix combustor comprises thousands of small diffusion flames for which air and fuel are mixed in a cross-flow pattern. This technology is based on the idea of minimizing the scale of mixing to maximize mixing intensity. The high-reactivity and wide flammability limits of hydrogen in a micromix combustor can produce short and low-temperature small diffusion flames in lean overall equivalence ratios. For hydrogen-air mixtures there is a need to further characterise the physical importance and calibration process of the laminar Schmidt (Sc), Lewis (Le) and Prandtl (Pr) and turbulent Schmidt (Sc) numbers. In addition, there is limited numerical and experimental data about flame characteristics and emissions of hydrogen micromix combustor at high pressure and temperature conditions. In this paper, the CFD software STAR-CCM+ was used with the FGM (Kinetic Rate) combustion model to simulate and calibrate hydrogen micromix flames. The research was divided into two parts. In the first part, the values of laminar Schmidt, Lewis and Prandtl numbers for H2 and air, non-reactive, flow mixtures were estimated as 0.22, 0.3 and 0.75 from correlations obtained in the literature. The typical Borghi diagram has been modified to represent this type of diffusion flame, since the assumption of Sc = Le = Pr = 1 can not be applied to hydrogen micromix flames and it is only for premixed flames. This diagram characterizes flame regime based on Damköhler (Da), Karlovitz (Ka) and turbulent Reynolds (Ret) numbers that were calculated from preliminary CFD simulations. In the second part, the value of laminar Schmidt number was set as constant while laminar Lewis and Prandtl numbers were obtained from the flamelet tables. A Turbulent Schmidt number was then obtained by comparing RANS and LES simulations of a single injector. If Sct > 0.2, the predicted NOx production of RANS simulations approaches that of LES; while Sct < 0.2 provides similar overall flame structure between RANS and LES. It is concluded that, for the current simulations, Sct = 0.2 is a good compromise between flame structure and emissions prediction. Flame characteristics and NOx emissions given by Thickened Flame and FGM Kinetic Rate models in a single injector geometry were also compared.
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    Co-firing of hydrogen and natural gas in a practical DLN combustor model
    (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2023-09-28) Zhao, Rang; Igie, Uyioghosa; Abbott, David; Wiranegara, Raditya Yudha
    To reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the combustion of natural gas-hydrogen blends in a lean premix gas turbine combustor has been investigated. Previous studies have mostly investigated the fuel blends at relatively low pressure (up to 5 bar) with relatively low hydrogen concentrations (up to 50vol%) on lab-scale or generic burner configurations. However, the influence of higher pressure and higher hydrogen content (over 50vol%) has not been widely studied, particularly on a practical industry-scale lean premixed burner as presented in this study. Such an operation is more challenging as it increases the turbulent flame speed gradient, which is an important factor in determining the likelihood of boundary layer flashback. A preliminary RANS-based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study has been conducted using ANSYS Fluent 2021R1, employing the Realizable K-Epsilon turbulence model and the Flamelet-Generated Manifold (FGM) combustion model. The combustor consists of a diffusion pilot and premixed main fuel nozzles. Methane-hydrogen blends of up to 90vol% hydrogen were investigated at a fixed fuel energy input. 100vol% methane at 15 bar pressure was taken as the baseline reference case. To investigate the flame characteristics, contour plots of OH mass fraction, equivalence ratios and temperatures (at different planes) are presented. This study shows that the expected reduction in the flame length with increasing hydrogen concentration occurs up to 40vol%. Significantly different flame shapes (as indicated by OH contours) were seen at higher hydrogen content. For this model, the flashback occurred at 90vol% H2 as indicated by a premature development of the flame within the nozzle of the main fuel burner. NOx emissions are shown to progressively rise with increasing hydrogen content up to 60vol% but reduce as the hydrogen content increases to 70vol%. The decrease appears to be related to an improvement in the quality of fuel-air mixing. It is important to note that the apparent rate of increase in NOx with increasing hydrogen is dependent on the reporting approach used. When reporting conventionally (parts per million by volume corrected to 15% O2 on a dry basis) the increase is significantly greater than when reporting on a mass per fuel energy input basis (gram per Joule). Reporting in the conventional manner disadvantages hydrogen because of the impact of oxygen consumption and water production on the corrections.
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    Comparison of hydrogen micromix flame transfer functions determined using RANS and LES
    (ASME, 2019-11-05) McClure, Jonathan; Abbott, David; Agarwal, Parash; Sun, Xiaoxiao; Babazzi, Giulia; Sethi, Vishal; Gauthier, Pierre Q.
    Hydrogen has been proposed as an alternative fuel to meet long term emissions and sustainability targets, however due to the characteristics of hydrogen significant modifications to the combustion system are required. The micromix concept utilises a large number of miniaturised diffusion flames to improve mixing, removing the potential for local stoichiometric pockets, flash-back and autoignition. No publicly available studies have yet investigated the thermoacoustic stability of these combustion systems, however due to similarities with lean-premixed combustors which have suffered significant thermoacoustic issues, this risk should not be neglected. Two approaches have been investigated for estimating flame response to acoustic excitations of a single hydrogen micromix injector element. The first uses analytical expressions for the flame transfer function with constants obtained from RANS CFD while the second determines the flame transfer function directly using unsteady LES CFD. Results show the typical form of the flame transfer function but suggest micromix combustors may be more susceptible to higher frequency instabilities than conventional combustion systems. Additionally, the flame transfer function estimated using RANS CFD is broadly similar to that of the LES approach, therefore this may be suitable for use as a preliminary design tool due to its relatively low computational expense.
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    Development and application of a preliminary design methodology for modern low emissions aero combustors
    (SAGE, 2020-04-23) Liu, Yize; Sun, Xiaoxiao; Sethi, Vishal; Li, Yi-Guang; Nalianda, Devaiah; Abbott, David; Gauthier, Pierre Q.; Xiao, Bairong; Wang, Lu
    In this article, a preliminary design framework containing a detailed design methodology is developed for modern low emissions aero combustors. The inter-related design elements involving flow distribution, combustor sizing, heat transfer and cooling, emission and performance are coupled in the design process. The physics-based and numerical methods are provided in detail, in addition to empirical or semi-empirical methods. Feasibility assessment on the developed work is presented via case studies. The proposed combustor sizing methodology produces feasible combustor dimensions against the public-domain low emissions combustors. The results produced by the physics-based method show a reasonable agreement with experimental data to represent NOx emissions at key engine power conditions. The developed emission prediction method shows the potential to assess current and future technologies. A two-dimensional global prediction on liner wall temperature distribution for different cooling systems is reasonably captured by the developed finite difference method. It can be of use in the rapid identification of design solutions and initiating the optimisation of the design variables. The altitude relight efficiency predicted shows that the method could be used to provide an indicative assessment of combustor altitude relight capability at the preliminary design phase. The methodology is applied and shows that it enables the automatic design process for the development of a conceptual lean staged low emissions combustor. The design evaluation is then performed. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to assess the design uncertainties. The optimisation of the air distribution and cooling geometrical parameters addresses the trade-off between the NOx emissions and liner wall cooling, which demonstrates that the developed work has potential to identify and solve the design challenges at the early stages of the design process.
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    Hydrogen-enriched natural gas co-firing: a comparison of FGM and EDC models
    (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2023-09-28) Zhao, Rang; Igie, Uyioghosa; Abbott, David
    To facilitate the transition from natural gas to a future hydrogen economy, the combustion of natural gas/hydrogen blends in gas turbines will play an important role in power generation. The influence of hydrogen content on technically premixed swirl-stabilized flame using large eddy simulation has proven to be powerful but with high computational costs. Hence, RANS-based models are useful for preliminary investigations and sensitivity studies. Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM) and Eddy-Dissipation Concept (EDC) are two widely used RANS-based combustion models. EDC, in particular, accounts for the interaction between chemistry and turbulence using detailed chemical mechanisms, but at the cost of higher computational resources. FGM preprocesses the flamelet as a function of mixture fraction and progress variable and pre-integrates the chemistry-turbulence interaction into a Probability Density Functions (PDF) table, which makes FGM computationally inexpensive. This study aims to compare the predictions of these models with experimental data of a methane-fueled technically premixed swirl-stabilized low-pressure burner. The better-performing model is used to evaluate the influence of methane and hydrogen blends (up 40% by volume) in a higher-pressure burner also validated with experiments. The study has shown that EDC produces better agreement with the experimental data than FGM in estimating the flame temperature, flow velocity, and carbon dioxide profiles. FGM did not correctly capture the flame pattern and overestimated the reaction rate. This is possibly due to its simplified preprocessed chemistry mechanism, which could not evaluate the local thermal properties of the gas mixture properly. For the higher pressure evaluation at 5 bar, the EDC model captured the influence of hydrogen content addition on flame behaviour. As the hydrogen content increased, the chemical reaction rate increased, and the flame length indicated by OH decreased. This reduction in flame length is consistent with the experimental results. The CFD showed that at 20% H2, the change in NOx emission compared to 100% methane is negligible using the mass of NOx per unit of heat release calculation. A slight increase in NOx is shown for the same case using the concentration by volume corrected to 15% O2 approach. Nevertheless, both approaches showed NOx reductions at 40% H2. This study has shown that the behaviour of a technically premixed swirl-stabilized flame-firing methane/hydrogen blend is well represented by a non-adiabatic RANS-EDC model with low computation cost. This confirms its applicability in evaluating acceptable lean premixed burners characteristics for gas turbines.
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    Minimum environmental load extension through compressed air extraction: numerical analysis of a dry low NOx combustor
    (Elsevier, 2023-02-17) Wiranegara, Raditya Yudha; Igie, Uyioghosa; Ghali, Pierre; Abudu, Kamal; Abbott, David; Hamilton, Richard
    The operational flexibility of gas turbine (GT) engines is a key requirement to coexist alongside increasing renewable energy that is often intermittent. One of the GT flexibility criteria is the Minimum Environmental Load (MEL). This is the lowest load the engine can be operated, without infringing on emissions limits (particularly CO) and is relevant to periods when there is a priority to renewable generation or low power demand. This study along with a series of related works of the authors proposes compressor air extraction for MEL extension. Here, a stand-alone three-dimensional numerical dry low NOx combustor demonstrates the technical viability concerning combustor performance and emissions. In addition, supplemented with low-order models for durability and stability evaluations. For the first time, there is evidence to show that the combustor can handle the 18% compressed air extraction to sustain a new MEL. This operation is characterised by a 12.3% reduction in CO through an increase of the fuel split ratio by 2% after design exploration cases. However, at the expense of a smaller overall rise in NO emissions by 5%. The durability analysis focused on the wall liner temperature assessments, which show no unusually high temperature rise for the new MEL. Similarly, the thermoacoustic instability frequencies and gains are around the normal operation mode. When benchmarked against previous related engine-level analysis, the evidence shows that the new MEL is a 7% points reduction of load.
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    Numerical investigation into the impact of injector geometrical design parameters on hydrogen micromix combustion characteristics
    (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2021-01-11) Sun, Xiaoxiao; Agarwal, Parash; Carbonara, Francesco; Abbott, David; Gauthier, Pierre Q.; Sethi, Bobby
    Hydrogen micromix combustion is a promising concept to reduce the environmental impact of both aero and land-based gas turbines by delivering carbon-free and ultra-low-NOx combustion without the risk of autoignition or flashback. As a part of the ENABLEH2 project, the current study focuses on the influence of design parameters on the micromix hydrogen combustion injectors. This study provides deeper insights into the design space of a hydrogen micromix injection system via numerical simulations. The key geometrical design parameters of the micromix combustion system are the sizing of the air gates and the hydrogen injector orifices together with the offset distance between air gate and hydrogen injection, the mixing distance and the injector to injector spacing. This paper first presents results of the numerical simulation of four designs, down selected from a series of combinations of the key design parameters, including cases with low and high momentum flux ratio, weak and strong flame-flame interaction. It was discovered that the hydrogen/air mixing characteristics, and flame to flame interactions, are the main factors influencing the combustor gas temperature distributions, flame lengths and the corresponding NOx production. The current study then focused on the effect of air gate geometry on the mixing characteristics, flame shape and temperature distribution. The momentum flux ratio was kept constant throughout this investigation by keeping the air gate area constant. Variations of the original baseline air gate design were studied, followed by a study of various novel air gate geometries, including circular, semi-circular and elliptical shapes. It is concluded that NOx production is influenced by a number of factors including jet penetration flame interactions and air gate shape and that there is a “Sweet Spot” that results in the lowest practicable NOx production. Flatter and wider air gate shapes tend to yield the lowest temperature and consequently the lowest NOx. Reduced interaction between flames also tends to reduce NOx and by manipulating hydrogen penetration, there is the potential to further reduce the NOx production.
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    Numerical investigation of potential cause of instabilities in a hydrogen micromix injector array
    (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2021-09-16) Sun, Xiaoxiao; Abbott, David; Singh, Abhay Vir; Gauthier, Pierre; Sethi, Bobby
    Hydrogen micromix combustion is a promising concept to reduce the environmental impact of both aero and land-based gas turbines by delivering carbon-free and ultra-low-NOx combustion. The high-reactivity and wide flammability limits of hydrogen in a micromix combustor can produce short and small diffusion flames at lean overall equivalence ratios. There is limited published information on the instabilities of such hydrogen micromix combustors. Diffusion flames are less prone to flashback and autoignition problems than premixed flames as well as combustion dynamics issues. However, with the high laminar flame speed of hydrogen, lean fuel air ratio (FAR) and very compact flames, the risk of combustion dynamics for micromix flames should not be neglected. In addition, the multi-segment array arrangement of the injectors could result in both potential causes and possible solutions to the instabilities within the combustor. This paper employs numerical simulations to investigate potential sources of instabilities in micromix flames by modelling an extended array of injectors, represented by either single or multiple injectors with appropriate boundary conditions at elevated pressure and temperature. Both RANS and LES simulations were performed and used to derive the Flame Transfer Function (FTF) of the micromix flames to inform lower order thermoacoustic modelling of micromix combustion. LES simulations indicate that the gain of the FTF is lower than predicted from the RANS simulations indicating a lower risk of high frequency thermoacoustic issues than suggested by RANS. When LES simulations are conducted for certain representative configurations it is observed that there are persistent high-frequency instabilities due to the interaction of the flames. This phenomenon is not observed when only a single injector is modelled. LES simulations for two injectors are conducted with various geometries and radial boundary conditions to identify the cause of the instabilities. It is concluded that the observed high-frequency instabilities are related to aerodynamic jet instabilities enhanced by both aerodynamic and acoustic feedback and key geometric features affecting the occurrence of the instabilities are identified. Only transient simulations such as LES are able to capture such effects and RANS simulations typically used in early stage design will not identify this issue.
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    Numerical study of radiation and fuel-air unmixedness on the performance of a dry low NOx combustor
    (American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2022-11-11) Wiranegara, Raditya Yudha; Igie, Uyioghosa; Ghali, Pierre; Zhao, Rang; Abbott, David; Hamilton, Richard
    The development of gas turbine combustors is expected to consider the effects of radiation heat transfer in modelling. However, this is not always the case in many studies that neglect this for adiabatic conditions. The effect of radiation is substantiated here, concerning the impact on the performance, mainly the emissions. Also, the fuel-air unmixedness (mixing quality) influenced by the combustor design and operational settings has been investigated with regards to the emissions. The work was conducted with a Mitsubishi-type Dry Low NOx combustor developed and validated against experimental data. This 3D computational fluid dynamics study was implemented using Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes simulation and the Radiative Transfer Equation model. It shows that NO, CO and combustor outlet temperature reduces when the radiative effect is considered. The reductions are 17.6% and below 1% for the others respectively. Thus, indicating a significant effect on NO. For unmixedness across the combustor in a non-reacting simulation, the mixing quality shows a direct relationship with the Turbulence Kinetic Energy (TKE) in the reacting case. The most significant improvements in unmixedness are shown around the main burner. Also, the baseload shows better mixing, higher TKE and lower emissions (particularly NO) at the combustor outlet, compared to part-load.
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    On the development of an experimental rig for hydrogen micromix combustion testing
    (The Combustion Institute, 2021-04-15) Giannouloudis, Alexandros; Sun, Xiaoxiao; Corsar, Michael; Booden, Scott J.; Singh, Gaurav; Abbott, David; Nalianda, Devaiah; Sethi, Bobby
    This work describes the development of a combustion rig, aimed at testing hydrogen-fuelled micromix burners for aero gas-turbines at pressures up to 15barg, inlet-air temperatures up to 600K and equivalence ratios (Φ) from leanblow- out to 0.5. It discusses the test facility used, and the design procedure of the experimental apparatus: the requirements of it, the design choices and implementation of instrumentation. Emphasis is placed on the design and manufacture of the burner. Comparison between Additive Manufacturing (AM) and micro-machining techniques for the sub-millimetre injection points shows that further research is needed in this area, to achieve adequate geometric accuracy of the injection holes economically. This rig forms a unique facility for hydrogen micromix testing, offering simultaneous measurements of NOx emissions, Flame-Transfer–Function (FTF) and flame imaging.
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    Power augmentation and Ramp-Up rate improvement through compressed air Injection: a dry low NOx combustor CFD analysis
    (Elsevier, 2024-02-09) Wiranegara, Raditya Yudha; Igie, Uyioghosa; Szymanski, Artur; Abudu, Kamal; Abbott, David; Sethi, Bobby
    Gas turbines play a key role in accelerating the transition towards more environmentally friendly power generation. This role includes backup of renewable generation that is intermittent, providing grid inertia as well as other ancillary services for grid stability. For quick backup power, the ramp-up rate of gas turbines can be improved through air injection at the back of the compressor, facilitated by integrating compressed air energy storage. Published works have mostly focused on low-fidelity engine system analysis of air injection overall effects. No study has focused on the detailed combustor performance presented in this study. The work shows the impact of air injection on the emissions, thermoacoustic stability and liner wall durability. These yardsticks in assessing the operability of the combustor have also been used for air power augmentation and ramp-up analysis. ANSYS software was used in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the three-dimensional dry low NOx combustor. Low-order models were used for the thermoacoustic stability and durability analysis. For the power augmentation study, the NO and CO emissions produced at 15 % air injection are below the maximum values of the combustor in design operations. Also, the stability and durability were within limits. The ramp-up investigation indicates up to 10 % air injection is allowed and the emissions are similarly acceptable. However, the thermoacoustic analysis shows a potential for combustion instabilities at high frequencies above 1800 Hz. Generally, there was no unusual wall liner durability in these two studies. When benchmarked against previous engine-level analysis, the ramp-up rate can be potentially improved by 54 % if the small concern on thermoacoustic instability is resolved.
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    Thermoacoustic behaviour of a hydrogen micromix aviation gas turbine combustor under typical flight conditions
    (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2021-09-16) Abbott, David; Giannotta, Alessandro; Sun, Xiaoxiao; Gauthier, Pierre; Sethi, Vishal
    Hydrogen micromix is a candidate combustion technology for hydrogen aviation gas turbines. The introduction and development of new combustion technologies always carries the risk of suffering from damaging high amplitude thermoacoustic pressure oscillations. This was a particular problem with the introduction of lean premixed combustion systems to land based power generation gas turbines. There is limited published information on the thermoacoustic behaviour of such hydrogen micromix combustors. Diffusion flames are less prone to flashback and autoignition problems than premixed flames and conventional diffusion flames are less prone to combustion dynamics issues. However, with the high laminar flame speed of hydrogen, lean fuel air ratio (FAR) and very compact flames, the risk of combustion dynamics for micromix flames should not be neglected and a comparison of the likely thermoacoustic behaviour of micromix combustors and kerosene fueled aviation combustors would inform the early stage design of engine realistic micromix combustors. This study develops a micromix combustor concept suitable for a modern three spool, high bypass ratio engine and derives the acoustic Flame Transfer Function (FTF) at typical engine operating conditions for top of climb, take-off, cruise, and end of runway. The FTF is derived using CFD and FTF models based on a characteristic flame delay. The relative thermoacoustic behaviour for the four conditions is assessed using a low order acoustic network code. The comparisons suggest that the risk of thermoacoustic instabilities associated with longitudinal waves at low frequencies (below 1kHz) is small, but that higher frequency longitudinal modes could be excited. The sensitivity of the combustor thermoacoustic behaviour to key combustor dimensions and characteristic time delay is also investigated and suggests that higher frequency longitudinal modes can be significantly influenced by combustion system design. The characteristic time delay and thus FTF for a Lean Premixed Prevapourised (LPP) kerosene combustor is derived from information in the literature and the thermoacoustic behaviour of the micromix combustor relative to that of this kerosene combustor is determined using the same low order modelling approach. The comparison suggests that the micromix combustor is much less likely to produce thermoacoustic instabilities at low frequencies (below 1kHz), than the LPP combustor even though the risk in the LPP combustor is small. It is encouraging that this simple approach used in a preliminary design suggests that the micromix combustor has lower risk at low frequency than a kerosene combustor and that the risk of higher frequency longitudinal modes can be reduced by appropriate combustion system design. However, more detailed design, more rigorous thermoacoustic analysis and experimental validation are needed to confirm this.