Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of the Flow Inside a Model Gas Turbine Combustor

摘要

Designing a combustion chamber for a gas turbine engine requires expensive testing with many iterations. A numerical analysis can be employed to reduce the number of design iterations by providing an insight into the characteristics of the flow. The present paper describes a three-dimensional numerical investigation of the flow inside a model gas turbine can-type combustor. The combustor model was first studied experimentally by McGuirk and Palma. In the present computational work the entire model including the turbine nozzle has been selected. A Finite-Volume non-staggered grid approach has been used and the pressure-velocity coupling is resolved using the SIMPLE algorithm. Comparisons are made between the standard k-ε turbulence model and the Reynolds Stress Transport Model. Comparisons of the present numerical simulations with the available experimental data indicate that both turbulence models represent the non-reacting flow field reasonably well. The level of agreement between the present results for the RSTM and the experimental data is better than that for the standard k-ε model. The prediction of turbulent kinetic energy near the primary jet interaction is unsatisfactory. It seems that more work is needed in order to simulate the complex turbulent flow in the gas turbine combustors more accurately.