Effects of Combustion Induced Vortex Breakdown on Flashback Limits of Syngas-Fueled Gas Turbine Combustors. Final Technical Report April 1, 2008-April 30, 2011

摘要

Turbine combustors of advanced power systems have goals to achieve very low pollutants emissions, fuel variability, and fuel flexibility. Future generation gas turbine combustors should tolerate fuel compositions ranging from natural gas to a broad range of syngas without sacrificing operational advantages and low emission characteristics. Additionally, current designs of advanced turbine combustors use various degrees of swirl and lean premixing for stabilizing flames and controlling high temperature NOx formation zones. However, issues of fuel variability and NOx control through premixing also bring a number of concerns, especially combustor flashback and flame blowout. Flashback is a combustion condition at which the flame propagates upstream against the gas stream into the burner tube. Flashback is a critical issue for premixed combustor designs, because it not only causes serious hardware damages but also increases pollutant emissions. In swirl stabilized lean premixed turbine combustors onset of flashback may occur due to (i) boundary layer flame propagation (critical velocity gradient), (ii) turbulent flame propagation in core flow, (iii) combustion instabilities, and (iv) upstream flame propagation induced by combustion induced vortex breakdown (CIVB). Flashback due to first two foregoing mechanisms is a topic of classical interest and has been studied extensively.