Three-Dimensional Computation of Gas Turbine Combustors and the Validation Studies of Turbulence and Combustion Models

The main aim or the present work is to explore computational fluid dynamics and related turbulence and combustion models for application to the design, understanding and development of gas turbine combustor. Validation studies were conducted using the Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equations (SIMPLE) scheme to solve the relevant steady, elliptical partial differential equations of the conservation of mass, momentum, energy and chemical species in three-dimensional cylindrical co-ordinate system to simulate the gas turbine combustion chamber configurations. A modified version of k-ε turbulence model was used for characterization of local turbulence in gas turbine combustor. Since, in the present study both diffusion and pre-mixed combustion were considered, in addition to familiar bi-molecular Arhenius relation, influence of turbulence on reaction rates was accounted for based on the eddy break up concept of Spalding and was assumed that the local reaction rate was proportional to the rate of dissipation of turbulent eddies. Firstly, the validity of the present approach with the turbulence and reaction models considered is checked by comparing the computed results with the standard experimental data on recirculation zone, mean axial velocity and temperature profiles, etc. for confined, reacting and non-reacting flows with reasonably well defined boundary conditions. Finally, the results of computation for practical gas turbine combustor using combined diffusion and pre-mixed combustion for different combustion conditions are discussed.