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Title: Combustor performance enhancement through direct shear layer excitation

Journal Article · · Combustion and Flame; (USA)
; ;  [1]
  1. Stanford Univ., CA (USA). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

Previous studies of turbulent nonreacting shear flow have shown that flow excitation can provide enhanced entrainment and mixing. In this study, the effects of periodic flow excitation on the performance of a two-dimensional dump combustor were investigated for lean premixed conditions. The flow excitation was in the form of a sinusoidal cross-stream velocity perturbation applied just upstream of the flow separation. The forcing frequencies, chosen such that they corresponded to resonant and off-resonant vortex shedding frequencies indentified in unforced combustion, ranged from 35 to 400 Hz. The effect of forcing on both nonreacting and reacting flowfields was to modulate the formation of vortex structures just downstream of the flow separation. In the nonreacting flowfield, the shear layer spreading rate increased when forcing was applied. In the reacting flow, forcing caused a modulation of the flame structure. Forcing increased the mean CH emission intensity from the flame, which is related to mean volumetric energy release, up to 15%, reduced the rms pressure fluctuation level by up to 30%, and reduced the equivalence ratio at the lean blowoff limit up to 6% NO{sub x} emissions were reduced by up to 20{percent} with forcing.

OSTI ID:
6517217
Journal Information:
Combustion and Flame; (USA), Vol. 82:1; ISSN 0010-2180
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English