LASER STABILIZATION FOR NEAR ZERO NO{sub x} GAS TURBINE COMBUSTION SYSTEMS
Historically, the development of new industrial gas turbines has been primarily driven by the intent to achieve higher efficiency, lower operating costs and lower emissions. Higher efficiency and lower cost is obtained through higher turbine operating temperatures, while reduction in emissions is obtained by extending the lean operating limit of the combustor. However reduction in the lean stability limit of operation is limited greatly by the chemistry of the combustion process and by the occurrence of thermo-acoustic instabilities. Solar Turbines, CFD Research Corporation, and Los Alamos National Laboratory have teamed to advance the technology associated with laser-assisted ignition and flame stabilization, to a level where it could be incorporated onto a gas turbine combustor. The system being developed is expected to enhance the lean stability limit of the swirl stabilized combustion process and assist in reducing combustion oscillations. Such a system has the potential to allow operation at the ultra-lean conditions needed to achieve NO{sub x} emissions below 5 ppm without the need of exhaust treatment or catalytic technologies. The research effort was focused on analytically modeling laser-assisted flame stabilization using advanced CFD techniques, and experimentally demonstrating the technology, using a solid-state laser and low-cost durable optics. A pulsed laser beam was used to generate a plasma pool at strategic locations within the combustor flow field such that the energy from the plasma became an ignition source and helped maintain a flame at ultra lean operating conditions. The periodic plasma generation and decay was used to nullify the fluctuations in the heat release from the flame itself, thus decoupling the heat release from the combustor acoustics and effectively reducing the combustion oscillations. The program was built on an existing technology base and includes: extending LANL's existing laser stabilization experience to a sub-scale combustor rig, performing and validating CFD predictions, and ultimately conducting a full system demonstration in a multi-injector combustion system at Solar Turbines.
- Research Organization:
- Solar Turbines Incorporated (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-01NT41230
- OSTI ID:
- 825743
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 30 Sep 2002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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