Combustion Chamber
Module 4
Classification of combustion chambers - Important factors affecting
combustion chamber design - Combustion process - Combustion
chamber performance - Effect of operating variables on performance -
Flame tube cooling - Flame stabilization - Use of flame holders -
Numerical problems.
Chapter 6 from Hill & Peterson Pages 242 to 262
Relative advantages and disadvantages
shown in the figure
Schematic of a straight throughflow burner
Flame Speed
• There are two types of flames, premixed flames and diffusion flames.
When the fuel and oxidizer are in gaseous form and premixed into a
(stoichiometric) flammable mixture prior to combustion initiation, the
resulting flame is called a premixed flame (e.g., Bunsen burner). When
the fuel and oxidizer are initially separated, as in a candle burning in
air, the combustion takes place within a diffusion flame zone where
the vaporized fuel diffuses outward and meets an inwardly diffusing
oxidizer. For an aircraft application where space is at a premium, a
premixed flame combustor with a high level of turbulence intensity is
the desirable choice.
• The effect of turbulence intensity is to promote mixing enhancement.
It is the rapid and efficient mixing of the vaporized fuel–air mixture in
a combustion chamber that is a performance limiting parameter, that
is, limiting the energy release rate, rather than the chemical reaction
timescale or flame propagation speed in conventional burners. The
flame zone in a premixed combustor starts propagating initially as a
laminar flame and later develops into a turbulent flame. A schematic
drawing of a laminar premixed flame and its typical characteristic
parameters (thickness, propagation speed, temperature range, pressure
drop, and wave angle α, are shown in figure in the next sl
A schematic drawing
of a thin premixed laminar flame propagating in a
SL is the laminar flame speed, 𝛿 is the flame stoichiometric mixture of a hydrocarbon fuel
thickness, and 𝛼 is the relative
flow angle and air at 1 atm pressure and T = 25◦C
• The effect of turbulence on premixed flame speed is to enhance momentum
transfer between the burning front and the unburned reactants. In addition,
turbulence increases the total surface area of the flame and hence increases the
heat transfer between the reaction zone and the unburned gas. To visualize the
surface area of a flame front under the influence of turbulence, a wrinkled flame
front is proposed. Under this scenario, large (energetic) turbulent eddies strike the
flame front and wrinkle the surface, while small-scale turbulence changes the
transport properties within the flame zone.
Flame Stability
• In a premixed combustible mixture where a flame front is established
and propagates in the mixture at the flame speed S. Now, if we set the
premixed gas into motion at speed U in the opposite direction to S and
equal to it in magnitude, we shall achieve a stationary flame front.
Simply adding the velocity vectors demonstrates the principle. For a
given mixture fuel–air ratio, we may repeat the experiment for
different flow speeds until we achieve an extinction of the flame (i.e.,
at the blowout speed). We may subsequently vary the fuel–air mixture
ratio from a lean limit where extinction occurs to a rich limit at a given
flow speed. The result of this experiment may be plotted in terms of
the fuel–air mixture (or equivalence ratio) and the flow speed (or air
mass flow rate, which is proportional to flow speed) in what is known
as a stability plot or the stability loop, due to its shape.
Combustion
Stability
Loop for a
Constant
pressure
The lower branch of the stability loop is the lean extinction limit and the upper
branch is the rich extinction limit of combustion chamber. The maximum blowout
speed occurs at the maximum flame speed, which is usually near the
stoichiometric mixture ratio. The effect of pressure on the lean stability limit is
negligible and widens the rich stability limit with the increase in pressure.
A recirculation zone in the burner (with a backward flow) is needed to stabilize a
premixed flame. In studying swirling jets, we learn that when the ratio of jet
angular momentum to jet axial thrust times jet diameter exceeds ∼0.5, a
recirculatory flow in thecore of the swirling jet is established. This is known as a
vortex breakdown.
The flow pattern of a (bubble-type) vortex breakdown
in a swirling jet
To help stabilize the flame in the primary zone of a main burner, air
is introduced through single or double rows of swirl vanes. Also, to
create a perfectly stirred reaction zone in the main burner, part of
the excess air is injected into the burner through the primary air
holes as radial jets. When opposing radial jets collide, a stagnation
point is created with the resultant streams directed along the axis in
the upstream and downstream directions. The opposing flows of the
axial jet moving upstream and the spiraling air–fuel mixture create a
recirculation zone with intense mixing. The combustor primary zone
may also be modeled as a perfectly stirred reactor.
A schematic drawing of radial jets and subsequent axial jet formations are
shown in figure in the next slide.
Collision of radial jets, stagnation point, and axial jet formation with a reverse
flow in the primary zone of the combustion chamber
Combustion Chamber Total Pressure Loss
• The total pressure loss in a combustor is predominantly due
to two sources. The first is due to the frictional loss in the
viscous layers where we can lump in the mixing loss of the
fuel and air streams prior to chemical interaction.
• The second source is due to heat release in an exothermic
chemical reaction in the burner. The first is usually modeled
as the “cold” flow loss and the second is the “hot” flow loss.
We recognize, however, that the subdivision of the losses into
“cold” and “hot” is artificial and the two forms of total
pressure loss occur simultaneously and interact in a complex
way.
There are several methods of quantifying the total pressure loss in a
combustor, namely,
• pt denotes total pressure ; q denotes dynamic pressure
• The first expression is the overall total pressure loss ratio, the second
expression is a measure of the total pressure loss in terms of the inlet
dynamic pressure, and the last expression uses a reference velocity for
the dynamic pressure and measures the total pressure loss in terms of the
reference dynamic pressure.
• The reference velocity is the mass averaged gas speed at the largest
cross-section of the burner, based on the combustor inlet pressure and
temperature. The reference Mach number is the ratio of the reference
speed to the speed of sound at the prediffuser inlet a3. All the
aerodynamic losses scale with reference dynamic pressure,
Percentage total
pressure loss in a
combustor. Source:
Henderson and
Blazowski 1989.
Reproduced with
permission from AIAA
We note that the total pressure loss grows as the mean flow speed
increases. Now, we appreciate the role of prediffuser in a combustion
chamber. The total pressure loss due to combustion that is, heat release, in
the burner may be modeled by a Rayleigh flow analysis. The conservation of
mass and momentum for a constant-area frictionless duct are
Continuity equation and
momentum equation
Now, instead of the compressible equation for the total pressure
involving Mach number, we may use the low-speed version in an
approximation, that is, the Bernoulli equation,
namely,
Canceling the first two parentheses via momentum equation
and using the continuity equation, the above expression can be simplified as
Now, using the perfect gas law for the density ratio and neglecting static pressure
changes between the inlet and exit of the burner in favor of the large temperature rise
across the combustor, we may write the following simple expression for the total
pressure loss due to heating in a constant-area burner as
AH - Total
hole area
AT – Total
Cross
Sectional
Area
AL – Liner
area
M4 = 0.707 p04 / p02 = 0.869
