Effects of Inlet Parameters on Combustion Performance in Gas Turbine Combustor

Abstract

Abstract The effects of different inlet parameters such as inlet temperature and pressure on combustion performance in a single-head combustor were experimentally investigated in this study. The combustion efficiency, total pressure loss, and CO and NO emissions at the outlet of a single-head rectangular combustor with different types of swirlers were separately measured. The experimental results showed that the inlet parameters had obvious effects on the combustion performance, with critical values of 600 K for the inlet temperature and 3.5 bar for the inlet pressure. The combustion efficiency noticeably increased with an increase in the inlet pressure or temperature below these values; however, when either of the inlet parameters was above the critical value, the combustion efficiency was approximately 100 %; that is, the combustion efficiency changed little with an increase in inlet temperate or pressure. When the inlet temperature or pressure increased, NO emission increased but CO emission decreased. By fitting curves to analyze the experimental data, the empirical relationships between the emissions and the inlet temperature were observed to be $CO\; \propto \;{e^{ - T}}, NO\; \propto \;{e^T}$, and those between the emissions and the inlet pressure were $CO\, \propto \,{e^{a + bP + c{P^2}}}, NO\, \propto \,{e^P}$. The total pressure loss increased with the inlet temperature.