Experimental study on combustion flow field characteristics of swirl combustor

Abstract

The impact of the swirl number on the flow field of a single-stage swirl combustor is investigated using the particle image velocimetry technology. The variations in recirculation zone size, pulsating region, turbulent distribution, vorticity, and Reynolds stress within the combustor are summarized through quantitative analysis of the flow field. Experimental results indicate the following: (1) Under the same air mass flow rate, the length of the recirculation zone in the combustion state is shorter than that in the cold state. (2) The length of the recirculation zone and the axial vortex spacing display a decreasing trend as the swirl number increases, while the width of the recirculation zone demonstrates an increasing trend. (3) For the single-stage swirl combustor, the primary pulsating region is at the swirling jet area at the exit of the swirl. As the swirl number increases, the standard deviation of radial velocity fluctuations and turbulent kinetic energy also increase. (4) The strong shear region of the single-stage swirl combustor can be divided into inner and outer shear layers based on the vorticity distribution and the Q criterion. The vortices in the inner and outer shear layers exhibit opposite orientations according to the vorticity distribution. Overall, the research results can provide basic experimental data for numerical simulation of swirl combustion.