Full annulus numerical study of hot streaks propagation in a hydrogen-rich syngas-fired heavy duty axial turbine

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the effect of fuel composition on hot streaks propagation in a high-pressure turbine using a full annulus unsteady computational fluid dynamics analysis of the first two stages. Hot streaks result from the inherent non-uniformities of temperature profiles at the exit of the combustion chamber. Variations in composition arise from current challenges requiring gas turbines to adapt to fuel variations driven by the need to reduce CO2 emissions through the use of synthetic hydrogen-rich fuels (syngas) typically generated from the gasification of coal or solid waste. Syngas containing 80% hydrogen has been used in this study in a heavy duty gas turbine modified to accommodate the low calorific value fuel. Calculations were conducted on the baseline gas turbine originally designed for natural gas for the comparative study. Applying combustor representative hot streak profiles, analyses were performed for different hot streak distributions and locations. Analysis of results focused on the segregation of cold and hot fluid patterns and the effects of hot streaks on secondary flows and temperature re-distributions up to the second turbine stage. The hot flow pattern is affected by the fuel composition, resulting in more concentrated thermal wake shapes for syngas when compared to the reference natural gas fuel. In effect, the interaction with the secondary flow leads to more intense flow turning of the pressure side leg of the horseshoe vortex in the first rotor passage. The higher temperature levels in the case of syngas, in combination with the effect of the enhanced secondary flow, result in higher radial spread of the hot fluid that tends to migrate towards the blade hub and tip with the effects being obvious further downstream the first turbine stage.