Impact of Swirl Flow on Combustor Liner Heat Transfer and Cooling: A Numerical Investigation With Hybrid RANS-LES Models

Abstract

This paper reports the main findings of a numerical investigation aimed at characterizing the flow field and the wall heat transfer resulting from the interaction of a swirling flow provided by lean burn injectors and a slot cooling system, which generates film cooling in the first part of the combustor liner. In order to overcome some well-known limitations of RANS approach, e.g. the underestimation of mixing, the simulations were performed with hybrid RANS-LES models, namely SAS-SST and DES-SST, which are proving to be a viable approach to resolve the main structures of the flow field. The numerical results were compared to experimental data obtained on a non-reactive three sector planar rig developed in the context of the EU project LEMCOTEC. The analysis of the flow field has highlighted a generally good agreement against PIV measurements, especially for the SAS-SST model, whereas DES-SST returns some discrepancies in the opening angle of the swirling flow, altering the location of the corner vortex. Also the assessment in terms of Nu/Nu0 distribution confirms the overall accuracy of SAS-SST, where a constant over-prediction in the magnitude of the heat transfer is shown by DES-SST, even though potential improvements with mesh refinement are pointed out.