The Combustion of Droplets Within Gas Turbine Combustors: Some Recent Observations on Combustion Efficiency

Abstract

For many years investigators studying the combustion behavior within gas turbines have presumed droplet size to play a very important role in defining combustion efficiency. Recently a very large number of experiments have been conducted jointly by Laval University and the Aeronautical Research Laboratory in Melbourne. In the course of these investigations, over a wide range of operating conditions, a single combustor has been investigated using three different Simplex atomizers at each of the conditions for three fuels. In addition, the same combustor has been used to investigate a very wide range of fuels (87) at ambient inlet conditions. The measured combustion efficiencies show no measurable effects due to droplet size, although volatility effects have been noted (measured as TAV). It is thought that these effects are reflected in terms of a transfer number and related to diffusional phenomena, rather than evaporative phenomena. A great number of experimental data are reviewed, and in addition to showing the absence of effects of droplets, a small section deals with the precision of experimental values of combustion efficiency and how it might influence models predicting combustion efficiency, especially with respect to possible future pollution requirements.