21st ICDERS

July 23-27, 2007

Poitiers, France

An Investigation of the Modulation of Equivalence Ratio

at the Fuel Injection Hole
Jung Goo Hong, Hyeon Jun Kim, Young Tae Guahk and Hyun Dong Shin
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
373-1, Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea

1 Introduction
Many gas turbine operators have reported low-frequency pressure fluctuation during the change of combustion
load and near flammability limits. It is expected that the low-frequency pressure fluctuation is connected to
flame destabilization due to changes of local equivalence ratio or flow conditions and that this fluctuation occurs
readily near the lean limit and during load change process. Regarding the low-frequency pressure fluctuation, it
is noticeable that many real gas turbine combustors operate under unchoked fuel flow condition, which can be
affected by the pressure fluctuations of combustion chambers. In unchoked condition, interaction between fuel
flow and pressure fluctuation can result in modulation of the fuel flow. This in turn brings changes to the spatial
and temporal equivalence ratios, as both spatial and temporal heat production are highly related to pressure
fluctuation.

2 Experimental setup and method

Figure 1 illustrates the experimental setup, which consists of three parts: a combustor, mass flow control
devices for fuel and air, and pressure measurement and flame imaging systems. The combustion chamber is
made of a quartz tube for visualization of a flame and its overall length is 700 mm. The fuel supplying system is
consisted of concentric tubes which have fuel supplying holes. Dried air is introduced at the bottom of the tube
and the fuel (LPG) is injected to the air stream through four fuel supplying holes. Two fuel supply conditions
were adjusted by varying the diameter of the fuel holes: 0.7 mm diameter holes in the case of unchoked fuel and
0.3 mm diameter holes in the choked fuel. The injected fuel mixes with the air as it passes through the mixing
distance (Lfuel). The mixture passes through the swirler immediately before the dump plane, and then finally
reaches the combustion chamber. The swirler is located in the mixing section using vanes positioned at an angle
of 45.
For measurement of the dynamic pressure of the combustion chamber at the dump plane (P (7) in Fig. 1), we
used a piezoelectric pressure sensor PCB Model 106B; the sensibility of the 106B model is 44 mV per 1 kPa and
its dynamic range is from 0.5 Hz to 40 kHz in response time. Images of flame shapes were taken by a digital
camera (Nikon, COOLPIX 995) and a camcorder (SONY, DCR-TRV 300). Phase resolved images were
acquired using a high speed ICCD camera (Phantom V7.0) with 0.02 milliseconds time resolution. Figure 3
illustrates the schematic diagram of gas sampling system to investigate the modulated equivalence ratio in
accordance with pressure fluctuations of combustion chamber. For sampling of unburned mixture at the fuel
supplying holes, we used a high speed solenoid valve (Parker series, S/N 78) with 2 milliseconds response time.
The solenoid valve was actuated by a pulse delay generator (BNC 555-4C), and its duration time was 20

Correspondence to : jghong70@kaist.ac.kr

Jung Goo Hong

Modulation of Equivalence Ratio

milliseconds. Sampled mixtures in phased with pressure fluctuations of combustion chamber were analyzed
quantitatively by a gas chromatography (Agilent 6890N).

3 Fuel flow modulation with pressure fluctuations

In Fig. 2 (c), the pressure signal looks like some beating phenomena. High Intensified CCD (HICCD) camera
was taken with the triggered pressure signal. From the results we can divide the pressure fluctuation into two
cycles; A-cycle and B-cycle. In the A-cycle, flame images and pressure fluctuated with a frequency about 200
Hz and flame stabilizes near the dump plane (region I). In the B-cycle, the flame does not exist in the region (I)
and it stabilizes far from the dump plane (region II) and the level of pressure fluctuation becomes diminished.
The pressure signal can be divided into noisy region of 200 Hz fluctuation (A-cycle) and silent region which has
small pressure fluctuation (B-cycle), and these two regions are repeated periodically at a frequency about 10 Hz
and the period is 100 ms. As mentioned before the flame of the 200 Hz fluctuating region exists in the region (I)
and region (II) and the flame of the silent region exists only in the region (II). The difference of the flame
stabilization location results from the equivalence ratio fluctuation due to the fuel flow modulation. In the
unchoked condition, the pressure boundary of the fuel injection nozzle is affected by the pressure fluctuation
transferred from the combustion zone. Therefore the equivalence ratio is fluctuating with the amount of the fuel
over time.

4 Experimental results
As a result, the equivalence is 0.26 in the case of the large pressure fluctuation and 0.78 in the case of the
small pressure fluctuation. The modulated equivalence ratio in a noisy period of the large pressure fluctuation
becomes 50% of the inlet equivalence ratio. When this modulated equivalence ratio feeds the combustion
chamber, the flame moves to the downstream of combustion chamber. Therefore the silent period with little
pressure fluctuation could exist. The equivalence ratio is higher than the inlet equivalence ratio because the
clogged fuel of the noisy period is injected as well as the inlet fuel flow rate of the silent period. Figure 4 shows
the quantitative result of the modulated equivalence ratio.

5 Numerical simulations
For numerical simulation, this model was calculated quantitatively with the Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) which is STAR-CD v.3.26 in order to understand how the equivalence ratio is modulated depending on
unchoked condition when the pressure fluctuation of 10kPa propagates to the combustion chamber. For
boundary condition, the upper outlet part is designated the pressure boundary like Fig. 5 (left). The hole exists at
221mm below from pressure boundary and the length of total geometric shape becomes 288mm. We used the
cylindrical coordinate system, and the origin locates at 288mm above from the end of the fuel feeding side in the
fuel channel. Lets consider the mixing point of the fuel and the oxidizer as hole (2), and the channel with (1)
and (3) as the mixture channel and fuel channel, respectively. Figure 5 (right) shows the 3-dimensional geometry
to know the 2-dimensional geometry easily. The quarter cyclic boundary condition applied at both sides of the
channel.
As a result, figure 6 shows the variation of equivalence ratio for 0.5 second in the model which was satisfied
with unchoked condition. The equivalence ratio has range of 0.37~0.7 according to time. This result shows that
modulated mass flow rate at fuel injection hole with unchoked condition by pressure fluctuation occurs
oscillation of equivalence ratio in mixture flow channel. These data support to explain the flame behavior in
mode 2 and the characteristics of the pressure fluctuation.

21st ICDERS July 23-27, 2007 - Poitiers

Jung Goo Hong

Modulation of Equivalence Ratio

Chamber aspect ratio

L/D=8.75

Pressure
Sensor

Signal
Conditioner

3 mm

P (1)

20 mm

P (2)
P (3)

A/D
Converter

Dump plane

D=80mm

22 mm

l
e
u

Lf

P (4)

7 mm

PC

L=700mm

r
i
A

r
i
A

HICCD

l
e
u
F

P (6)

P (8)

MFC

LPG

Direct
Photography

P (7)

Swirler

Air Compressor

P (5)

MFC

High Speed
Solenoid
Valve

Gas
Sampling
Cylinder

Gas Chromatography

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus

(A)

(a) HICCD images of noisy period for 5 ms

(B)

(b) HICCD images of silent period for 50 ms

Pressure fluctuation, P' [kPa]

(A)

6
4
2

(B)

0
-2
-4
-6
-8
0.0

0.2

0.4

Time [s]

(c) Pressure signal in time domain

Fig. 2 High speed Intensified CCD images and pressure signal ( = 0.55, Lfuel = 285 mm): (a)
HICCD images of noisy period for 5 ms, (b) HICCD images of silent period for 50 ms and (c)
Pressure signal in time domain

21st ICDERS July 23-27, 2007 - Poitiers

Jung Goo Hong

Modulation of Equivalence Ratio

Vacuum pressure
:~

Gas
Sampling
Cylinder

High speed
Solenoid
Valve

Burner

510-6

torr

(a)

Vacuum
Pump

Pressure fluctuation, p' [kPa]

2
0
-2
-4
-6

0.9
0.8

Gas Chromatography
- FID : C3H8

(b)

- TCD : N2, O2
- Column : Capillary type (HP-PLOT AL2O3)

Oscilloscope

- Carrier gas : Helium

Equivalence ratio

Delay Generator

Pressure
fluctuation signal

Setting equivalence ratio : = 0.55

-8
1.0

5V TTL
signal

External
trigger
signal

0.78

Upper
modulated
value

0.55

Setting
value

0.26

Lower
modulated
value

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2

- Flow rate of carrier gas : 45ml/min

0.1
0.0
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

Time [s]

Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of gas sampling system

Fig. 4 Modulated equivalence ratio with respect to

pressure fluctuation: (a) Pressure fluctuation in the
combustion chamber. (b) Modulated equivalence
ratio at the fuel supplying holes.

Pressure

0.8

5kPa

0.55(initial value)

Time

0.7

Pressure Boundary Condition

(1) (3)

221mm

(1) The region of mixture flow

(2)

(2) The fuel injection hole

Cyclic boundary

(3) The region of fuel flow

Equivalence ratio []

0.1sec

0.6

0.5

0.4

D=0.7=0.32

Air
Air
67mm

0.3
0.9

3-Dimension

Fuel
Fuel

Fig. 5 Schematic diagram for boundary conditions

1.0

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

Time [s]

Fig. 6 Time records of equivalence ratio fluctuation

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Korea Science and Technology Foundation through the Combustion
Engineering Research Center (CERC) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, as well as by
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Japan.

21st ICDERS July 23-27, 2007 - Poitiers