IIT, Kanpur

Gas Turbine Combustion

and Power Generation

Dr. A. Kushari
Department of Aerospace Engineering

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Outline
• Introduction
• Advantages and Disadvantages
• Future Requirements
• Gas Turbine Combustors
• Ongoing Research
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgement

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

TURBINES: Machines to extract fluid

power from flowing fluids

Steam Water Wind Gas

Turbine Turbines Turbines Turbines

•High Pressure, High Temperature gas

•Generated inside the engine Aircraft Engines
•Expands through a specially designed TURBINE Power Generation

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

GAS TURBINES
• Invented in 1930 by Frank Whittle
• Patented in 1934
• First used for aircraft propulsion in 1942 on Me262 by
Germans during second world war
• Currently most of the aircrafts and ships use GT engines
• Used for power generation
• Manufacturers: General Electric, Pratt &Whitney,
SNECMA, Rolls Royce, Honeywell, Siemens –
Westinghouse, Alstom
• Indian take: Kaveri Engine by GTRE (DRDO)

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
• Intake
– Slow down incoming air
– Remove distortions
• Compressor
– Dynamically Compress air
• Combustor
– Heat addition through chemical
reaction
• Turbine
– Run the compressor
• Nozzle/ Free Turbine
– Generation of thrust power/shaft
power

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur
Advantages and Disadvantages
• Great power-to- • Expensive:
weight ratio compared – high speeds and high operating
temperatures
to reciprocating – designing and manufacturing
engines. gas turbines is a tough problem
from both the engineering and
• Smaller than their materials standpoint
reciprocating • Tend to use more fuel when
counterparts of the they are idling
same power. • They prefer a constant rather
• Lower emission than a fluctuating load.
levels

That makes gas turbines great for things like transcontinental jet aircraft and
power plants, but explains why we don't have one under the hood of our car.

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Emission in Gas Turbines

•Lower emission compared to all conventional methods (except nuclear)

•Regulations require further reduction in emission levels

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Needs for Future Gas Turbines

• Power Generation
– Fuel Economy
– Low Emissions
– Alternative fuels
• Military Aircrafts
Half the size and twice the thrust
– High Thrust
– Low Weight
• Commercial Aircrafts
– Low emissions Double the size of the Aircraft
– High Thrust and double the distance traveled
– Low Weight with 50% NOx
– Fuel Economy

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur
Gas Turbine Combustion

F/A – 0.01
Combustion efficiency : 98%

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Ongoing Research
• Effect of inlet disturbances
• Combustion in recirculating flows
• Spray Combustion

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Effect of Inlet Disturbance

Tunable inlet to create weak disturbance of

varying frequency
Bluff body stabilized flame
Unsteady pressure and heat release
measurement

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur
Pressure Amplitude variation

 = 0.2211 L = 20 cm

•Pressure oscillations increases

with decreasing length
•Dominant frequency 27 Hz
•Acoustic frequency 827 Hz

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur
Pressure and Heat Release

Less damping with increasing

length
Causes the rise is pressure
fluctuations

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur
Low Frequency Variation with Inlet
Length

m�a = 3.0 g / s ,  = 0.3455

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Variation of Dominant Frequency with Inlet Velocity

f *D
St = s
U
St = 0.171 (60 deg cone)

0.171* U
fs =
0.02

Dominant Frequency governed by vortex

dynamics
Feed back locking of flow instability and
combustion process
Phase relationship leads to
enhancement of combustion oscillations

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Ongoing Research
• Effect of inlet disturbances
• Combustion in recirculating flows
• Spray Combustion

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Recirculating Flow Dynamics

• Primary zone
• Fuel air mixing
• Intense combustion
• Short combustion length
• High turbulence
• Fuel rich combustion
Understanding recirculating flow dynamics
Time scales
Pressure transients
Energy cascading
Combustion in recirculating flows
Droplet Flow interaction

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Image Processing

Filtered out image from the noises Grayscale image

Intensity image Simulation results

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur
Vortex Dynamics

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur
Transient Analysis

•Identification of signatures of re-circulation, turbulence and acoustics

through frequency domain analysis of pressure transients
•Turbulence energy cascading due to re-circulation

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Combustion in Recirculating Flow

Time scale reduces, complete combustion, Good pattern factor

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Ongoing Research
• Effect of inlet disturbances
• Combustion in recirculating flows
• Spray Combustion
– Needs and Challenges
– Controlled atomization
– Emissions in spray combustion

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Spray Combustion: Issues

• Non-symmetrical spray flames and hot
streaks
– Serious damage to combustor liner
– Combustor exit temperature (pattern factor)
• Flame location, shape and pattern
• Emission Levels

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Need for controlled atomization

– Big Drops => Longer Evaporation Time => Incomplete
Combustion => Unburned Hydrocarbons & Soot,
Reduced Efficiency

– Small Drops => Faster Evaporation and Mixing =>

Elongated Combustion Zone => More NOx

– Uniform size distribution for favorable pattern factor

• Reduced thermal loading on liner and turbine

– Reduced feedline coupling

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Ongoing Research
• Effect of inlet disturbances
• Combustion in recirculating flows
• Spray Combustion
– Needs and Challenges
– Controlled atomization
– Emissions in spray combustion

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Internally Mixed Swirl Atomizer

Good atomization with small pressure

drop
Both hollow-cone and solid cone spray
from same atomizer (wide range
of applications)
Possible to atomize very viscous liquid
Self cleaning
Finer atomization at low flow rates
Less sensitive to manufacturing Atomization of engine oil
defects
The liquid flow rate and atomization
quality can be controlled

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur
Performance

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Multi-head internally mixed atomizer

• Build to provide a throughput rate in excess to 0.5 LPM with a droplet
size in the range of 20-30  m

Flow rate independent of pressure

difference
Reduced feedline coupling

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Ongoing Research
• Effect of inlet disturbances
• Combustion in recirculating flows
• Spray Combustion
– Needs and Challenges
– Controlled atomization
– Emissions in spray combustion

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur
Emissions in spray flames
100 4500

90 4000

80 Exp 3500
NOX (Theory)
70
3000

NOx Theory (ppm)

60
2500

Nox (ppm)
50
2000
40
1500
30
1000
20

10 500

0 0
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3
160
Distance from Flame Holder


z=5mm z=10mm
140
z=20mm z=35mm

•Measured values quite less

Sauter Mean Diameter (m)

120

100
compared to the theoretical
predictions
80
•Inherent fuel staging reduces the
60 NOx
40
•Longer flame => less NOx
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Radial Distance from Center Line (cm)

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Conclusions
• Disturbances can lead to combustion
oscillations
• Recirculating flow helps in reducing
disturbances
• Controlled Atomization can be achieved
through air-assisting
• Spray combustion reduces NOx emissions
through fuel staging

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

Acknowledgements
• M. S. Rawat • Dr. K. Ramamurthi
• S. K. Gupta • LPSC (ISRO)
• S. Pandey • CFEES (DRDO)
• P. Berman
• J. Karnawat
• S. Karmakar
• N. P. Yadav
• S. Nigam
• R. Sailaja
• M. Madanmohan

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.

IIT, Kanpur

THANK YOU

PROPULSION LAB, DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGG.