Structure, Stability and Emissions of Lean Direct Injection Combustion, including a Novel Multi-Point LDI System for NOx Reduction

Experimental research on Lean Direct Injection (LDI) combustors for gas turbine applications is presented. LDI combustion is an alternative to lean premixed combustion which has the potential of equivalent reduction of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions and of peak combustor exit temperatures, but without some drawbacks of premixed combustors, such as flashback and autoignition. Simultaneous observations of the velocity field and reaction zone of an LDI swirl-stabilized combustor with a mixing tube at atmospheric conditions, with the goal of studying the flame stabilization mechanism, are shown. The flame was consistently anchored at the shear layer formed by the high-speed reactants exiting the mixing tube and the low speed recirculation region. Individual image analysis of the location of the tip of the recirculation zone and tip of the reaction region confirmed previously observed trends, but showed that calculation of the distance between these two points for corresponding image pairs yields results no different than when calculated from random image pairs. This most likely indicates a lag in the anchoring of the flame to changes in the recirculation zone, coupled with significant stochastic variation.;An alternate LDI approach, multi-point LDI (MLDI), is also tested experimentally. A single large fuel nozzle is replaced by multiple small fuel nozzles to improve atomization and reduce the total volume of the high-temperature, low velocity recirculation zones, reducing NOx formation. The combustor researched employs a novel staged approach to allow good performance across a wide range of conditions by using a combination of nozzle types optimized to various power settings. The combustor has three independent fuel circuits referenced as pilot, intermediate, and outer. Emissions measurements, OH* chemiluminescence imaging, and thermoacoustic instability studies were run in a pressurized combustion facility at pressures from 2.0 to 5.3 bar.;Combustor performance was analyzed for three fuel staging configurations, using local equivalence ratio of the individual circuits as a predictive parameter. Pilot-only mode enabled combustor operation at very low overall equivalence ratios while limiting NOx formation in idle power settings due to its configuration approximating a rich-quench-lean combustor. Pilot and intermediate staging tests demonstrated the range of equivalence ratios that are effective in reducing NOx formation while keeping other pollutants in check; very low equivalence ratio results in high unburned hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide, while very high equivalence ratios result in a detrimental effect as more fuel is routed through the intermediate fuel circuit. Using all three fuel circuits simultaneously in high power operation resulted in very low NOx levels (emissions index at or below 0.5 g/kg), particularly when fuel distribution was such that local equivalence ratio was equal among all circuits. The observed NOx levels compared favorably with other MLDI designs which do not have the operational flexibility of the combustor tested.;Thermoacoustic instabilities occurred in the MLDI combustor for some test conditions. The local equivalence ratio of the intermediate fuel circuit was found to be one of the major predictor of the onset of instabilities. Detailed analysis of a two-circuit instability (pilot and intermediate) is presented.