Effect of the Degree of Fuel-Air Mixing and Equivalence Ratio on the NOx Emission and Heat Release in a Dump Combustor

Lean premixed combustors are used for significant NOx reduction which one of issues in current gas turbine combustor. This study was investigated to estimate the effects of the unmixedness of fuel-air, equivalence ratio on the instability mechanism, NOx emission and combustion oscillation in a lean premixed combustor. The experiments were conducted in a dump combustor at atmospheric pressure conditions using methane as fuel. The swirler angle was 45°, the degrees of fuel-air mixing were 0, 50 and 100 and inlet temperature was 650K. The equivalence ratio was ranging from 0.5 to 0.8. This paper shows that NOx emission was increased when the degree of fuel-air mixing is increased in same equivalence ratio and when equivalence ratio is increased. And the range of the combustion instability was enlarged as a function of increasing of the degree of fuel-air mixing.