Investigations of Combustion Performance in LPP Combustor

A Lean Premixed Prevaporized (LPP) low-emission combustor which is applied with the combustion technology of staged lean fuel is developed. To study the cold flow dynamics and the combustion performance of the LPP combustor, both experimental tests using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to quantify the flow dynamics and numerical simulation using the Fluent software are conducted respectively. To investigate the emissions of the LPP combustor, four kinds of inlet conditions (viz. 7%, 30%, 85% and 100% F∞ (Thrust Force)) were conducted using numerical simulation. Numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Results show that:1) a Primary recirculation zone (PRZ), a Corner recirculation zone (CRZ) and a Lip recirculation zone (LRZ) exist in the LPP combustor, and the velocity gradients between pilot swirling flow and primary swirling flow have contributed to the exchanges of mass, momentum and energy. 2) With the decrease of thrust force, NO mass fraction, CO2 mass fraction and total pressure losses at the exit of LPP combustor fall gradually. 3) Thermal NO formation rate closely relate to the zone area where gas temperature overruns 1900K and the maximum temperature in LPP combustor. 4) The combustion performance of the LPP combustor proposed in this paper is very well, and through comparative analysis with four kins of typical gas tubine combustor, the NO emission is very low and is equivalent to the CAEP6 43.87%.