Combustion of Heavy Fuel Oils in a Rijke Type Pulse Combustor with a Tangential Injection Stream

Abstract

This paper describes an investigation of the combustion of heavy fuel oils in a recently developed, Rijke type, pulse combustor that utilizes a tangential fuel and air injection system. This study was stimulated by the need to develop combustors that can burn low quality fuels with high combustion efficiencies and low pollutant emissions. Tests with fuel oil Nos. 5 and 6 revealed that they can be burned in the developed Rijke pulse combustor with combustion efficiencies higher than 99 percent while utilizing less than 10% excess air, which decreases exhaust flow losses and increases the thermal efficiency. Furthermore, the developed combustor could be operated over a wide range of air/fuel ratios, including fuel lean and rich operating conditions. Emissions measurements revealed that the exhaust flow NOx concentrations are low over the whole range of investigated air/fuel ratios and that CO and particulates emissions are low for fuel lean operation. Finally, the paper describes the dependence of the amplitude of the combustor pulsations upon its operating conditions.