Heat transfer in gas turbine combustors

Abstract

The present paper is concerned with the prediction of the local flow, heat-transfer, and combustion processes inside a three-dimensional can combustor chamber of a gas turbine. A three-dimensional numerical solution technique is used to solve the governing time-averaged partial differential equations and the physical modeling for turbulence, combustion, and thermal radiation. Heat-transfer modeling is emphasized in this paper. A method to calculate the distribution of temperature, radiative heat flux, and total heat flux of the liner is described. The implications of neglecting radiative heat transfer in gas turbine combustion chamber calculations are discussed. The influence of working pressure on radiative heat transfer is investigated, comparing the radiative heat flux and temperature distribution of the liner for three different working pressures: 5, 15, and 25 bar. Both radiative and convective fluxes increase with pressure, mainly because of the increase of inlet air temperature and gas emissivity. The ratio of the fluxes to the energy supplied to the combustor is very small. However, the accurate assessment of the flux distribution is an essential prerequisite for the prediction of the liner temperature distribution and liner life. 22 references.