<title>Recent advances in combustion flow-field imaging measurements in high-pressure liquid-fueled gas turbine combustor concepts</title>

Abstract

Future gas turbine combustor designs for aerospace applications will be required to meet severe restrictions on environmentally harmful emissions. To meet the target emission reduction goals, these combustors will operate at temperatures and pressures greatly exceeding those of present day aero-powerplants. New diagnostic methods are required to provide insight into understanding the complex physical and chemical processes extant at these conditions because traditional diagnostic methods are either insufficient or incapable of providing this knowledge. At NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), several optically accessible combustor rigs have been built which allow the implementation of a suite of optical diagnostic techniques that are capable of providing just this type of crucial information. The techniques employed in the GRC combustion research laboratory include planar laser-induced fluorescence and planar Mie scattering. Research efforts have been quite successful probing both non-reacting and reacting flowfields of many kerosene-fueled combustor and combustor subcomponent design at pressures approaching 2.0 MPa, and temperatures near 2100 K. Images that map out combustion intermediate species such as OH distribution, fuel spray patternation, and fuel to air ratio contour mapping have been obtained for many different fuel injector designs and configurations. A novel combination of multiple planar images and computational analysis allows a 3D capability that greatly enhances the evaluation of the combustion processes and flowfields examined in this study.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.