Numerical Simulation of Recirculation Zone of an Open V-Gutter

Abstract

The V-Gutter is a flame stabilizing device used in the afterburners. The flow around this V-Gutter is highly complex due to the recirculating nature of the flow. The flame stabilization is characterised by the length of the recirculation zone hence the determination of recirculation zone is the objective of our study. Since the flow around the gutter is associated with flow separation and recirculation it is sensitive to probe interference and experimentation is costlier hence we resort to numerical simulation. The analysis of flow around the V-Gutter and subsequent determination of the recirculation zone length is carried out with the help of the CFD Software Ansys Fluent. Numerical simulation is carried out for three different included angles of 30°, 45° and 60° but the Blockage is maintained constant from the simulation it is found that the length of the recirculation zone is least for the included angle of 60°. The normalised X/D Values for these angles were 3.520, 3.164 and 2.386 respectively. The increase in blockage from 0.3 to 0.4 increases the recirculation zone length by 33.6%. The findings will be useful for the gas turbine engineers to determine the included angle and the length of the recirculation zone of the V-gutter flame stabilizer.