Numerical Study of the Effects of Main Parameters on Micro-combustion for Micro-gas Turbine Engine

Abstract

A new structure of power generator, micro-turbine engine with annular combustion chamber was designed and studied. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation on micro combustion chamber of hydrogen and air mixture was conducted to calculate the flow rate and temperature in different conditions. The operating range of the micro-combustion was studied; the maximum excessive air ratio is up to 5. The hydrogen and air mixture can be ignited only on condition that the premixed fuel gas temperature is above 450 K and the mass flow rate of hydrogen is less than 0.1 g/s. Otherwise the flame will be blown out. Meanwhile we can see that the gas temperature will be decreased as the mass flow rate of hydrogen increased. The investigation of the thermal performance of the micro-combustor is helpful to design an improved micro-turbine engine which can generate electric power or produce thrust for micro unmanned aerial vehicles.