Preliminary design and experimental verification of a triple swirler combustor

Abstract

A preliminary combustor design procedure based on triple swirler is presented, and then a triple swirler combustor with design fuel–air ratio of 0.033 is designed according to the design procedure and studied experimentally. The test results show that: the total pressure loss coefficient increases linearly from 0.021 to 0.04 as the inlet airflow velocity increases from 40 m/s to 70 m/s, while the flow drag coefficient decreases nonlinearly with the inlet airflow velocity increasing; there exists an optimal velocity, at which the ignition overall fuel–air ratio is minimal at each given inlet airflow temperature, and the increasing of inlet airflow temperature makes for combustor ignition; the lean blowout fuel–air ratio is no more than 0.005 for most cases at the inlet airflow temperature of 473 K; the combustion efficiency is high at low fuel–air ratio and increases with inlet airflow velocity and temperature increasing on the whole. Pattern factor (OTDF) ranges from 0.15 to 0.17 for all cases at the inlet airflow temperature of 473 K; the combustion performance validates that triple swirler is fit for the dome of high-temperature-rise combustor and the design rules of the triple swirler combustor mentioned in this paper are feasible.