Abstract
Combustors are the powerhouses of gas turbine engines and hence their performance and function are very important. Due to stringent emission norms, several new lean combustors are evolving. These advanced fuel-lean combustors are facing difficulties, especially the lean flame blowout issues, and the trapped vortex combustor (TVC) is a viable technology to overcome the difficulties. In this book chapter, fundamental and performance characteristics of TVC are brought out based on various researches carried out in the recent past. In the initial section of this chapter, a brief history about the development of this TVC is presented. In subsequent sections, in-depth studies of various aspects of this combustor are discussed. TVC has lateral cavities through which pilot flame is stabilized, which keeps on igniting the mainstream fuel-air mixture. Methods of arriving at optimum size and shape of cavity based on flow physics, pressure drop and fuel-air mixing are brought out. Subsequently conditions to achieve a good fuel-air mixing and stable flame (wider lean blowout (LBO) limits are described. In pilot flame assisted combustors, penetration of the pilot flame to the mid of mainstream flow is essential, which is governed by the momentum balance between the cavity flow and mainstream flow; this can be understood from entrainment studies. Various factors affecting the combustion efficiency—namely, the mainstream velocity—level of mainstream premixing, cavity equivalence ratio and injection momentum are studied. Finally, this chapter identifies the key issues that remain as challenges for continued research towards the improvement of this advanced combustor concept.
Published Version
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