It is widely accepted that climate change is a very serious environmental
concern. Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other emissions in the global
atmosphere have increased substantially since the industrial revolution and now
increasing faster than ever before. There is a thought that this has already led
to dangerous warming in the Earth’s atmosphere and relevant changes around.
Emissions legislations are going to be stringent as the years will pass. Hydro
carbon fuel cost is also increasing substantially; more over this is non-
renewable source of energy.
There is an urgent need for novel combustor technologies for reducing emission
as well as exploring alternative renewable fuels without effecting combustor
performance. Development of novel combustors needs comprehensive
understanding of conventional combustors. The design and development of gas
turbine combustors is a crucial but uncertain part of an engine development
process. At present, the design process relies upon a wealth of experimental
data and correlations. Some major engine manufacturers have addressed the
above problem by developing computer programs based on tests and empirical
data to assist combustor designers, but such programs are proprietary. There is
a need of developing design methodologies for combustors which would lead to
substantial contribution to knowledge in field of combustors. Developed design
methodologies would be useful for researchers for preliminary design
assessments of a gas turbine combustor.
In this study, step by step design methodologies of dual annular radial and axial
combustor, triple annular combustor and reverse flow combustor have been
developed. Design methodologies developed could be used to carry out
preliminary design along with performance analysis for conventional combustion
chambers. In this study the author has also proposed and undertaken
preliminary studies of some novel combustor concepts.
A novel concept of a dilution zone less combustor has been proposed in this
study. According to this concept dilution air would be introduced through nozzle
guide vanes to provide an optimum temperature traverse for turbine blades.
Preliminary study on novel dilution zone less combustor predicts that the length
of this combustor would be shorter compared to conventional case, resulting in
reduced weight, fuel burn and vibrations. Reduced fuel burn eventually leads to
lower emissions.
Another novel concept of combustor with hydrogen synthesis from kerosene
reformation has been proposed and a preliminary studies has been undertaken
in this work. Addition of hydrogen as an additive in gas turbine combustor
shows large benefits to the performance of gas turbine engines in addition to
reduction in NOx levels. The novel combustor would have two stages,
combustion of ~5% of the hydrocarbon fuel would occur in the first stage at
higher equivalence ratios in the presence of a catalyst, which would eventually
lead to the formation of hydrogen rich flue gases. In the subsequent stage the
hydrogen rich flue gases from the first stage would act as an additive to
combustion of the hydrocarbon fuel. It has been preliminary estimated that the
mixture of the hydrocarbon fuel and air could subsequently be burned at much
lower equivalence ratios than conventional cases, giving better temperature
profiles, flame stability limits and lower NOx emissions.
The effect of different geometrical parameters on the performance of vortex
controlled hybrid diffuser has also been studied. It has been predicted that
vortex chamber in vortex controlled hybrid diffuser does not play any role in
altering the performance of diffuser.
The overall contribution to knowledge of this study is development of combustor
preliminary design methodologies with different variants. The other contribution
to knowledge is related to novel combustors with a capability to produce low
emissions. Study on novel combustor and diffuser has yielded application of two
patent applications with several other publications which has resulted in a
contribution to knowledge. A list of research articles, two patents, awards and
achievements are presented in Appendix C.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CRANFIELD1/oai:dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk:1826/9157 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Khandelwal, Bhupendra |
| Contributors | Singh, R., Sethi, Vishal |
| Publisher | Cranfield University |
| Source Sets | CRANFIELD1 |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or dissertation, Doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | © Cranfield University 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright owner. |
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