Pressure Gain Combustion (PGC) systems have gained significant focus in recent years due to its potential for increased thermodynamic efficiency over a constant pressure cycle (or Brayton cycle). A rotating detonation combustor (RDC) is a type of PGC system, which is thermodynamically more efficient than the conventional gas turbine combustor. One of the main aspects of the detonation process is the rapid burning of the fuel-oxidizer mixture, due to which there is not enough time for the pressure to equilibrate. Therefore, the process is thermodynamically closer to a constant volume process, which is thermodynamically more efficient than a constant pressure cycle. RDC, if integrated successfully with a turbine, can increase thermal efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, especially when hydrogen is introduced into the fuel stream. However, due to highly unsteady flow generated from RDC, a systematic approach to transition the flow exiting the RDC to supply steady, subsonic flow at the turbine inlet has not been developed so far. Numerical simulations serve as a valuable tool to provide insight into the flow physics and to optimize the RDE design. Numerical studies have explored RDC by utilizing high-fidelity 3D simulations. However, these CFD studies require significant computational resources, due to the large differences in length and time scales between the flow field and the chemical reactions involved. The motivation of this dissertation is to investigate these research gaps and to develop computationally efficient methods for RDC designs to be integrated with downstream turbine section. First, this research work develops a methodology to predict the unsteady flow field exiting an RDC using 2D reacting simulations and to validate the approach using experimental measurements. Next, computational techniques are applied to condition the flow within the annulus by strategically constricting the flow area. A design of experiment (DoE) study is used to optimize the area profiling of the combustor. Additionally, the performance of the profiled design is compared against the baseline and the conventional nozzle design used in the literature. However, these numerical works use a perfectly premixed condition, whereas, the actual setup consists of discrete fuel/oxidizer injectors providing a non-uniform mixture in the combustor. To eliminate the assumption of perfectly premixed conditions, a method is developed to model the dynamic injector response of fuel/oxidizer plenums. The goal of this approach is to provide an inhomogeneous mixture composition without having to resolve/mesh the individual injectors. This research work provides a robust and computationally efficient methods for minimizing unsteadiness, maximizing pressure gain, and modeling dynamic injector response of an RDC. / Doctor of Philosophy / Traditional gas turbine combustor utilizes deflagration combustion. In recent years, detonation-based combustion has been explored as an alternative to enhance the efficiency of a modern gas turbine combustor. Rotating Detonation Combustor (RDC) utilizes detonation-based combustion and is thermodynamically efficient compared to conventional gas turbine combustors. The RDC consists of a detonation wave front and an oblique shock wave, which travel towards the exit of the combustor. Thus, the flow exiting the RDC is highly unsteady. The turbine requires a relatively steady flow at the inlet guide vanes. Therefore, the flow exiting the RDC needs to be conditioned before integrating with a downstream turbine section to gain the thermodynamic benefits of RDC. Numerical simulation of an RDC provides additional flexibility over experiments in understanding the flow physics. In addition, simulations are vital in optimizing the RDC designs such that the flow exiting the combustor is relatively uniform without comprising the pressure gain benefits of RDC. However, one of the challenges is that the RDC simulations are computationally expensive. Therefore, computationally efficient methods are required to understand and optimize the RDC designs to minimize the unsteady flow behavior and maximize the pressure gain. The objective is to utilize 2D and 3D reacting simulations to understand the flow behavior and to develop an optimization workflow to condition the flow exiting the combustor. Additionally, the optimized design is evaluated against the baseline and the conventional design used previously in the literature. Moreover, in most RDCs, the fuel and oxidizer are injected using discrete injectors. Due to the discrete injection, the fuel/oxidizer mixture is never perfectly premixed and results in a localized variation in fuel-oxidizer composition in the combustor. A novel method is developed to model the dynamic injector response of discrete fuel/oxidizer injection. The goal is to provide an inhomogeneous mixture composition without having to resolve/mesh the individual injectors. The emphasis of this study is to provide insight into the importance of flow conditioning exiting the RDC and the development of efficient CFD methods to optimize RDC to seamlessly integrate with a downstream turbine section.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/120587 |
| Date | 05 July 2024 |
| Creators | Raj, Piyush |
| Contributors | Mechanical Engineering, Meadows, Joseph, Massa, Luca, Palmore, John A., Agrawal, Ajay, Tafti, Danesh K. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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