Effects of spray characteristics on combustion performance of a liquid fuel spray in a gas turbine combustor

Spray characteristics like mean drop diameter and spray cone angle play an important role in the process of combustion within a gas turbine combustor. In order to study their effects on wall and exit temperature distributions and combustion efficiency in the combustor, a numerical model of a typical diffusion controlled spray combustion in a can-type gas turbine combustion chamber has been made. A simple k-epsilon model with wall function treatment for near-wall region has been adopted for the solution of conservation equations in carrier phase. The initial spray parameters are specified by a suitable PDF for size distribution and a given spray cone angle. A radiation model for the gas phase, based on modified first order moment method, and in consideration of the gas phase as a grey absorbing-emitting medium, has been adopted in the analysis. It has been recognized that an increase in mean drop diameter improves the pattern factor. However, the combustion efficiency attains its maximum at an optimum value of the mean diameter. Higher spray cone angle increases the combustion efficiency and improves the pattern factor, but at the same time, increases the wall temperature. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.