Numerical Study of Non-Reacting and Reacting Flow Characteristics in a Lean Direct Injection Combustor

The Lean Direct Injection (LDI) combustion concept has been of active interest due to its potential for low emissions under a wide range of operational conditions. This might allow the LDI concept to become the next generation gas-turbine combustion scheme for aviation engines. Nevertheless, the underlying unsteady phenomena, which are responsible for low emissions, have not been widely investigated. This paper reports a numerical study on the characteristics of the non-reacting and reacting flow field in a single-element LDI combustor. The solution for the non-reacting flow captures the essential aerodynamic flow characteristics of the LDI combustor, such as the reverse flow regions and the complex swirling flow structures inside the swirlers and in the neighborhood of the combustion chamber inlet, with reasonable accuracy. A spray model is introduced to simulate the reacting flow field. The reaction of the spray greatly influences the gas-phase velocity distribution. The heat release effect due to combustion results in a significantly stronger and compact reverse flow zone as compared to that of the non-reacting case. The inflow spray is specified by the Kelvin-Helmholtz breakup model, which is implemented in the Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) code. The results show a strong influence of the high swirling flow field on liquid droplet breakup and flow mixing process, which in turn could explain the low-emission behavior of the LDI combustion concept.Copyright © 2011 by ASME