Power generation and aeropropulsion gas turbines: From combustion science to combustion technology

In the 50 years since its introduction, the gas-turbine engine has become an essential component of our global society. One need only look at the nearest airport to realize its dominance of air transportation. It has also become a significant element of the power-generation industry. In the last decade, power-generating combined-cycle powerplants have increased in thermal efficiency to about 60%, while NOx emissions have been reduced by an order of magnitude, to below 9 ppm (dry, at 15% O2) in some cases. This paper reviews the ongoing transition from science to the needed technologies: new modes of combustion have been introduced in gas turbines, including lean premixed combustion, reheat and axially staged combustion, catalytic combustion, and rich-lean combustion: high-efficiency low emissions performance is being extended to nonpremium fuels such as coal gas and crude oil: new materials such as superalloys thermal harrier coatings, and ceramics have been incorporated into designs: and improved theories greatly dependent on advanced laser-based diagnostics of flame structure have led to design tools of increasing scope. Future challenges—such as viable propulsion for supersonic transports, powerplants fueled byrenewable resources, and extension of gas turbines to micropower applications—can be met only through further progress in the underlying aerothermal and materials sciences.

[1]  Grigorios C. Koltsakis,et al.  CATALYTIC AUTOMOTIVE EXHAUST AFTERTREATMENT , 1997 .

[2]  R. M. Zacharias,et al.  Using hundreds of workstations for production running of parallel CFD applications , 1996 .

[3]  Yedidia Neumeier,et al.  Open-Loop Performance of a Fast-Response, Actively Controlled Fuel Injector Actuator , 1997 .

[4]  S. Correa.  A Review of NOx Formation Under Gas-Turbine Combustion Conditions , 1993 .

[5]  B. L. Koff.  Aircraft Gas Turbine Emissions Challenge , 1993 .

[6]  Sanjay M. Correa,et al.  Monte Carlo Probability Density Function Method for Gas Turbine Combustor Flowfield Predictions , 1997 .

[7]  S. Correa.  Carbon monoxide emissions in lean premixed combustion , 1992 .

[8]  Taeko Sano,et al.  NO2 Formation in the Mixing Region of Hot Burned Gas with Cool Air , 1984 .

[9]  Sanjay M. Correa.  Perturbation analysis of a catalytic combustor , 1995 .

[10]  H. Ciezki,et al.  Shock-tube investigation of self-ignition of n-heptane - Air mixtures under engine relevant conditions , 1993 .

[11]  Assaad R. Masri,et al.  An Atlas of QEDR Flame Structures , 1990 .

[12]  Sanjay M. Correa,et al.  Models for high-intensity turbulent combustion , 1994 .

[13]  Robert N. Hazlett,et al.  Thermal Oxidation Stability of Aviation Turbine Fuels , 1991 .

[14]  N. K. Rizk,et al.  Semianalytical Correlations for NOx, CO, and UHC Emissions , 1993 .

[15]  Stephen B. Pope,et al.  Computationally efficient implementation of combustion chemistry using in situ adaptive tabulation , 1997 .

[16]  John Abraham,et al.  Supercritical droplet vaporization and combustion studies , 1996 .

[17]  S. Candel,et al.  A review of active control of combustion instabilities , 1993 .

[18]  H. Spoelstra.  N2O emissions from combustion processes , 1995 .

[19]  I. T. Osgerby,et al.  Literature Review of Turbine Combustor Modeling and Emissions , 1974 .

[20]  S. Pope.  PDF methods for turbulent reactive flows , 1985 .

[21]  N. Peters,et al.  Reduced Kinetic Mechanisms for Applications in Combustion Systems , 1993 .

[22]  David K. Yee,et al.  Catalytic combustion technology to achieve ultra low NOx emissions : catalyst design and performance characteristics , 1995 .

[23]  S. Plee,et al.  Review of flashback reported in prevaporizing/premixing combustors☆ , 1978 .

[24]  Habib N. Najm,et al.  Modeling Pulsating Combustion Due To Flow-Flame Interactions In Vortex-Stabilized Pre-mixed Flames , 1993 .

[25]  Mitchell D. Smooke,et al.  Reduced Kinetic Mechanisms and Asymptotic Approximations for Methane-Air Flames: A Topical Volume , 1991 .

[26]  Vaclav Smil,et al.  Global Population and the Nitrogen Cycle , 1997 .

[27]  Robert W. Bilger.  Future directions in turbulent combustion research , 1994 .

[28]  Anil Gulati.  Raman measurements at the exit of a combustor sector , 1994 .

[29]  Michael C. Drake,et al.  Thermal NOx in stretched laminar opposed-flow diffusion flames with CO/H2/N2 fuel , 1989 .

[30]  P. Langhorne,et al.  Reheat buzz: an acoustically coupled combustion instability. Part 2. Theory , 1988, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[31]  J. H. Whitelaw,et al.  Control of Combustion Oscillations by Forced Oscillation of Part of the Fuel Supply , 1995 .

[32]  R. E. Sonntag,et al.  Introduction to Thermodynamics: Classical and Statistical , 1971 .

[33]  Sanjay M. Correa,et al.  Computational models and methods for continuous gaseous turbulent combustion , 1987 .

[34]  Sanjay M. Correa,et al.  Superequilibrium and thermal nitric oxide formation in turbulent diffusion flames , 1987 .

[35]  R. Barlow,et al.  The structure of turbulent nonpremixed flames revealed by Raman-Rayleigh-LIF measurements , 1996 .

[36]  A. Lefebvre.  Gas Turbine Combustion , 1983 .

[37]  L. Rayleigh,et al.  The theory of sound , 1894 .

[38]  Ian M. Kennedy,et al.  Models of soot formation and oxidation , 1997 .

[39]  Paul E. Dimotakis,et al.  Turbulent Shear Layer Mixing with Fast Chemical Reactions , 1989 .

[40]  Robert F. Richards,et al.  Convective Cooling of a Suspended Water Droplet , 1997 .

[41]  G. S. Samuelsen,et al.  Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) Thermometry in a Model Gas Turbine Can Combustor , 1993 .

[42]  L. J. Spadaccini,et al.  Ignition delay characteristics of methane fuels , 1994 .

[43]  James A. Miller,et al.  Mechanism and modeling of nitrogen chemistry in combustion , 1989 .

[44]  L. Pfefferle,et al.  Catalysis in Combustion , 1987 .