Development of a five-step global methane oxidation-NO formation mechanism for lean-premixed gas turbine combustion

It is known that many of the previously published global methane oxidation mechanisms used in conjunction with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes do not accurately predict CH{sub 4} and CO concentrations under typical lean-premixed combustion turbine operating conditions. In an effort to improve the accuracy of the global oxidation mechanism under these conditions, an optimization method for selectively adjusting the reaction rate parameters of the global mechanisms (e.g., pre-exponential factor, activation temperature, and species concentration exponents) using chemical reactor modeling is developed herein. Traditional global mechanisms involve only hydrocarbon oxidation; that is, they do not allow for the prediction of NO directly from the kinetic mechanism. In this work, a two-step global mechanism for NO formation is proposed to be used in combination with a three-step oxidation mechanism. The resulting five-step global mechanism can be used with CFD codes to predict CO, CO{sub 2}, and NO emission directly. Results of the global mechanism optimization method are shown for a pressure of 1 atmosphere and for pressures of interest for gas turbine engines. CFD results showing predicted CO and NO emissions using the five-step global mechanism developed for elevated pressures are presented and compared to measured data.