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Effects of chemical reaction mechanism and NOx formation pathways on an inter-turbine burner

Part of: Sustainable Aerospace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2019

A. A. V. Perpignan Open the ORCID record for A. A. V. Perpignan [Opens in a new window]  and
A. Gangoli Rao Open the ORCID record for A. Gangoli Rao [Opens in a new window]
A. A. V. Perpignan
Affiliation:
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
A. Gangoli Rao*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

One of the main challenges of future aircraft engines is to achieve low pollutant emissions while maintaining high combustion efficiencies and operability. The Flameless Combustion (FC) regime is pointed as one of the promising solutions due to its well-distributed reaction zones that yield low NOx emissions and oscillations. A dual-combustor configuration potentially facilitates the attainment of FC in the Inter-Turbine Burner (ITB). The development of such burner is dependent on knowledge regarding NOx formation and the parameters affecting it. It is known from the literature that the NOx formation mechanisms are different in FC. Therefore, in an attempt to clarify some of the mechanisms involved in NOx formation at relevant conditions, a chemical reactor network model developed to represent the ITB is explored. The role of prompt NOx was previously shown to be dominant at relatively low inlet temperatures and atmospheric pressure. In order to check these findings, five chemical reaction mechanisms were employed. All of them overpredicted NOx emissions and the overprediction is likely to be caused by the prompt NOx subset implemented in these mechanisms. Higher reactants temperatures and operational pressures were also investigated. Overall NOx emissions increased with temperature and the NOx peak moved to lower equivalence ratios. Operational pressure changed the emissions trend with global equivalence ratio. Leaner conditions had behaviour similar to that of conventional combustors (increase in NOx), while NOx dropped with further increase in equivalence ratio due to suppression of the prompt NOx production, as well as an increase in NO reburning. These trends highlight the differences between the emission behaviour of the ITB with those of a conventional combustion system.

Keywords

Flameless combustionGas turbine combustionMILD combustionNOx chemistry
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 123 , Issue 1270 , December 2019 , pp. 1898 - 1918
Copyright
© Royal Aeronautical Society 2019 

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