Experimental Investigation of the Flow Inside a Water Model of a Gas Turbine Combustor: Part 1—Mean and Turbulent Flowfield

Abstract

The present study examines the flow inside the water model of a gas turbine combustor, with the two main objectives of increasing the understanding of this type of flow and providing experimental data to assist the development of mathematical models. The main features of the geometry are the interaction between two rows of radially opposed jets penetrating a cross-flowing axial stream with and without swirl, providing a set of data of relevance to all flows containing these features. The results, obtained by laser Doppler velocimetry, showed that under the present flow conditions, the first row of jets penetrate almost radially into the combustor and split after impingement, giving rise to a region of high turbulence intensity and a toroidal recirculation zone in the head of the combustor. Part 1 discusses the mean and turbulent flowfield, and the detailed study of the region near the impingement of the first row of jets is presented in Part 2 of this paper.