Thickened Flame Model Extension for Dual Gas Turbine Combustion: Validation Against Single Cup Atmospheric Test

Abstract

The development of predictive combustion models is more and more strategic in the design definition of gas turbine (GT) combustor. The thickened flame model (TFM), despite its high computational cost, is one of the most accurate approach available in literature since it can naturally take into account the nonequilibrium effects into the flame brush (i.e., strain and heat losses) as well as preferential diffusion when hydrogen is employed. Conversely, the original formulation of this combustion model needs several adjustments to accommodate the properties of the mixture when different streams of fuels and/or oxidizers are present in the system. The present work represents a first step in the extension of this combustion model to handle multiple streams of fuels and oxidizers. More specifically, an industrial burner fed with two different fuel streams and air as oxidizer is considered. The pilot fuel line is fed with microhydrogen injections with the aim to enhance the lean blow-out margin, while the main one is with pure methane. Dedicated tests are performed at the Technology for High Temperature laboratory (University of Florence) to retrieve the main information characterizing the burner (emissions, temperature, and pressure pulsations) as well as OH* chemiluminescence for the flame shape and position at the same operating conditions. The comparison between the numerical results and the experimental data will provide highlights about the ability of the extended-TFM to capture the main features of the flame stabilization mechanisms.