NOx Measurements for Combustor With Acoustically Controlled Primary Zone

Abstract

Successful NOx measurements at the end of the primary zone of a small tubular combustor of conventional gas turbine design, employing acoustically controlled primary zone air-jet mixing processes, have been made at scaled 1/4 and 1/8 load operating conditions. Testing at 1/8 load significantly increased the effective strength of the acoustic drive, which strongly improved the mixing by the acoustically driven primary zone air-jets. The acoustic drive caused partial blockage of the combustor primary zone airflow. This increased the equivalence ratio and the gas temperature, and made the gas temperature distribution more uniform, except for lean conditions at 1/8 load, in the plane of the NOx measurements. This explained the measured greater NOx “with-drive,” and the distinctly more uniform NOx distribution, which confirmed that mixing was acoustically augmented. The acoustically produced changes were greater at 1/8 load. The acoustic drive significantly changed the combustor operating characteristic so far as mean NOx was concerned, and under lean conditions at 1/8 load mean NOx was reduced, indicating that a value of 10 ppm is possible (a 50 percent reduction).