Characterization of Transient Wall Heat Load for a Low NOx Lean Premixed Swirl Stabilized Can Combustor Under Reacting Conditions

As stringent emissions controls are being placed on gas turbines, modern combustor design optimization is contingent on the accurate characterization of the combustor flame side heat loads. Power generation turbines are increasingly moving toward natural gas, biogas, and syngas, whose composition is highly dependent on the sourcing location. With fuel flexible nozzles, it is important to understand the heat load from various gas mixtures to optimize the cooling design to make sure the liner is not under/over cooled for some mixtures as this has a larger effect on NOx/CO emissions. In addition to knowing the heat load distribution, it is important to understand the peak heat load under start/stop transient conditions which tend to be much higher than steady-state/cruise altitude heat loads. The present work focuses on the experimental measurement of the transient heat load along a can combustor under reacting conditions for a swirl-stabilized premixed methane–air flame. Tests were carried out under various equivalence ratios, Reynolds numbers, and pilot fuel flowrate. An infrared camera was used to measure the inner and outer wall temperatures of the liner to calculate the liner heat load. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was employed to visualize the flowfield for various reacting conditions studied in this work. Based on the heat transfer study, a detailed report of transient heat load along the length of the liner wall has been presented here. Initial start transient heat load on the liner wall is ∼10–40% more than the steady-state heat load.