Book Description
Improved gas turbine combustion performance will require the effective utilization of alternative fuels and advanced combustor concepts. Further understanding of spray combustion processes including fuel evaporation and flame propagation is required. Research is underway which features a high pressure and temperature non-vititated air system to provide air at simulated gas turbine inlet conditions. A special fuel injection system was designed to produce monodisperse sprays for the purpose of evaporation and eventual combustion experiments in our newly developed test facility. This report represents a summary of the engineering activities during the first year (of a two year contract) which was focused on the construction of a combustion test facility in which the evaporation and burning rates of jet fuels can be measured as a function of inlet conditions and fuel properties. A large heat exchanger facility which supports this research can deliver continuously non-vitiated air at flowrates up to 1 kg/sec and 600 kPa at temperatures from 300 to 900K. Details of the evaporation/combustion test section are described. Also included are the design of the fuel injection system and test results of the injector showing monodisperse sprays with drop diameters of approx. 70 micrometers.
