Fundamentals of Low-NOx Gas Turbine Adiabatic Combustor

The present work is concerned with the thermodynamic, chemical and geometric parameters of gas turbine combustor operating in the flameless oxidation combustion regime. A methodology for calculating the thermodynamic parameters was developed for adiabatic combustion with recirculation. This enables to find the oxygen concentration, temperatures and other principal combustion products at different operational combustion conditions and to obtain geometrical relationships of the combustor. Based on shock-tube tests and comparison with CHEMKIN code simulations, a methodology to estimate the heat density generation at the recirculation zone was elaborated. These results have enabled preliminary design of the combustor and two sector models (60 degrees each) were produced. The combustor sectors were tested and demonstrated very stable combustion operation over a wide range of equivalence ratios with low NO_x emission.