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Virginia Tech

Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristic Study in a Low Emission Annular Combustor

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Modern Dry Low Emissions (DLE) combustors are characterized by highly swirling and expanding flows that makes the convective heat load on the combustor liner gas side difficult to predict and estimate. A coupled experimental-numerical study of swirling flow and its effects on combustor liner heat transfer inside a DLE annular combustor model is presented. A simulated scaled up annular combustor shell was designed with a generic fuel nozzle provided by Solar Turbines to create the swirl in the flow. The experiment was simulated with a cold flow and heated walls. An infrared camera was used to obtain the temperature distribution along the liner wall. Experimentally measured pressure distributions were compared with the heat transfer results. The experiment was conducted at various Reynolds Numbers to investigate the effect on the heat transfer peak locations and pressure distributions. A CFD study was performed using Fluent and turbulence models and used to corroborate and verify the experimental results. Results show that the heat transfer enhancement in the annulus has slightly different characteristics for the concave and convex walls. Results also show a much slower drop in heat transfer coefficient enhancement with increasing Reynolds number compared to can combustors from a previous study. An introductory study of the effect of a soft wall on the heat transfer on the combustor liner is also presented.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Mechanical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2009

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Sedalor, Teddy
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Ekkad, Srinath V.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • West, Robert L. Jr.
  • Tafti, Danesh K.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-04292010-232619
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/32036

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Sedalor, Teddy. Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristic Study in a Low Emission Annular Combustor. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/32036