A physics-based emissions model for aircraft gas turbine combustors

In this thesis, a physics-based model of an aircraft gas turbine combustor is developed for predicting NO. and CO emissions. The objective of the model is to predict the emissions of current and potential future gas turbine engines within quantified uncertainty bounds for the purpose of assessing design tradeoffs and interdependencies in a policy-making setting. The approach taken is to capture the physical relationships among operating conditions, combustor design parameters, and pollutant emissions. The model is developed using only high-level combustor design parameters and ideal reactors. The predictive capability of the model is assessed by comparing model estimates of NO, and CO emissions from five different industry combustors to certification data. The model developed in this work correctly captures the physical relationships between engine operating conditions, combustor design parameters, and NO. and CO emissions. The NO. estimates are as good as, or better than, the NO. estimates from an established empirical model; and the CO estimates are within the uncertainty in the certification data at most of the important low power operating conditions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Allaire, Douglas L

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Karen Willcox and Ian Waitz.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35584

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35584