Computational Analysis of Reverse Flow Combustor for Small Gas Turbine Application

The present work reports a computational study of flow through reverse flow combustor for various values of air to fuel ratios (75,100,125,150 and 175). The reverse flow combustor with eight fuel injectors is modeled using solid works software. A 45o section of reverse flow combustor is considered for present study. Three dimensional flow through the reverse flow combustor have been simulated by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using the Ansys Fluent code. The objective of this work is to understand the flow field characteristics of reverse flow combustor and to study the effect of increased values of air to fuel ratios on primary zone temperature distribution and performance of reverse flow combustor. The flow field of reverse flow combustor is well captured by solving appropriate governing equations using the SIMPLE algorithm. Turbulence has been modeled using K–e turbulence model. Hot flow simulations of different fuel flow rate cases (Air and Jet–A mixture) are simulated by non-premixed combustion model. It has been observed that increase in fuel flow rate shifts hot flow region away from swirler exit.\u