Design and development of an optically accessible high pressure combustor

Currently in the US there is a push to reduce the nation\u27s energy dependence from foreign fuel sources. One of the most abundant fuels in the US is coal with the nation\u27s coal reserve accounting for 25% of the coal in the world. Due to coal being an abundant resource in the US and the need to reduce the dependency on foreign fuel sources coal derived synthetic fuels have been studied for use in gas turbines. Modern gas turbine combustors must operate over a range of different fuel compositions which includes fuels with high hydrogen fuel content (HHC). To ensure the implementation of HHC in power generation without negotiating operational or emission advantages, a study of the flame stability regime and behavior of HHC under realistic gas turbine condition is needed. Thus this thesis presents the development of an optically accessible high-pressure turbine combustor. The design parameters of the combustor developed are based on a 500 kW power and 1.5 MPa pressure which is representative of an actual gas turbine. Furthermore, the combustor has the flexibility of operating with variable syngas compositions along with a variety of fuel to analyze the flame structure, flow field characterization using high speed particle image velocimetry (PIV), and flashback propensity in high hydrogen content fuel under realistic gas turbine condition. The combustor has been built and tested and is available for use for testing of a variety of fuels