Mixing Enhancement Study in Axisymmetric Trapped-Vortex Combustor for Propane, Ammonia and Hydrogen

Abstract

The trapped-vortex combustor (TVC) is an alternative combustor design to conventional aeroengine combustors. The separate fuel and air injection of this combustor and its compact design make it a perfect candidate for conventional fuel usage. Moreover, the performance of a trapped-vortex combustor with alternative fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen in the actual operating conditions of an aeroengine is not well understood. The present paper focused on the performance evaluation of TVCs with the futuristic fuels ammonia and hydrogen including under the realistic operating conditions of a combustor. The investigated fuels were injected into a cavity with 0-,15-, 30- and 45-degree transverse-angled air injectors to evaluate the mixing enhancement of the air and fuel under idle and low-power conditions. The mixing behavior of hydrogen showed a significant difference from the conventional fuel, i.e., propane. It was also noticed that the transverse injection of the air helped to improve the mixing efficiency as compared to the normal injection configuration. Mixing efficiency was higher for the 30- and 45-degree transverse-angled air injectors compared to the 0- and 15-degree transverse-angled air injectors.

Keywords

• aerodynamic
• aerospace
• computational fluid dynamics
• propulsion
• trapped-vortex combustor