Experimental study of novel passive control methods to improve combustor exit temperature uniformity

The effect of non-uniform temperature flow which comes in contact with the turbine blades is of paramount importance since the thermal damage that occur to the blade during its operation, is governed by the non-uniformities present in the oncoming flow. This thermal damage leads to increased maintenance cost and reduced life-span of the turbine blades. This paper investigates the effectiveness of some novel passive control techniques to improve the temperature uniformity of the combustor exit flow to address the need to reduce the thermal damage and hence decrease the overall maintenance cost of the gas turbine system. The novel passive control techniques tested in this study include the use of streamlined body or guide vanes in the dilution zone of the combustor. For the guide vanes four different orientations were tested—0°, 30°, 60°, 90°. Extensive experimentation was conducted under different flow conditions. The deviation of the exit temperature from the equilibrium mixing temperature was used to compare the effectiveness of different passive control techniques. It was found that the 30 o guide vanes gave the most uniform temperature flow under majority of cases considered. On an average, the flow with 30 o guide vanes was about 15 % more uniform in temperature as compared to the staggered holes geometry with only 1 % higher pressure loss. The possible reason for this improvement is the combination of swirl and depth to which the dilution flow can enter the dilution zone and mix with the primary hot flow. The streamlined body came second with an improvement in pressure losses. Based on these experimental findings, the use of these guide vanes and streamlined body has potential in the gas turbine industry to deal with the high maintenance cost involved in these systems.