CFD Modeling of Flame Structures in a Gas Turbine Combustion Reactor: Velocity, Temperature, and Species Distribution

This paper presents the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of a gas turbine combustor with methane-air fuel at atmospheric pressure. The velocity fields, temperature profile and species distributions have been numerically studied. The mathematical combustion models, namely Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC) model coupled with detailed kinetic mechanism, and Finite Rate/Eddy Dissipation (FR-ED) model coupled with a simple global kinetic mechanism, have been used in numerical analysis considering a two-step oxy-combustion reaction kinetics model. Moreover, a series of CFD results with consideration of EDC model have been obtained by two- and three-dimensional simulations. An error analysis showed that the 3-D simulation with EDC model can accurately predict the velocity components, temperature profile, and species distributions of the combustion process and allow detailed investigation of the flame structure. The CFD results are in agreement with the experimental data obtained from laser measurements.