Swirl-Stabilised Hydrogen Combustor with Axial Air Injection

Numerical Simulations and Cold Flow Experiments

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

S.P. Vermeijlen Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

A. Gangoli Rao Flight Performance and Propulsion - Aerospace Engineering (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2021 Simon Vermeijlen
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Published Date

02-07-2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

Swirl-stabilised hydrogen combustion has great potential in the aviation industry since emissions can be significantly reduced compared to fossil fuels. However, a major drawback is a high proneness to flashback. This could be overcome with non-swirling axial air injection (AAI) on the centre-line of the mixing tube. The effect of this concept on the effective Swirl number and flashback propensity was investigated for a radial- and axial swirl generator by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and cold flow Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) experiments on a custom-designed combustor model. Acquired results indicate that with increasing amount of AAI the Swirl number reduces due to both inertial and viscous effects. The flashback propensity also reduces as the axial velocity on the centre-line increases by AAI. For equal Swirl numbers the axial swirl generator was found to have a lower flashback propensity compared to the radial swirl generator, suggesting safer operation.