Large-eddy simulation of two-phase spray combustion for gas turbine combustors

In three-dimensional arbitrary curvilinear coordinates, an Eulerian–Lagrangian formulation is applied to large-eddy simulation (LES) of instantaneous gas–liquid two-phase turbulent combustion flows in gas turbine combustors. Three dimensional block-structured grids are generated by zone method and solving a system of elliptic partial differential equations. The k-equation sub-grid scale model is used to simulate the sub-grid eddy viscosity and the EBU combustion sub-grid scale model is employed to predict the chemical reaction rate. The gas-phase governing equations are solved with SIMPLE algorithm and hybrid scheme in non-staggered grid system. A stochastic separated flow formulation is used to track the droplet trajectories velocities, size and temperature history by Lagrangian equations of motion and thermal balance. Multi-zone coupling method is employed to transport data between interfaces. The influences of two different primary hole positions and three different fuel–air ratios on turbulent two-phase reacting flows are calculated. Predictions are in reasonable agreement with the measured velocity using PIV system and temperature, species concentration measurements at the exit. It is shown that the present approach may be used to study spray combustion flow fields for guiding the design of advanced gas turbine combustors.