Flame out scenarios in Hydrogen based Gas turbine engines are associated with concomitant operational safety issues. Undetected flameouts can result in excessive injection of hydrogen resulting in conditions close to the lean explosive limit (LEL) of hydrogen. It is important to ensure that the fuel mixture, if above LEL does not detonate. This investigation models the downstream region of a gas turbine engine exhaust for a range of mixture compositions and exhaust temperatures. The effect of ignition location on flame-propagation is being investigated. The LES results are expected to guide the design of the downstream duct via suggestions of safe operating envelopes (mixture composition and temperature) as well as instrumentation locations for the early detection of local wall pressure exceeding a predefined threshold to ensure safe shutoff of fuel injection.
Personnel Involved: Dr. S. Srinivasan, S. Ravuru
Sponsor: Solar Turbines