Assessment of Combustor Working Environments

Abstract EN

In order to assess the remaining life of gas turbine critical components, it is vital to accurately define the aerothermodynamic working environments and service histories.

As a part of a major multidisciplinary collaboration program, a benchmark modeling on a practical gas turbine combustor is successfully carried out, and the two-phase, steady, turbulent, compressible, reacting flow fields at both cruise and takeoff are obtained.

The results show the complicated flow features inside the combustor.

The airflow over each flow element of the combustor can or liner is not evenly distributed, and considerable variations, ±25%, around the average values, are observed.

It is more important to note that the temperatures at the combustor can and cooling wiggle strips vary significantly, which can significantly affect fatigue life of engine critical components.

The present study suggests that to develop an adequate aerothermodynamics tool, it is necessary to carry out a further systematic study, including validation of numerical results, simulations at typical engine operating conditions, and development of simple correlations between engine operating conditions and component working environments.

As an ultimate goal, the cost and time of gas turbine engine fleet management must be significantly reduced.