Isothermal coherent structures and turbulent flow produced by a gas turbine combustor lean pre-mixed swirl fuel nozzle

The steady and unsteady isothermal fluid dynamics generated by an industrial low emission, lean premixed, fuel swirl nozzle designed by Solar Turbines Incorporated were investigated in this study. The experiments were carried out in a model optical can combustor operating at atmospheric pressures. Non-time resolved, planar Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements were taken at Reynolds numbers with respect to the nozzle throat diameter of ∼50 000, ∼100 000, and ∼180 000. The time-averaged velocity fields were approximately self-similar, with the highest mass flow exhibiting a central recirculation zone (CRZ) with a slightly larger diameter. The results were analyzed using a methodology based on Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) to extract the periodic structures in the flow and obtain the underlying stochastic turbulence field. This distinction between stochastic and coherent fluctuations is critical to properly model combustor flows. Coherent flow instabilities such as the precessing vortex core (PVC) and the propagation of axial/radial vortices were observed to significantly contribute to the mixing between the nozzle exit flow and the recirculated mass flow. Over 30% of the total fluctuation (difference between instantaneous and time-averaged velocity fields) kinetic energy was attributed to coherent structures throughout the inner shear layer between the swirling jet exiting the nozzle and the CRZ. Stochastic variability was prevalent close the liner wall and throughout the combustor domain after the swirling jet impinged on the wall, with <20% of the total fluctuation attributed to coherent structures. The normalized coherent and stochastic flow fields were also approximately self-similar with Reynolds number.