CFD predictions of LBO limits for aero-engine combustors using fuel iterative approximation

Lean blow-out (LBO) is critical to operational performance of combustion systems in propulsion and power generation. Current predictive tools for LBO limits are based on decades-old empirical correlations that have limited applicability for modern combustor designs. According to the Lefebvre’s model for LBO and classical perfect stirred reactor (PSR) concept, a load parameter (LP) is proposed for LBO analysis of aero-engine combustors in this paper. The parameters contained in load parameter are all estimated from the non-reacting flow field of a combustor that is obtained by numerical simulation. Additionally, based on the load parameter, a method of fuel iterative approximation (FIA) is proposed to predict the LBO limit of the combustor. Compared with experimental data for 19 combustors, it is found that load parameter can represent the actual combustion load of the combustor near LBO and have good relativity with LBO fuel/air ratio (FAR). The LBO FAR obtained by FIA shows good agreement with experimental data, the maximum prediction uncertainty of FIA is about ±17.5%. Because only the non-reacting flow is simulated, the time cost of the LBO limit prediction using FIA is relatively low (about 6 h for one combustor with computer equipment of CPU 2.66 GHz × 4 and 4 GB memory), showing that FIA is reliable and efficient to be used for practical applications.