Simulation of Reacting Jet in Vitiated Crossflow at 5 Atmospheres using Adaptive Mesh Refinement

Axial fuel staging has become important in the design of ground-based gas turbine power plants. Axial staging injects a portion of the fuel and air late in the combustion chamber to minimize the residence time of the flame at its peak temperature. The location of the injection is a tradeoff between far enough aft to minimize NOx and far enough forward to ensure CO burnout and an acceptable turbine pattern factor. Other design criteria are turndown and thermo-acoustics. Due to the difficulty in obtaining detailed measurements of the reacting axial jets at engine conditions, manufacturers rely on CFD to optimize their designs. A number of designs can be evaluated and optimized with CFD, and the best designs tested in engines. The reacting CFD is validated with reacting jet in vitiated crossflow measurements from optically accessible facilities. Here the CONVERGE CFD code will be used with Adaptive Mesh Refinement to provide a fine mesh in the reacting jet area and a coarser mesh where the flow is uniform, providing a run time benefit.