CFD analysis on swirl angle effect in gas turbine combustion chamber

Abstract

Swirl vanes are used for imparting swirling motion to the flow. These swirl vanes with its vanes induce the air circulation in order to create a turbulence at the primary zone of the combustion chamber. A doublet swirl vanes influence air flow in both axial and radial direction. The CFD analysis has been performed in a doublet swirl vanes under a subsonic speed. The objective of this paper is to increase the vortices around the swirl vanes by changing the area, angle of swirl vanes and increasing the swirl number. Further, the primary zone length and dimension has been observed to find the extend of vortex core and turbulence intensity growth. Several parametric studies have been made to find the best simulation results among various turbulence models like k-ϵ and SST Reynolds stress model. Major parametric comparisons like pressure, velocity, and TKE changes have been studied. Finally, through the analysis results, it has been evident that by changing the swirl vane angle and swirl number the recirculation zone's length and vortices has been increased and improves the mixing characteristic.