The effects of fuel distribution on exit temperature distribution in a centrally staged combustor

Fuel injection and distribution play an important role in the formation and migration of hot streaks in gas turbine combustors and determine the exit temperature uniformity especially for modern low emission combustors that have little or no primary and dilution air flows. To better understand the underlying mechanism of the formation and evolution of hot streak, both experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out in a centrally staged tri-sector model combustor. Flow, spray, and flame have been investigated by particle image velocimetry and planar laser-induced fluorescence. The exit temperature distributions are also measured and analyzed with both laser diagnostics and simulation results. The results show that increasing fuel-to-air ratio (FAR) or fuel staging ratio enhances the formation of high temperature hot streak and leads to high overall temperature distribution factor and radial temperature distribution factor at the combustor exit. It is found that the high temperature zone is formed through the non-premixed combustion of pilot stage and resides in the shear layer of pilot stage and primary circulation zone. Increasing FAR at low power conditions and increasing SR at high power conditions promote the formation of a large hot streak area through pilot stage combustion and thus deteriorate the uniformity of temperature distribution at the combustor exit.