Effects of fuelling scheme on the performance of a trapped vortex combustor rig

The effects of two fueling schemes of cavity, front-wall-fuelling (FWF) and back-wall-fuelling (BWF) schemes, on the performance of a trapped-vortex- combustor (TVC) rig were studied experimentally. The combustion efficiency, total pressure drop and lean-blow-out performance data of the TVC rig was compared and analyzed based on combustion experiment under cavity-only fueling operating mode and cold flow field Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement. The rectangular TVC rig has two domes with two improved V-gutter radical flame stabilizers in main flow and two integrated fuel vaporizers in cavity. Aiming at the good flame stability characteristics over wide operating range, especially at high velocity flow, the combustion test was conducted over inlet flow Mach number range of 0.32 to 0.45. It shows that excellent flame stability of TVC rig under high inlet velocity operating condition can be achieved in both FWF and BWF schemes, but the performance of the TVC rig with BWF scheme whose fuelling position is far from main stream is better than that of FWF scheme whose fuelling position is closed to the main flow. Therefore, longer route travelling and mixing of cavity fuel design is recommended whatever front or back wall fuelling scheme is used. Fuelling position of cavity is very important to the performance of TVC. Furthermore, main flow flame stabilizer design is a challenging job too in order to sustain and demonstrate the excellent stability of TVC.