Diesel Fuel in a Gas Turbine Combustion Chamber, ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation Tutorial

The problem is simulating the combustion process of diesel fuel inside a combustion chamber of a gas turbine system by ANSYS Fluent software. We perform this CFD project and investigate it by CFD analysis.

The function of the combustion chamber is such that the airflow enters the chamber from the space around the chamber and then passes through a diffuser duct with blades, becomes disturbed, and enters the special combustion space in order to better mix with the fuel.

On the other hand, the fuel flow is injected into the space inside the chamber through a nozzle and is mixed with the gas flow, and as a result, the combustion process takes place. The fuel used in this process is diesel (C16H29), which reacts with airflow.

The present model includes a combustion reaction between fuel and air, which is as follows:

According to the above combustion reaction equation, there are four species in the reaction, which include diesel, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Therefore, the Species Transport model has been used to define gaseous species.

Also, the volumetric reaction model has been used to define the reaction between these species. Airflow enters the combustion chamber at a velocity of 3 m.s-1 and a temperature of 300 K, and diesel is sprayed into the interior of the chamber at a velocity of 4 m/s and a temperature of 300 K.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the mass fraction of reactants and combustion reaction products. The present 3-D model is designed using Design Modeler software.

The meshing is done using ANSYS Meshing software. The mesh type is unstructured and has 3488057 cells.

Diesel Fuel Methodology

The species transport model is used to analyze the combustion process, and the energy equation is activated to compute temperature changes.

Diesel Fuel Conclusion

At the end of the solution process, two-dimensional and three-dimensional contours of pressure, temperature, velocity, and mass fraction of diesel, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor were obtained.

The contours show that the fuel is well combined with the oxidizer and combustion has occurred and its products are visible. In parts of the combustion chamber, the temperature is very high. It is also clear from the results that the combustion flame is well-formed.