Method for premixing air with a gaseous fuel and burner arrangement for conducting said method

Abstract

A method for premixing air with a gaseous fuel for being burned in a combustion chamber includes: guiding the air in an air stream along a burner axis through a coaxial air tube into a combustion chamber arranged at an end of said air tube; and impressing a swirl on the air stream by passing it through a first swirl device concentrically arranged within the air tube and comprising a plurality of radially oriented first blades. The method further includes: injecting gaseous fuel into the air stream at the first swirl device; and mixing said air in said air stream with the injected gaseous fuel in a first mixing zone arranged just after said first swirl device.

Claims

1. A method for premixing air with a gaseous fuel for being burned in a combustion chamber, said method comprising: guiding said air in an air stream along a burner axis through a coaxial air tube into a combustion chamber arranged at an end of said air tube; impressing a swirl on said air stream by passing it through a first swirl device concentrically arranged within said air tube and comprising a plurality of radially oriented first blades; injecting gaseous fuel into said air stream at said first swirl device; and mixing said air in said air stream with the injected gaseous fuel in a first mixing zone arranged just after said first swirl device; sending the mixed fuel/air stream leaving said first mixing zone through a second swirl device concentrically arranged within said air tube and comprising a plurality of radially oriented second blades to reduce the swirl of the mixed fuel/air stream; wherein the camber line of a blade of the second blades is aligned at a leading edge of the blade of the second blades with the camber line of a blade of the first blades at a trailing edge of the blade of the first blades to avoid flow separation, injecting gaseous fuel into said mixed fuel/air stream at said second swirl device; and further mixing said mixed fuel/air stream with the injected gaseous fuel in a second mixing zone arranged just between said second swirl device and said combustion chamber.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gaseous fuel is injected at said first and second swirl device by means of gas holes provided on the suction sides and/or pressure sides of said first and second blades.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said gas holes are arranged in rows oriented perpendicular to the burner axis.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first swirl device has a first swirl number, said second swirl device has a second swirl number, and said second swirl number is smaller than said first swirl number.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said first and second swirl devices has a number of first and second blades between 6 and 10, respectively.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cylindrical cross section of the blades of the first and second swirl device has the shape of an airfoil in order to reduce a pressure drop.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein each of the blades of the first and second swirl device has a leading edge and a trailing edge, whereby the leading edge of the blades of the second swirl device is aligned in terms of inflow angle with outflow angle of the trailing edge of the blades of the first swirl device.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said airfoils of said swirl devices are designed to produce a certain exit flow angle of the air/fuel flow, whereby said exit flow angle has a predetermined dependence (r) of the radius r with respect to the burner axis.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein tan (r)=H.Math.r+K with constants H and K.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein tan (r) is proportional to 1/r.

11. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein tan (r)=const.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the air is guided through the cylindrical coaxial air tube having an inner air tube radius, in an annular space between said coaxial air tube and a concentric central bluff body having an outer bluff body radius, whereby the ratio between said outer bluff body radius and said inner air tube radius is between 0.3 and 0.8.

13. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the fuel is supplied to the blades of the first and second swirl device via respective cavities within said first and second blades by means of a fuel distribution system, which allows to control the fuel supply to each swirl device, each blade within said first and second swirl device, and each of said suction and pressure sides of each blade of the first and second blades, and that combustion instabilities within said combustion chamber are controlled by means of said fuel distribution system via fuel staging between the first and second swirl devices and/or different sides of each blade of the first and second blades.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first and second swirl devices have an outer radius R and said first mixing zone has an axial length L, and said ratio L/R is between 0.5 and 4.

15. A burner arrangement for conducting a method according to claim 1, comprising an air tube extending along a burner axis and opening at one end into a combustion chamber, a first coaxial swirl device arranged concentrically within said air tube at a first distance from said combustion chamber, said first swirl device comprising a plurality of radially oriented first blades and first means for injecting fuel into an air stream passing said first swirl device, characterized in that a second swirl device is arranged within said air tube downstream of said first swirl device, thereby defining a first mixing section between said first and second swirl device, whereby said second swirl device comprises a plurality of radially oriented second blades and second means for injecting fuel into a fuel/air stream passing said second swirl device.

16. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 15, wherein said second swirl device is arranged at a second distance from said combustion chamber, thereby defining a second mixing section.

17. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 15, wherein said first and second fuel injection means comprises a plurality of gas holes provided on the suction sides and/or pressure sides of said first and second blades.

18. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 17, wherein said gas holes are arranged in rows oriented perpendicular to the burner axis.

19. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 15, wherein said first swirl device has a first swirl number, said second swirl device has a second swirl number, and said second swirl number is smaller than said first swirl number.

20. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 15, wherein each of said first and second swirl devices has a number of blades between 6 and 10.

21. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 15, wherein the cylindrical cross section of the blades of the first and second swirl device has the shape of an airfoil.

22. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 21, wherein each of the blades of the first and second swirl device has a leading edge and a trailing edge, whereby the leading edge of the blades of the second swirl device is aligned in terms of inflow angle with outflow angle of the trailing edge of the blades of the first swirl device.

23. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 21, wherein said airfoils of said swirl devices are designed to produce a certain exit flow angle of the air/fuel flow, whereby said exit flow angle has a predetermined dependence (r) of the radius r with respect to the burner axis.

24. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 23, wherein tan (r)=H.Math.r+K with constants H and K.

25. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 23, wherein tan (r) is proportional to 1/r.

26. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 23, wherein tan (r)=const.

27. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 15, wherein the air tube is cylindrical in shape having an inner air tube radius, that a concentric central bluff body is arranged within said air tube having an outer bluff body radius, and that the ratio between said outer bluff body radius and said inner air tube radius is between 0.3 and 0.8.

28. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 17, wherein the fuel is supplied to the blades of the first and second swirl device via respective cavities within said blades by means of a fuel distribution system, which allows to control the fuel supply to each swirl device of the first and second swirl devices, each blade of the first and second swirl devices, and each of said suction and pressure sides of each blade of the first and second swirl devices.

29. The burner arrangement as claimed in claim 23, wherein said first and second swirl devices have an outer radius R and said first mixing zone has an axial length L, and said ratio L/R is between 0.5 and 4.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The present invention is now to be explained more closely by means of different embodiments and with reference to the attached drawings.

(2) FIG. 1 shows a known burner arrangement with one swirl device (b) and a diagram of the non-dimensional pressure drop along the axis of said burner arrangement for two different swirl devices with different swirl numbers (a);

(3) FIG. 2 shows a burner arrangement according to an embodiment of the invention with two subsequent swirl devices of different swirl number (b) and the resulting non-dimensional pressure drop along the axis of said burner arrangement (a);

(4) FIG. 3 shows a 3-dimensional drawing of the configuration of an exemplary swirl device with a plurality of radial airfoil blades, which can be used in the present invention;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a sectional view of a burner arrangement according to another embodiment of the invention with two swirl devices having fuel injection means at the pressure and suction sides of their airfoil blades;

(6) FIG. 5 shows a more detailed schematics of the alignment between the blades of the first and second swirl devices; and

(7) FIG. 6 shows axial views of the first and second swirl devices with a respective fuel distribution system (a and b), and the schematics of the fuel distribution within each airfoil (c).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) The basic idea of the present invention relates to a series of two axial swirl burners or devices, the first swirl device with high swirl for optimization of fuel/air mixing and the second swirl device with low swirl for low pressure drop at the Central Recirculation Zone (CRZ).

(9) Thus, the invention disclosed here comprises a swirl/mixing arrangement realized with a given number of two or more axial swirl devices arranged sequentially along a burner axis. Fuel is injected from cavities obtained in the swirler blades. The pressure loss characteristic in case of two sequential swirl devices is shown in a figure similar to FIG. 1 in FIG. 2.

(10) The burner arrangement 10 of FIG. 2 comprises an air tube 11 extending along a burner axis 13 and opening at the downstream end into a combustion chamber 12, where a Central Recirculation Zone (CRZ) 19 is established during operation of the burner. A central, cylindrical and coaxial bluff body 18 within air tube 11 defines an annular channel for air and air/fuel flow towards combustion chamber 12. Two concentric swirl devices 14 and 16 are provided in series in the annular channel, thereby defining a first mixing section 15 between the two swirl devices 14, 16, and a second mixing section 17 between the second swirl device 16 and the entrance of combustion chamber 12. At both swirl devices 14 and 16, gaseous fuel is injected into the passing air stream.

(11) As can be seen from the diagram in FIG. 2(a), these characteristics (high swirl in swirl device 14; low swirl in swirl device 16) allow for very good premixing of the portion of fuel injected from the first swirl device 14, with the second swirl device 16 working as a de-swirl device, allowing for low pressure drop around the CRZ 19.

(12) A second important advantage of this arrangement is the spread of convective time lags of fuel to the flame with positive impact on combustion dynamics.

(13) In more detail, each swirl device comprises a given number of radially extended blades with cross section at a given radius having an airfoil shape. Fuel is injected from holes drilled on the suction and/or pressure sides of each swirler blade. The design allows to optimize mixing and pressure drop and, at the same time, gives flexibility on the control of time lags between fuel injection and flame.

(14) Thus, the basic component of the present invention is a swirl device 24, as shown in FIG. 3, which comprises a series of radial blades 28 arranged circumferentially around a cylindrical bluff body 27, which blades 28 are designed to impart a swirl component to an air flow entering along burner axis 23 into air tube 21 of the mentioned device. The device can be designed in order to target any possible radial distribution of axial and tangential velocities, for example satisfying the inviscid conservation equations of total pressure and radial momentum and a specific radial distribution of exit flow angle . The invention applies to any function describing the radial distribution of swirler exit flow angle .

(15) The burner arrangement 10 according to the present invention (see FIG. 4) comprises at least two swirl devices 14 and 16 arranged sequentially in the flow direction with a mixing section 15 in between. The first swirl device 14 is characterized by high swirl number while the second swirl device 16 is characterized by low swirl number. Fuel is injected in the stream of air 33 flowing through the two swirl devices 14 and 16 from gas holes 29a,b and 30a,b placed on the suction and/or pressure sides of the swirler blades 29 and 30. Fuel is distributed via cavities obtained within the swirler blades 29, 30 and connected to an external fuel distribution ring organized around the swirl devices (see FIG. 6).

(16) The first swirl device 14 imparts a high swirl to the air stream which helps to obtain good fuel/air mixing in the mixing section 15 (of axial length L) placed between the two swirl devices 14 and 16. The main scope of the second swirl device 16 is instead to reduce the swirl number (de-swirl function) before vortex breakdown takes place. The second swirl device 16 is used also to inject a portion of the fuel in order to have a spread of fuel time lags to the flame which helps on the side of flame dynamics.

(17) Possible radial distributions of axial and tangential velocities of the swirler are obtained from three types of radial distribution of blade exit flow angle (r): A) whose tangent is linearly increasing in the radial direction, i.e. such that tan (r)=W/U=H.Math.r+K with H and K constants and W, U tangential and axial velocities; B) with tan (r)=W/U=const.; and C) with tan (r)=W/U proportional to 1/r (implying irrotational flow and U=const).

(18) Hybrid combinations of these distributions are also possible, e.g. linear increase up to an intermediate radius, i.e. distribution A) and decrease above it, i.e. distribution B).

(19) Each distribution is characterized by a swirl number which is determined by the distribution itself and the values of exit flow angle at minimum (hub) and maximum (tip) radiuses of the blade.

(20) FIG. 5 shows a more detailed schematic of a radial cross section of the invention (only one blade/swirl device is shown). The leading edge of the high swirl device (blade 29) is aligned with the main flow axis. The airfoil is designed in order to produce an exit flow angle .sub.1=50. The second swirl device (blade 30) must be able to produce a reduction in exit flow angle. For this reason the second swirl device is designed counter-swirling to the first one.

(21) In order to avoid flow separation, the camber line of the second swirl device (blade 30) is aligned at the leading edge with the camber line of the first swirl device (blade 29) at the trailing swirler edge. This angle is therefore reduced through the extent of the second swirl device by a rotation of the flow given by .sub.1-.sub.2 with .sub.2 being the exit flow angle desired before vortex breakdown.

(22) The present invention includes also a fuel distribution system (FIG. 6) characterized by one external fuel distribution ring 31 and 32 which distributes fuel via fuel supply lines 31a, 32a to cavities obtained inside the swirler blades 29, 30. This fuel is injected into the air stream from gas holes 29a,b and 30a,b drilled on the suction and/or pressure side of the blades (see FIG. 4). The fuel supply to the swirl devices 14 and 16 via fuel supply line 34 can be independently controlled by valves V1 and V2 (FIGS. 6a and b).

(23) The possibility of staging fuel between suction and pressure side (independent feed of fuel to suction and pressure sides) is also included in this invention. Therefore, the fuel supply to the gas holes of the suction and pressure side of the blades via fuel supply line 35 can be independently controlled by valves V3 and V4 (FIG. 6c).

(24) In summary, the invention covers a burner arrangement capable of imparting swirl to an air stream and injecting fuel which premixes with the air stream.

(25) In detail, there are the following characteristic features: The arrangement comprises a sequence of minimum 2 and maximum 4 axial swirl devices with different swirl numbers for optimal pressure drop, fuel air premixing and combustion dynamics; The number of swirler blades for each swirl device is between 6 and 10 to allow control of fuel air premixing and homogenization of discharge flow; The ratio between minimum and maximum radius of the swirl devices is between 0.25 and 0.5; The swirl number of each single swirl device is between 0.3 and 0.8 The cylindrical cross section of the blades is shaped like an airfoil for reduction of pressure drop; A fuel/air mixing section is provided between two consecutive swirl devices with axial extension L with ratio L/R between 0.5 and 4 (with R external radius of the swirl devices). There are several distributions of exit flow angle possible, i.e. tan (r)=W/U=H.Math.r+K, tan (r)=W/U=const., and tan (r)=W/U proportional to 1/r; Leading edge of blades of each swirl device is aligned in terms of inflow angle with outflow angle of trailing edge of upstream swirl device; A fuel distribution system is given by an external ring pipe capable of feeding the fuel to the blades via cavities. The possibility of staging fuel between suction and pressure sides and between several swirl devices is advantageous; A method can be used to control combustion instabilities via staging fuel between different stages (pressure-suction sides, between different swirl devices);

(26) The advantage(s) of the present invention is:

(27) It allows to explore a totally new burner concept with potential of good fuel/air premixing and low pressure drop. The spread of convective time lags between fuel and flame is a promising solution for reducing the amplitude of the flame dynamic response (Flame Transfer Function).