Development of a Swirl and Bluff-Body Stabilized Burner for Low-NOx, Lean-Premixed Combustion

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Abstract
A burner configuration utilizing both swirl and bluff-body stabilization was developed and tested for dry low-NOx combustion of natural gas fuel. A multiple number of these burners can be used to make up a can combustor. The burner consisted of a central hub supporting an axial swirler and spoke-type fuel injectors mounted coaxially within a 100 mm diameter cylindrical tube. The swirl typically provided strong recirculation and mixing, while the flame was anchored physically to the center hub. Tests were conducted at typical heavy-duty gas turbine conditions of 620 K inlet temperature and 10 atmospheres pressure. Parametric studies were conducted with various configurations of the burner to determine the corresponding effects on fuel-air mixing, flame stability, and NOx and CO emissions. The results show that ultra-low NOx emissions can be obtained if the fuel injection is sufficiently well distributed. The compact flame produced by the highly mixed swirling flow results in very low CO emissions as well. The results suggest also that swirl-strength is reduced in an upstream swirler configuration.

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