Friday, February 24, 2023 11:00AM

Brown Bag Seminar

Friday, February 24

11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m.

Weber, Classroom II

Presenters:

Andrew Semelka

Ari Tretiak

Sparsh Desai

Presentations

Andrew Semelka

Seminar Title

"Kerosene Injection in a Lean Prevaporized Premixed Combustor"

Abstract

With an expected resurgence of commercial supersonic transportation, new techniques are required to meet the growing demand for safe, efficient, and clean air travel. Lean Prevaporized Premixed combustion is a technique being studied with the potential to reduce CO2, Particulate, and NOX emissions. The characteristics of supersonic transportation address many of the challenges of implementing such a combustor, revitalizing interest in LPP technology. One important aspect to study is how the air fuel mixedness influences the combustion characteristics and emissions profile of the burner. To achieve this, a variable-length premixer was designed with the goal of performing over a wide range of test conditions. Future experiments using this rig will determine the design, feasibility, and impact of large-scale commercial supersonic transportation.

Advisor’s Name

Dr. Adam Steinberg

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Ari E. Tretiak

Seminar Title

"Examining the Operational Capability of Hydrogen Fuel Operation in Fielded Fuel Injectors"

Abstract

This project is a follow-up to a previous one that tested chemiluminescence and studied the flame transfer function's characteristic using a T70 fuel injector and methane fuel. This project uses a Solar Turbines' Titan 250 fuel injector designed for methane, to test how the flame responds to hydrogen doping with concentrations starting below 30% and gradually ramping up to pure hydrogen operation. 

Advisor

Dr. Tim Lieuwen

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Sparsh Desai

Seminar Title

"Development of a Clean Sheet Experimental Combustor for Hybrid Electric Aircraft"

Abstract

Future aircraft will require innovative propulsion architectures, such as hybrid electric gas turbines, for improvements in emissions and fuel economy. Hybridized propulsion systems impose novel operational constraints for the gas turbine, such as lower turndown ratios or sub-idle operation. Recent system-level studies have shown the feasibility of such architectures, but not the detailed combustor-level considerations. One particularly promising future aviation combustor concept is axially staged partially-premixed fuel injection, which is enabled by advances in additive manufacturing and sustainable aviation fuels. In particular, the success of fuel staging is highly dependent on both the nature of the fuel atomization in the coflowing staged air, and also the mixing of this staged air-fuel mixture into a vitiated crossflow. One facility was designed to study hybridized spray-in-co-flow and spray-in-crossflow configurations and the second facility was to assess the impacts of staged-fueling strategies on key combustor operability and turbine durability metrics, including flame shape, CO and NOx emissions, and turbine inlet temperature pattern. I assisted in research with the first facility, which employed proven high-speed optical diagnostics of the associated fluid mechanics of a potential injector and varying flow parameters, and process the image data that resulted from the experiments. This image processing was done in Python, utilizing blob detection algorithms to determine various flow parameters and nondimensional factors that could characterize the performance of a given injector and flow parameter combination. In the future, this project will continue to evaluate various combinations, with the goal of choosing ideal ranges of values in key parameters, helping progress towards developing the axially staged combustor for hybridized electric gas turbine engines of the future.

Advisor

Professor Tim Lieuwen