IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i8p1511-d224871.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Plasma Ignition Characteristics in Gas Turbine Combustors

Author

Listed:
  • Shizheng Liu

    (College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Ningbo Zhao

    (College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Jianguo Zhang

    (College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Jialong Yang

    (College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Zhiming Li

    (College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Hongtao Zheng

    (College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China)

Abstract

Reliable ignition is critical for improving the operating performance of modern combustor and gas turbines. As an alternative to the traditional spark discharge ignition, plasma assisted ignition has attracted more interest and been shown to be more effective in increasing ignition probability, accelerating kernel growth, and decreasing ignition delay time. In this paper, the operating characteristic of a typical self-designed plasma ignition system is investigated. Based on the optical experiment, the plasma jet flow feature during discharge is analyzed. Then, a detailed numerical study is carried out to investigate the effects of different plasma parameters on ignition enhancement of a one can-annular combustor used in gas turbines. The results show that plasma indeed has a good ability to expand the ignition limit and decrease the minimum ignition energy. For the studied plasma ignitor, the initial discharge kernel is not a sphere but a jet flow cone with a length of about 30 mm. Besides, the numerical comparisons indicate that the additions of plasma active species and the increases of initial energy, plasma jet flow length and discharge frequency can benefit the acceleration of kernel growth and flame propagation via thermal, kinetic and transport pathways. The present study may provide a suitable understanding of plasma assisted ignition in gas turbines and a meaningful reference to develop high performance ignition systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Shizheng Liu & Ningbo Zhao & Jianguo Zhang & Jialong Yang & Zhiming Li & Hongtao Zheng, 2019. "Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Plasma Ignition Characteristics in Gas Turbine Combustors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:8:p:1511-:d:224871
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/8/1511/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/8/1511/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mariani, Antonio & Foucher, Fabrice, 2014. "Radio frequency spark plug: An ignition system for modern internal combustion engines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 151-161.
    2. Badawy, Tawfik & Bao, XiuChao & Xu, Hongming, 2017. "Impact of spark plug gap on flame kernel propagation and engine performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 311-327.
    3. Lin, Bingxuan & Wu, Yun & Zhu, Yifei & Song, Feilong & Bian, Dongliang, 2019. "Experimental investigation of gliding arc plasma fuel injector for ignition and extinction performance improvement," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 1017-1026.
    4. Khidr, Kareem I. & Eldrainy, Yehia A. & EL-Kassaby, Mohamed M., 2017. "Towards lower gas turbine emissions: Flameless distributed combustion," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1237-1266.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Masaaki Okubo, 2019. "Special Issue on Plasma Processes for Renewable Energy Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-4, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yin, Xiaojun & Sun, Nannan & Sun, Ting & Shen, Hongguang & Mehra, Roopesh Kumar & Liu, Junlong & Wang, Ying & Yang, Bo & Zeng, Ke, 2022. "Experimental investigation the effects of spark discharge characteristics on the heavy-duty spark ignition natural gas engine at low load condition," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PC).
    2. Huang, Shuai & Li, Tie & Zhang, Zhifei & Wang, Linyan & Yu, Xiao & Zheng, Ming & Yang, Rundai & Zhao, Xinwu, 2021. "Influencing factors on the vibrational and rotational temperatures in the spark discharge channel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    3. Discepoli, G. & Cruccolini, V. & Ricci, F. & Di Giuseppe, A. & Papi, S. & Grimaldi, C.N., 2020. "Experimental characterisation of the thermal energy released by a Radio-Frequency Corona Igniter in nitrogen and air," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    4. Zhiqiang Li & Jing Qin & Yiqiang Pei & Kai Zhong & Zhiyong Zhang & Jian Sun, 2023. "The Lean-Burn Limit Extending Experiment on Gasoline Engine with Dual Injection Strategy and High Power Ignition System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-16, July.
    5. Jung, Dongwon & Sasaki, Kosaku & Iida, Norimasa, 2017. "Effects of increased spark discharge energy and enhanced in-cylinder turbulence level on lean limits and cycle-to-cycle variations of combustion for SI engine operation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1467-1477.
    6. Singh, Awanish Pratap & Padhi, Upasana P. & Joarder, Ratan & Roy, Arnab, 2019. "Spatio-temporal effect of the breakdown zone in the laser-initiated ignition of atomized ethyl alcohol-air mixture," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C), pages 140-154.
    7. Zong, Chao & Ji, Chenzhen & Cheng, Jiaying & Zhu, Tong & Guo, Desan & Li, Chengqin & Duan, Fei, 2022. "Toward off-design loads: Investigations on combustion and emissions characteristics of a micro gas turbine combustor by external combustion-air adjustments," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    8. Tu, Yaojie & Xu, Shunta & Xu, Mingchen & Liu, Hao & Yang, Wenming, 2020. "Numerical study of methane combustion under moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution regime at elevated pressure conditions up to 8 atm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    9. Andwari, Amin Mahmoudzadeh & Aziz, Azhar Abdul & Said, Mohd Farid Muhamad & Latiff, Zulkarnain Abdul, 2014. "Experimental investigation of the influence of internal and external EGR on the combustion characteristics of a controlled auto-ignition two-stroke cycle engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 1-10.
    10. Bao, Xiuchao & Jiang, Yizhou & Xu, Hongming & Wang, Chongming & Lattimore, Thomas & Tang, Lan, 2017. "Laminar flame characteristics of cyclopentanone at elevated temperatures," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 671-680.
    11. Ghaderi Masouleh, M. & Keskinen, K. & Kaario, O. & Kahila, H. & Karimkashi, S. & Vuorinen, V., 2019. "Modeling cycle-to-cycle variations in spark ignited combustion engines by scale-resolving simulations for different engine speeds," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 801-820.
    12. Xu, Shunta & Xi, Liyang & Tian, Songjie & Tu, Yaojie & Chen, Sheng & Zhang, Shihong & Liu, Hao, 2023. "Numerical investigation of pressure and H2O dilution effects on NO formation and reduction pathways in pure hydrogen MILD combustion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    13. Yang, Xiao & He, Zhihong & Qiu, Penghua & Dong, Shikui & Tan, Heping, 2019. "Numerical investigations on combustion and emission characteristics of a novel elliptical jet-stabilized model combustor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 1082-1097.
    14. Alizadeh, Sadegh & Rezazadeh, Ali Akbar & Avami, Akram, 2024. "A cutting-edge tool for sustainable environmental management through life cycle assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    15. Montazerinejad, H. & Eicker, U., 2022. "Recent development of heat and power generation using renewable fuels: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    16. Ghaderi Masouleh, M. & Keskinen, K. & Kaario, O. & Kahila, H. & Wright, Y.M. & Vuorinen, V., 2018. "Flow and thermal field effects on cycle-to-cycle variation of combustion: scale-resolving simulation in a spark ignited simplified engine configuration," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 486-505.
    17. Pham, Quangkhai & Chang, Mengzhao & Kalwar, Ankur & Agarwal, Avinash Kumar & Park, Sungwook & Choi, Byungchul & Park, Suhan, 2023. "Macroscopic spray characteristics and internal structure studies of natural gas injection," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PE).
    18. He, Li & Fan, Yilin & Bellettre, Jérôme & Yue, Jun & Luo, Lingai, 2020. "A review on catalytic methane combustion at low temperatures: Catalysts, mechanisms, reaction conditions and reactor designs," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    19. Yong Hyun Choi & Joonsik Hwang, 2023. "Review on Plasma-Assisted Ignition Systems for Internal Combustion Engine Application," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-25, February.
    20. Schröder, Lukas & Hillenbrand, Thomas & Brüggemann, Dieter, 2024. "Evaluation of the combustion process of directly injected methane in a rapid compression machine with a laser-based ignition system and an electrical ignition system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:8:p:1511-:d:224871. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.