Abstract :
Scarcity of fossil fuel resources and the pollution caused by the carbon fuels increases the necessity for an
alternative fuel in recent years. Metal powders used as a fuel additive to accelerate the combustion of solid rocket
motors. In this article a numerical study is conducted on a CAN type combustion chamber of a gas turbine engine
with and without casing, which uses aluminum aerosol (Aluminum Nano-particle mixed with air) as a fuel. A 3-D
computational flow domain is modeled in CAD and the combustion inside the chamber is simulated using CFD. The
combustion flow is solved using RANS k- Æ turbulence model and the species transport equations are used for
modeling chemical reaction during combustion. The aluminum (Al) Nano particle in the fuel stream reacts with
oxygen (O2) inside the combustion chamber and releases enormous heat, which increases the combustion efficiency
of the gas turbine engine. Byproduct of combustion contains only aluminum oxide and there is no carbon dioxide,
carbon monoxide and other polluting gases, which is mainly due to the absence of carbon and other impurities in the
fuel. Even after the reduction of greenhouse gases, still NOx is produced at high temperature. The simulation result
shows very high temperature inside the chamber during combustion, which could possibly damage combustion
chamber and turbine. The temperature near the wall and the outlet are diluted by increasing the mass flow rate of air
in primary, secondary and tertiary inlet of combustion chamber without casing.
Keyword :
Metal fuel, Aluminum Nano particles, Aluminum aerosol, gas turbine engine, can combustion chamber, species transport, Aluminum oxide.