高速煤粉燃烧器内燃烧特性数值模拟及结构优化

高速煤粉燃烧器火焰喷射速度高达60~200 m/s,炉膛内火焰较长,对流换热比例提高,使得炉膛内温度分布均匀,没有传统低速煤粉燃烧器火焰短,炉膛内局部过热和结焦等缺点。笔者以14 MW高速煤粉燃烧器为研究对象,采用数值模拟的方法,研究旋流强度、二次风温度等关键参数对燃烧器内煤粉燃烧的影响,针对燃烧器内煤粉燃烧特点进行结构优化设计。对旋流强度研究结果表明,当旋流强度S=2.2、2.8、3.2及3.7时,燃烧器内回流区形状变化不大,从一次风喷口开始到旋流叶片位置结束,回流区环绕一次风管;最大回流量在一次风喷口附近,距离一次风喷口越远,回流量越小;旋流强度对一次风喷口附近最大回流量影响不大,喷口附近最大回流量均在0.45 kg/s左右,当距喷口超过一定距离(L/H<0.35)时,旋流强度对回流量的影响开始变得明显,表现为旋流强度越大,回流区末端回流量越大,回流区末端回流量最大为0.30 kg/s,最小为0.17 kg/s。研究燃烧器喷口处燃烧状态表明,喷口处火焰旋流强度为0.10~0.28,与入口旋流强度正相关,火焰喷射速度150 m/s,为中等旋流强度的高速旋流火焰;喷口中心区可燃性组分富集,缺氧,燃料和氧气分层分布。当旋流强度提高,喷口中心区可燃性组分浓度降低,CO浓度从11%降低到10%,H2浓度从1.65%降低到1.40%,焦炭浓度从0. 14%降低到0. 11%,喷口边缘O2浓度从13%降低到10%。旋流强度S=3.2和S=3.7时可燃组分和氧气浓度分布变化较小,说明旋流强度提高对燃烧的影响减弱。考察0、100和200℃下二次风温度对燃烧的影响,结果表明,当二次风温度提高,煤粉在燃烧器内的反应时间有所降低,从0.15 s降低到0.11 s,但燃烧器内的煤粉碳转化率提高20%,达到65%。对燃烧器结构进行优化,加入中心风,对比中心风直流和旋流与不加中心风3种状态,结果表明,加入旋流中心风和直流中心风后喷口中心区半径r≤75 mm范围内可燃组分浓度降低,采用直流时由于气流刚性较强,喷口中心区氧气浓度升高,采用旋流中心风对中心区氧浓度影响弱,对可燃组分浓度降低效果优于直流中心风。     

Study of the influence of vane angle on flow, gas species, temperature, and char burnout in a 200 MWe lignite-fired boiler

We measured various operational parameters of a 200-MW_e, wall-fired, lignite utility boiler under various outer secondary air vane angles. The parameters measured were gas temperature, gas species concentrations, char burnout, and component release rates (C, H and N). Cold air experiments of a single burner were conducted in the laboratory. A double swirl flow pulverized-coal burner has a single ring recirculation zone that forms in the secondary air region in the burner. By decreasing vane angles, maximum values of radial velocity, tangential velocity and turbulence intensity all increase. Moreover, swirl intensity of air flow and recirculation zone size increase. Concomitantly, in the central region of the burner, decreasing the vane angles of outer secondary air increases gas temperatures, CO concentrations, char burnout and component release rates of C, H, and N, while O₂ and NO_x concentrations decrease, and an early ignition of pulverized-coal occurs. Meanwhile, in the secondary air region of the burner, conditions are similar except that NO_x mean concentrations are reversed showing instead an increase. In the side wall region, gas temperatures increase, O₂ and NO_x concentrations decrease, but CO concentrations vary only slightly.     

空气冷却式煤粉燃烧室数值模拟研究

双锥煤粉燃烧室在小容量工业锅炉中广泛采用水冷却方式,但随着市场对高容量锅炉需求的增加,双锥燃烧室体积增大、数量增多,如仍采用水冷却的方式将导致安装困难、水系统复杂等问题,亟需开发新的冷却方式。空气冷却形式具有结构简单、预热后的空气可以增加煤粉的着火稳定性等优点,需要考察其首次应用于双锥煤粉燃烧室中的效果。为了确定空气冷却式燃烧室燃烧和壁面冷却情况,采用数值模拟技术对14 MW工业锅炉燃烧室和炉膛进行三维建模,得到50%和100%两种负荷下不同内外二次风配风比例下燃烧室内部燃烧情况、金属壁面温度、出口火焰形状和炉膛充满度。结果表明:控制总空气过量系数不变,随着内二次风比例的逐渐增加,燃烧室内的平均温度逐渐降低;50%负荷下金属壁面温度随二次风比例的增加逐渐降低,100%负荷下金属壁面温度先降低后升高,这是内二次风助燃燃烧和外二次风的冷却共同作用的结果。随着内二次风比例的增加,金属壁面的高温区域逐渐后移,集中于后锥出口区域;在50%负荷下内二次风量占总空气量比例为0.4时,金属壁面具有最高温度930 K,100%负荷下内二次风量占总空气量比例为0.2时,壁面金属最高温度835K,2个最高温度均出现在后锥收缩段,据最高温度推荐壁面材料选取0Cr18Ni9,2种负荷下最高温度出现时燃烧室内的内二次风配风量为2 600 Nm3/h,应尽量使内二次风远离此配风量;50%负荷下燃烧室平均温度、金属壁面平均温度及最高温度均高于100%负荷,是空气冷却结构需要重点考察的工况。随着内二次风比例的逐渐增加,火焰长度先增加后减小,当内二次风过小时,出口气速较小,外二次风具有向中心的速度分量,火焰主要集中在炉膛前部。随着内二次风比例的增加,出口速度增大,火焰变长变细。但随着比例的继续增加,外二次风的轴向速度变小,出口火焰的旋流强度完全由二次风决定,出口旋流强度的增大导致了火焰的变短变粗,在2种负荷下,火焰长度较长时,内二次风比例为0.4~0.5。内外二次风比例为0.5∶0.5时,燃烧室内燃烧情况和壁面温度均匀稳定,火焰在炉膛内的充满度最好,是2个考察负荷下均较适合的运行参数。     

Flow field in the freeboard of vortexing fluidized bed

A systematic investigation on the flow field in a vortexing fluidized bed cold model was reported. The gas velocity profiles within the freeboard with diameters of 0.19 m and 0.29 m were measured by using a five-hole pitot tube. A new parameter, called vortex number, V_or defined as the ratio of tangential velocity to axial velocity of the swirling gas stream, was proposed for representing the swirl intensity. V_or is found to be increased with secondary air velocity, and decreased with primary air velocity and diameter of secondary air nozzles. It is also found that the profile of swirl flow is significantly affected by the arrangement of the secondary air nozzles. The effects of inserted length of secondary air nozzles and geometric structure of expansion section on the swirl flow are also studied. Based on the experimental data, a correlation is presented to estimate the vortex number. Vortex number is found to be a function of the geometric structure of exhaust tube, diameter of secondary air nozzle and tangential air flow rate.     

Development of can-type low NOx combustor for micro gas turbine (fundamental characteristics in a primary combustion zone with upward swirl)

A low NO_x combustor for kerosene-fueled micro gas turbine based on a new concept was proposed, and the combustion characteristics of the prototype combustor were investigated. The new concept combustor consisted of primary and secondary combustion zones, and they were connected by a throat. A swirler was set between the primary and secondary combustion zones. In order to enhance the recirculation of burned gas in the primary combustion zone, the combustion air was introduced through the swirler and forced to flow upward to the combustor bottom, from where fuel spray was supplied through a nozzle. An optimum configuration of the primary combustion zone such as length of primary zone, swirler vane angle, diameter of throat, etc. were investigated to achieve high combustion stability and low emission in wide ranges of fuel flow rate and excess air ratio. The optimum value of each part in the primary combustion zone was found out by measuring fundamental combustion characteristics such as lean combustion limit, flame luminosity, exhaust gas composition and combustion gas temperature.     

Fractal and turbulence characteristics of aerodynamic fields of swirl burners

Turbulence intensities at the exit of a centrally fuel rich (CFR) burner were measured employing a probe with hot-film sensors. In addition, using glycol as a smog tracer, optical images of the highlighted primary airflow were taken with a CCD camera and contrast-enhanced by computer. Profiles of the interface between primary and secondary air were obtained from which fractal dimensions (FDs) of the primary air boundary were estimated. Results indicate that FDs of this air boundary are in the range of 1.10–1.30 depending on burner conditions. As the FD and mean turbulence intensities of the primary air boundary have uniform distributions, they can be used to analyze coal combustion and NO_x formation characteristics of the burner. When either decreasing the outer secondary air vane angle or increasing either the inner secondary air vane angle or total mass flow rate of the secondary air, the burner swirl number increases which subsequently shows up as an increase in the FD and mean turbulence intensities of the primary air boundary. Increasing the ratio of the mass flow rate of inner to outer secondary air decreases the burner swirl number, but increases the FD and mean turbulence intensities of primary air boundary.     

Parametric study of combined premixed and non-premixed flame coal burner

A combined gas/air mixture–coal burner was developed to include heat recirculation by utilizing a radiative solid material with premixed flame jets impinging onto the downstream side to preheat the fuel/air jet on the upstream side. Providing the heat recirculation mechanism at different air staging degrees enhanced the destruction rates of the fuel nitrogen oxides. Concentric elliptical premixed gas/air and coal/air jets had a stronger preheating effect and a consequent increased NO_x reduction effectiveness as compared to concentric circular jets, where the inner elliptical jets enlarged the contact diffusion area and entrainment thus increasing the preheating time. The parametric variation in the feeding ports to the coal combustor affected the exhaust emissions, wherein the use of an inclined or shifted injection from the centre-line contributed to the NO_x reduction. Increasing the jet angle in the upstream direction reduced the CO concentrations, while the NO_x emissions varied depending on the degree of staging. The inverse/normal flame configuration was found more effective than the normal flame configuration with respect to NO_x reduction that was enhanced at higher heat input ratios. Utilizing inverse triple flames led to a further NO_x reduction since higher temperatures prevailed in the initial flame region with a five reaction zone structure. Finer particles produced less NO_x, which was further reduced by blending the coal with biomass.     

Factors influencing the ignition of flames from air-fired swirl pf burners retrofitted to oxy-fuel

Combustion tests were undertaken in a vertical pilot-scale furnace (1.2 MWt) at the IHI test facility in Aioi, Japan, to compare the performance of an air fired swirl burner retrofitted to oxy fired pf coal combustion with the oxy fired feed conditions established to match the furnace heat transfer for the air fired case. A turn down test at a reduced load was also conducted to study the impact on flame stability and furnace performance.Experimental results include gas temperature measurements using pyrometry to infer the ignition location of the flames, flue gas composition analysis, and residence time and carbon burnout. Theoretical computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling studies using the Fluent 6.2 code were made to infer mechanisms for flame ignition changes.Previous research has identified that differences in the gas compositions of air and oxy systems increase particle ignition times and reduce flame propagation velocity in laminar systems. The current study also suggests changes in jet aerodynamics, due to burner primary and secondary velocity differences (and hence the momentum flux ratio of the flows) also influence flame shape and type.For the oxy fuel retrofit considered, the higher momentum flux of the primary stream of the oxy-fuel burner causes the predicted ignition to be delayed and occur further distant from the burner nozzle, with the difference being accentuated at low load. However, the study was limited to experimental flames being all Type-0 (low swirl with no internal recirculation), and therefore future work consider higher swirl flames (with internal recirculation) more common in industry.     

CO2 capture using oxygen enhanced combustion strategies for natural gas power plants

This paper describes a series of experiments conducted with natural gas in air and in mixtures of oxygen and recycled flue gas, termed O₂/CO₂ recycle combustion. The objective is to enrich the flue gas with CO₂ to facilitate its capture and sequestration. Detailed measurements of gas composition, flame temperature and heat flux profiles were taken inside CANMET's 0.3 MWth down-fired vertical combustor fitted with a proprietary pilot scale burner. Flue gas composition was continuously monitored. The effects of burner operation, including swirling of secondary stream and air staging, on flame characteristics and NO_x emissions were also studied. The results of this work indicate that oxy-gas combustion techniques based on O₂/CO₂ combustion with flue gas recycle offer excellent potential for retrofit to conventional boilers for CO₂ emission abatement. Other benefits of the technology include considerable reduction and even elimination of NO_x emissions, improved plant efficiency due to lower gas volume and better operational flexibility.     

Experimental investigation of NOx emissions in oxycoal combustion

This work presents the results of an experimental investigation on NO_x emissions from coal combustion in a pilot scale test facility. Three oxidiser atmospheres have been compared, namely air, CO₂/O₂, and O₂ enriched recirculated flue gas. NO_x emissions from two different combustion modes have been studied, swirl flame and flameless combustion. The influence of the burner oxygen ratio and the oxidiser O₂ concentration on NO_x formation and reduction have been analysed. With increasing burner oxygen ratio, an increase of NO_x emissions has been obtained for air and CO₂/O₂ in both, swirl flame and flameless combustion. In case of the swirl flame, flue gas recirculation leads to a reduction of NO_x emissions up to 50%, whereas in case of flameless combustion this reduction is around 40% compared to CO₂/O₂. No significant impact of the oxidiser O₂ concentration in the CO₂/O₂ mixture on NO_x emissions is observed in the range between 18 and 27 vol.% in swirl flames. An analysis of NO_x formation and reduction mechanisms showed, that the observed reduction of NO_x emissions by flue gas recirculation cannot be attributed to the reduction of recirculated NO_x alone, but also to a reduced conversion of fuel-N to NO.     

Computational modeling of a utility boiler tangentially-fired furnace retrofitted with swirl burners

The paper presents 3D numerical investigation of OP-380 boiler tangentially-fired furnace utilizing bituminous coal. The boiler was retrofitted by replacing traditional jet burners with RI-JET2 (Rapid Ignition — JET) swirl burners. This kind of solution is unique in power generation systems. The purpose of this work is to show how the flow, combustion performance and heat exchange in the furnace are affected by introducing rapid ignition phenomena in RI-JET2 burners instead of delayed ignition associated with the traditional jet burners. Results were compared to simulations of similarly designed boiler equipped with traditional jet burners. Furnace simulation was preceded with a single RI-JET2 burner simulation at the inlet to a virtual combustion chamber. The results have shown that pulverized coal (PC) concentrator separates the PC into two streams: concentric with fine particles and axial with coarse particles. Stable flame operation was noticed even without secondary and tertiary air swirl. 3D simulations of combustion chamber have shown that in a burner zone a visibly isolated, concentrated flame exists in the furnace axis. This kind of flame shape reduces corrosion risk and furnace walls slagging as a result of RI-JET2 burner's long range.     

Development of an oxycoal swirl burner operating at low O2 concentrations

This work is to clarify the underlying mechanisms of burning pulverised coal in a mixture of CO₂/O₂. The performance of two different burner designs, single central orifice-type (SCO) and single annular orifice-type (SAO), under oxycoal conditions was examined in a down-fired test facility. Based on detailed in-flame measurements, combined with numerical simulations, the main parameters influencing the stability of a CO₂/O₂ pulverised coal swirl flame were investigated. The oxycoal flame was stabilised at the burner quarl by: increasing the O₂ concentration above 34 vol% without changes to the air-firing burner design and by modifications of the burner geometry thus changing its aerodynamics. The modification of the burner allowed a decrease of the O₂ concentrations to 23 vol% for SCO burner and to less than 21 vol% for SAO burner. Comprehensive measurement data for axial and tangential velocity, flue gas temperature and oxygen concentration for stable oxy-firing at 21 vol% O₂ is presented. The results reported can be used as a guideline for a development of an industrial swirl burner capable of stable operation in both regimes, namely: air and oxycoal.     

新型煤粉燃烧器的特性分析和产能发挥探索

实践证明,一次风用量、风道风速、旋流风的旋转和扩散、风压、二次风温、喂煤系统的计量准确性和稳定性是影响燃烧器性能发挥的主要因素。燃烧器的调试工作是一个复杂的系统工程,必须有计划、按步骤进行。燃烧器在使用中,要加强检查维护,对出现的损伤要及时进行修理。     

On mechanisms of formation of environmentally harmful compounds in homogeneous combustors

A kinetic model is developed for calculating the emission characteristics of homogeneous combustors using methane and synthesis gas (syngas) as a fuel. The model is validated over a large set of experimental data on concentrations of NO, CO, and OH in laminar flames and in the Bunsen burner and on concentrations of OH, NO, and CO in a homogeneous combustor operating on a mixture of syngas with air. At an identical temperature of combustion products, i.e., identical thermodynamic efficiency, the combustor operating on syngas is demonstrated to emit a greater amount of NO, CO, and CO₂, as compared with the combustor operating on methane. Though the use of syngas allows one to organize stable combustion of ultralean mixtures and to obtain extremely low concentrations of NO and CO at the combustor exit (≈1–3 ppm), the amount of CO₂ in the exhaust of even extremely lean mixtures (α ≈ 3) is appreciably greater than that in the case of using methane.     

Modeling of oxy-fuel combustion for a western Canadian sub-bituminous coal

The motivation of this research is to develop practical oxy-coal combustion techniques in order to facilitate the conversion of coal-fired utility power plants so as to recover a CO₂ rich flue gas stream for use and/or sequestration. The objective of this study is to ascertain the applicability and accuracy of a modeling tool to assist with future pilot scale oxy-fuel combustion experiments and burner scale-up studies. Two modes of oxy-coal combustion, O₂ enriched air (OEA) and recycled flue gas (RFG), were experimentally tested in a 0.3 MW_th pilot-scale combustor using a western Canadian sub-bituminous coal. The computational fluid dynamic tool was utilized to model the combustion, heat transfer and pollutant formation characteristics of these test cases and to examine the impact due to changes in the combustion medium, burner swirl and burner configuration. The model provided insights for the observed variation in NO_x production among the test cases: the dramatic increase in the OEA mode, the drop at higher burner swirl settings and the surprisingly small reduction in the RFG mode. Overall the model results compared well with measured data in all test cases and established confidence in using the model to explore new design concepts for oxy-coal combustion.     

Flame stability and emission characteristics of turbulent LPG IDF in a backstep burner

The stability characteristics and emissions from turbulent LPG inverse diffusion flame (IDF) in a backstep burner are reported in this paper. The blow-off velocity of turbulent LPG IDF is observed to increase monotonically with fuel jet velocity. In contrast to normal diffusion flames (NDF), the flame in the present IDF burner gets blown out without getting lifted-off from the burner surface. The soot free length fraction, SFLF, defined as the ratio of visible premixing length, H_p, to visible flame length, H_f, is used for qualitative estimation of soot reduction in this IDF burner. The SFLF is found to increase with central air jet velocity indicating the occurrence of extended premixing zone in the vicinity of flame base. Interestingly, the soot free length fraction (SFLF) is found to be correlated well with the newly devised parameter, global momentum ratio. The peak value of EINO_X happens to occur closer to stoichiometric overall equivalence ratio.     

基于CO2稀释的旋流无焰燃烧理论判别方法

基于温度判据和时间判据,本文建立了考虑旋流入口条件和CO₂稀释的无焰燃烧理论判别方法并进行验证,进而讨论了结构参数和操作参数对燃烧模式和火焰稳定性的影响。模型预测的旋流无焰燃烧临界氧浓度与文献中实验数据相比,最大相对误差不超过8%。降低氧浓度、减小当量比或提高入口流量时,温度判据1变化不大,而时间判据更易满足,因此有利于实现无焰燃烧;低旋流数条件下,无焰燃烧稳定性较差。增大燃烧室高度时,温度判据1更易满足,而时间判据更难满足,温度判据1分界线下移更快,有利于形成无焰燃烧;减小燃烧室截面积时,温度判据1变化不大,而时间判据更易满足,有利于实现无焰燃烧;增大燃烧器出口面积时,温度判据1和时间判据均更难满足,且时间判据分界线下移更快,不利于形成无焰燃烧。     

Computational fluid dynamic analyses of catalytic combustors for 100 kW-class molten carbonate fuel cell

The asymmetric inner structure of a catalytic combustor causes wall cracking because of regional overheating. Thus, a symmetric shape is proposed in the present work and analyses of the computational fluid dynamics of the existing combustor and the proposed type have been performed. A simulation of the revised combustor without a swirl device revealed that the flow of gases is concentrated on the center of the combustor and only catalysts around the center are used. In the revised combustor with a swirl device, the overall temperatures were estimated to be uniform. However, near the swirl device, high temperature exceeding 1,700 K was measured. Therefore, a heatproof surface coating on the swirl device is necessary for protection of the material. At the initial start-up of the catalytic combustor, hydrogen and natural gas are used. When only natural gas is used, the simulation indicated that the gas does not burn in the revised combustor without a swirl device. However, in the combustor with the swirl device, methane of 34.8% volume burns in the simulation. On the other hand, when hydrogen and natural gas are burned together, methane of 91.7% volume burns in the simulation.     

预燃室对逆喷旋流煤粉燃烧器流场特性作用研究

煤粉高效低氮燃烧技术是煤炭高效利用领域持续关注的热点。煤粉燃烧器作为煤粉锅炉的核心设备,研究适合多煤种、宽负荷条件的煤粉燃烧器设计原理及技术至关重要。逆喷射流稳燃机理大都应用在航空发动机和燃气轮机领域,在煤粉燃烧领域应用极少。前人大量研究了预燃室对旋流燃烧器流场特性的影响,但鲜见预燃室对逆喷旋流燃烧器流场影响的相关研究。为了探究预燃室对逆喷旋流煤粉燃烧器流场特性的影响规律,笔者针对一款20 t/h逆喷旋流燃烧器,基于等温模化原理建立冷态燃烧器模型,利用热线风速仪和飘带法进行了流场测试和分析,结果表明:预燃室的存在不改变逆喷旋流煤粉燃烧器回流区环形的形状,但在逆喷旋流煤粉燃烧器内形成一个有利于煤粉着火的轴向速度低和湍流强度大的回流区。在X/D<1.3区域内,由于圆锥形预燃室对气流的挤压作用,预燃室的存在对回流区的面积起到抑制作用;在1.32.3区域内,预燃室对燃烧器内部流场的作用减弱,可忽略不计。在预燃室的作用下,回流区最宽处的直径从0.97D降至0.86D,最大相对回流率位置从截面X/D=1后移到截面X/D=1.6处,相对回流率从1.17减小至0.99。预燃室的存在对二次风区域内的轴向平均速度和湍流度分布规律影响较大。无预燃室工况下,在X/D<0.6区域内,速度和湍流度均出现峰值,在X/D>1.6区域内峰值消失,内外二次风完全混合;有预燃室工况下,在X/D<0.6区域速度沿着径向方向逐渐增大,湍流度沿着径向方向逐渐减小,在X/D>1.6区域,速度和湍流度沿着径向方向分布均匀。预燃室的存在有利于回流区煤粉的稳定燃烧,工程应用中起到煤粉迅速着火以及难燃煤稳定燃烧的作用。另外预燃室壁面气流速度较大,刚性强,避免预燃室壁面超温或结焦现象的发生,延长了煤粉燃烧器无故障运行时间和整体的使用寿命。     

Numerical simulation of oxy-coal combustion for a swirl burner with EDC model简

The characteristics of oxy-coal combustion for a swirl burner with a specially designed preheating chamber are studied numerically. In order to increase the accuracy in the prediction of flame temperature and igni- tion position, eddy dissipation concept （EDC） model with a skeletal chemical reaction mechanism was adopted to describe the combustion of volatile matter. Simulation was conducted under six oxidant stream conditions with dif- ferent OjN2/CO2 molar ratios： 21/79/0, 30/70/0, 50/50/0, 21/0/79, 30/0/70 and 50/0/50. Results showed that 02 en- richment in the primary oxidant stream is in favor of combustion stabilization, acceleration of ignition and increase of maximum flame temperature, while the full substitution of N2 by CO2 in the oxidant stream delays ignition and decreases the maximum flame temperature. However, the overall flow field and flame shapes in these cases are very similar at the same flow rate of the primary oxidant stream. Combustion characteristics of the air-coal is similar to that of the oxy-coal with 30% 02 and 70% CO2 in the oxidant stream, indicating that the rear condition is suitable for retrofitting an air-coal fired boiler to an oxy-coal one. The swirl burner with a specially designed preheating chamber can increase flame temperature, accelerate ignition and enhance burning intensity of pulverized coal under oxy-coal combustion. Also, qualitative experimental validation indicated the burner can reduce the overall NOx emission under certain 02 enrichment and oxy-coal combustion conditions against the air-coal combustion.