Study on nonpremixed methane/air combustion from flame structure and NOX emission aspect for different burner head structures

In the present study, the air turbulator, which is a part of a nonpremixed burner, is investigated numerically in terms of its effects on the diffusion methane flame structure and NO_X emissions. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code was used for the numerical analysis. At first, four experiments were conducted using natural gas fuel. In the experimental studies, the excess air ratio was taken constant as 1.2, while the fuel consumption rate was changed between 22 and 51 Nm³/h. After the experimental studies, the CFD studies were carried out. Pure methane was taken as fuel for the simulations. The nonpremixed combustion model with the steady laminar flamelet model (SFM) approach was used in the combustion analyses. Methane‐air extinction mechanism with 17 species and 58 reactions was used for the simulations. The results obtained from the CFD studies were confronted with the measurements of the flue gas emissions in the experimental studies. Then, a modified burner head was analysed numerically for the different air turbulator blade numbers and angles. The CFD results show that increasing the air turbulator blade number and angle causes the thermal NO emissions to be reduced in the flue gas by making the flame in the combustion chamber more uniform than the original case. This new flame structure provides better mixing of the fuel and combustion air. Thus, the diffusion flame structure in the combustion chamber takes the form of the partially premixed flame structure. The maximum reduction in the thermal NO emissions in the flue gas is achieved at 38% according to the original case.