Ignition and extinction characteristics of swirl spray flames at low temperatures
Abstract Lean blow-out (LBO) and lean light-off (LLO) in gas turbine combustors under high-altitude, low-temperature conditions have become critical issues for modern aircraft engines. In this study, a swirl spray combustion platform is employed to investigate the low-temperature LBO and LLO characteristics of Jet-A spray flames at atmospheric pressure. The air and fuel temperatures are varied either simultaneously or independently within the range of 253–293 K to examine the sensitivities of LBO limits, LLO limits, atomization, and evaporation to temperature. A phase Doppler particle analyzer (PDPA) is used to measure droplet velocity and Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD). The results show that as the fuel temperature decreases from 293 K to 256 K, the LBO and LLO limits increase by 7.8% and 6.9%, respectively, indicating comparable levels of deterioration. When both the fuel and air temperatures decrease simultaneously from 293 K to 253 K, the degradation of the LLO limit ...