Study of Sequential Two-Stage Combustion in a Low-Emission Gas Turbine Combustion Chamber

In this paper, we analyzed advanced ground-based power gas turbine units with low-emission combustion chambers used for consecutive two-stage fuel combustion. Such low-emission combustion chambers have a wide range of stable performance modes with reduced emission of harmful substances. The two-stage combustion chambers used in gas turbine units of various capacities—small (for example, M7A-03 with a capacity of approximately 8–10 MW), medium (L20A and L30A with a capacity of 18–30 MW) and large (9HA and GT36 with a capacity of over 300 MW)—showed their universality, efficiency, and good possibilities for scaling. The designs of low-emission combustion chambers for gas turbine units of different capacities are fundamentally similar. They consist of two sequentially located combustion volumes (stages), and each of them has its own burner unit. The first burner unit is typical for low-emission combustion chambers with the combustion of the premixed air-fuel mixture and consists of swirlers, mixing zone, fuel injectors, and igniters. The second burner unit is located downstream, and air-fuel mixtures of a different composition are supplied into it through special holes. The combustion of the mixtures occurs at a lower oxygen content and higher temperature. The ignition, work until idling, and loading before switching to the low-emission mode and switching to it are performed by the operation regulation of the first burner unit. Fuel in the second burner unit is supplied when a certain temperature of the gases arriving from the first combustion stage is achieved, which ensures its self-ignition. The further load is regulated by the fuel supply to the second burner unit. The design implementation of the sequential two-stage combustion scheme and approaches to regulating fuel and air distribution over the stages that ensures stable nonpulsating combustion are different and so they are of great scientific and practical interest.