Design and Testing of a Micromix

A. E. Robinson
Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd. & Co. KG,
Hohemarkstrasse 60–70,
Combustor With Recuperative
61440 Oberursel, Germany
e-mail: robinson@fh-aachen.de
Wall Cooling for a Hydrogen
H. H.-W. Funke
Department for Gas Turbines and Aircraft
Fueled µ-Scale Gas Turbine
Engines,
For more than 1 decade up to now, there is an ongoing interest in small gas turbines
Aachen University of Applied Sciences (ACUAS),
downsized to microscale. With their high energy density, they offer a great potential as a

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Hohenstaufenallee 6,
substitute for today’s unwieldy accumulators found in a variety of applications such as
52064 Aachen, Germany
laptops, small tools, etc. But microscale gas turbines could not only be used for gener-
e-mail: funke@fh-aachen.de
ating electricity, they could also produce thrust for powering small unmanned aerial
vehicles or similar devices. Beneath all the great design challenges with the rotating
P. Hendrick parts of the turbomachinery at this small scale, another crucial item is in fact the com-
Faculté des Sciences Appliquées, Service
bustion chamber needed for a safe and reliable operation. With the so-called regular
Aéro-Thermo-Mécanique,
micromix burning principle for hydrogen successfully downscaled in an initial combus-
Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB),
tion chamber prototype of 10 kW energy output, this paper describes a new design
Avenue F. D. Roosevelt 50,
attempt aimed at the integration possibilities in a ␮-scale gas turbine. For manufacturing
1050 Brussels, Belgium
the combustion chamber completely out of stainless steel components, a recuperative wall
e-mail: patrick.hendrick@ulb.ac.be
cooling was introduced to keep the temperatures in an acceptable range. Also a new way
of an integrated ignition was developed. The detailed description of the prototype’s de-
R. Wagemakers sign is followed by an in depth report about the test results. The experimental investiga-
Department of MECA, Fluid Mechanics,
tions comprise a set of mass flow variations, coupled with a variation of the equivalence
Royal Military Academy (RMA),
ratio for each mass flow at different inlet temperatures and pressures. With the data
Avenue de la Renaissance 30,
obtained by an exhaust gas analysis, a full characterization concerning combustion effi-
1000 Brussels, Belgium
ciency and stability of the prototype chamber is possible. Furthermore, the data show full
e-mail: rolf.wagemakers@rma.ac.be
compliance with the expected operating requirements of the designated ␮-scale gas
turbine. 关DOI: 10.1115/1.4002847兴

1 Introduction
Presently, small ␮-scale gas turbines are commonly accepted as
a possible device to comply with tomorrow’s energy needs. De-
spite several approaches in the class up to 100 W such as MIT 关1兴,
ONERA 关2,3兴, or IHI Corporation 关4兴, there is still a gap for most
of the commonly used devices such as mobile computers needing
up to 1 kW of energy. Here, the Belgian project “powerMEMS”
started with the design of a hydrogen fueled ␮-scale gas turbine
rated for 1 kW of continuous electrical output 关5–7兴. The overall
3D-design of this gas turbine consists of a radial compressor and
a turbine coupled on a short single shaft with the generator also
put onto this shaft in front of the compressor. According to this
design, the reverse flow annular combustor has not to exceed an
inner diameter of 40 mm, a length of 50 mm, and a height of 10
mm. Before entering the combustion chamber, the compressed
gases are sent through a recuperator, thus increasing the inlet tem-
perature up to 690 K. A summary of the most important data, the
combustor design has to meet, is shown in Table 1.
Although the basic challenges in microcombustor design such
as increased surface area-to-volume ratio followed by high heat
losses, short residence time, and very high requirements to mate-
rials and fabrication as described extensively in Ref. 关8兴 are valid
also for the design of the powerMEMS ␮-scale gas turbine com-
bustor, there is still a big difference in its 3D-design compared
with the aforementioned 2D approaches from MIT 关9–11兴 and
ONERA 关2,3兴. Along with its much larger size and much higher
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute 共IGTI兲 of ASME for pub-
lication in the JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER. Manuscript
received July 7, 2010; final manuscript received July 24, 2010; published online
April 11, 2011. Editor: Dilip R. Ballal.
fuel consumption to reach the desired energy output, this conse-
quently called for a complete new hydrogen combustor design.
Opted for a 3 kW output gas turbine, the only combustor design
using hydrogen that is roughly comparable regarding size and also
comprises an annular burner can be found in Ref. 关12兴, but it was
obviously discontinued in favor of smaller scale combustors 关13兴.
Other designs comparable in size such as the “Palmtop Gas Tur-
bine” developed at the University of Tokyo have a combustor
designed for propane use instead of hydrogen 关14兴.
With proven hydrogen burning principles already existing for
large scale applications, the idea was born to downscale such a
system for the desired ␮-scale gas turbine application. The prin-
ciple to be considered for this attempt was the micromix burning
principle. Originally developed back in the 1990s 关15兴, it was
subsequently successfully realized with hydrogen in the auxiliary
power unit GTCP 36-300 关16,17兴. Furthermore, this principle has
the inherited advantage of no flashback possibility due to the non-
premixed concept, which is an important issue even in this small
scale application. The main limitation to the downscaling of this
mixing principle strategy lies in the limit of the manufacturing
possibilities and costs as described in Ref. 关18兴. Referring to the
development history of the micromix burning principle, there
were actually two functional variants of this principle designed
called the regular and the inverse micromix burning principles. In
fact, the regular 关19–22兴 as well as the inverse principles 关23兴
were successfully downscaled and tested regarding the power-
MEMS parameters.
Based on a lot of numerical and experimental results from prior
research, this paper will deal with the further development of the
downscaled regular micromix burning principle. Figure 1 shows
the realization of this principle in the first prototype burner 关21兴.
The air is entering the chamber through U-shaped holes in the

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power AUGUST 2011, Vol. 133 / 082301-1
Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Table 1 Characteristic data of the powerMEMS ultra-micro gas
turbine
Nominal air mass flow rate 共g/s兲 20
Hydrogen mass flow rate 共g/s兲 0.097
Pressure ratio 3
Rotor speed 共rpm兲 500,000
Rotor diameter 共mm兲 20
Combustion chamber inlet temperature 共K兲 690
Maximum turbine inlet temperature 共K兲 1200
Blade height at turbine inlet 共mm兲 3.6
Effective shaft output 共W兲 1180
guiding panel. In a specific distance aft of the guiding panel the
hydrogen is injected via 0.2 mm diameter holes 共one for each hole
in the air guiding panel兲. Following this concept, air and hydrogen
are mixed by cross flow interaction and the mixture burns directly
in a diffusive type flame. Leaving this successfully tested basic
combustor design unchanged, the target was now to set up a de-
sign, which has not only improved burning characteristics, espe-
cially at pressurized conditions, but also the capability of being
integrateable into the real ␮-scale gas turbine. The first pictures of
this design could already be found in Refs. 关21,22兴.
2 Design Approach
To fully understand the design approach for the combustion
chamber prototype described in this paper, a closer look to its
predecessor, which was extensively characterized in Refs. 关19,21兴,
has to be undertaken. This first prototype was actually designed to
prove the practical feasibility of the regular micromix burning
principle for ␮-scale applications. Furthermore, this prototype
should offer the flexibility to easily investigate different chamber
layouts and thus find an optimized design for further development,
meeting all design parameters of the powerMEMS ␮-scale gas
turbine. So the initial design was never intended to be put directly
into any ultra-micro gas turbine. But referring to the results de-
scribed in Ref. 关21兴, a promising chamber layout was found,
which should be the basis for the new design. Therefore, the
chamber layout including the enlargement step and the number
and size of hydrogen injection holes were directly transferred,
whereas the chamber length was enlarged about 4 mm, taking into
account that the reduced chamber length might be the cause for
the inferior burning efficiency at higher pressures of the previous
prototype chamber 关21兴. With the main chamber layout fixed,
work was then focused on the remaining design challenges.
One of the main design goals was to find a suitable material for
the whole combustion chamber construction. As the regular mi-
cromix principle uses all the incoming air for the combustion, no
secondary air flow is available that could be directly used for wall
cooling purposes. This initial situation would normally lead to a
ceramic or even silicone based material choice, as already used in
Ref. 关11兴. But putting the chosen chamber configuration into an all
ceramic construction of this size was considered much too diffi-
cult and expensive to be realized, especially with an incorporated
Fig. 1 Detail of the realized regular micromix burning principle
with crossflow injection of hydrogen
082301-2 / Vol. 133, AUGUST 2011
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Fig. 2 Cross-sectional view of recuperative cooled wall cham-
ber layout with main parts and basic air flow chart
leakage proof hydrogen supply system. Of course, quartz glass, as
used for the initial prototype for visual access during operation,
resembled no alternative either. Next materials taken into consid-
eration were nickel- and cobalt-based alloys, which were exten-
sively used in combustion chamber design for normal scale gas
turbines. With a ceramic coating, these materials could probably
withstand the expected temperatures in the ␮-scale combustor
without additional cooling. But again, these materials are very
expensive and very difficult to machine especially in this small
scale, making the end product even more expensive.
So based on the experience with the inox outer wall fitted for
pressurized tests to the first prototype 关21兴, the focus fell again on
stainless steel. Even the special heat resistant stainless steel is
available in a great variety at moderate costs; it is far better to
machine and weld and thus offers more potential in realizing a
new chamber design up to operational status than the aforemen-
tioned materials. Namely, the austenitic chromium–nickel steel
alloys 1.4828 共similar to AISI 309兲 and 1.4841 共similar to AISI
310兲 were chosen for further designing. They offer a very high
ductility, making them insensitive to impulsive stresses and rapid
changes in temperature. But again, without any proper cooling
and a wall thickness of 2–3 mm, as dictated by the turbine needs
to keep the radial expansion during operation as low as possible,
there would be no chance that this material would survive very
long.
Finally, the idea came up to use the incoming air for wall cool-
ing before entering the combustion chamber, resulting in a recu-
perative cooled combustor. The basic design depicted in Fig. 2
consists of an outer casing made out of normal grade stainless
steel 共part 1 in Fig. 2兲, which houses the combustion chamber
mounted in the reverse flow direction. The annular combustion
chamber itself is resembled by the outer chamber and inner cham-
ber walls 共parts 3 and 7兲. The outer chamber wall furthermore
incorporates the 60 hydrogen injection holes and the hydrogen
supply channel 共parts 3 and 4兲. At the backside of the outer cham-
ber wall, a solid deflection cone is attached to guide the incoming
air around the combustion chamber. The inner wall 共part 7兲 is
welded together with the exhaust pipe. Also attached to this wall
is the air guiding panel 共part 6兲. The inner and outer chamber
walls are centered and held together by a back plate 共part 5兲,
which is screwed against the outer wall 共part 3兲. To form the
desired cooling channel between the exhaust pipe and the inner
chamber wall, a cooling rib is welded to the back plate. Finally,
parts 5 and 7 are welded together, forming one part, as can be seen
on Fig. 3. So the incoming cold air is going around the outer
chamber wall and thus cooling it. Then, it is guided behind the
chamber and goes into the opposite direction while entering a
cooling channel alongside the exhaust pipe. At the end of this
channel, the air is again directed to the opposite direction, now
Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 3 Inner chamber wall with air inlet slots and guiding panel
beneath a standard 1 Euro coin
alongside the inner chamber wall. Via slots at the end of this
second inner channel, the air enters the plenum of the combustion
chamber before finally going into the chamber through the
U-shaped holes in the guiding panel 共part 6兲. The hot exhaust
gases are bent 90 deg inward at the end of the chamber, taking
into account the operation with a radial turbine before finally leav-
ing the chamber complex through the exhaust pipe 共Fig. 3兲. A
similar design of a smaller combustor fueled with methane that
uses annular cooling channels can be found in Ref. 关24兴. But also
in the 2D designs, combustors with inside channels 关25,26兴 or
upstream recuperators 关27兴 have already been developed.
The final design as shown in Fig. 2 is based on a thermal
balance model setup prior to the first design steps. Basically, the
design consists of a couple of cylindrical cooling channels
through which the air is forced before entering the combustion
chamber plenum. Referring to the basic cooling principles, coflow
cooling is much less effective than counterflow cooling so the
latter was incorporated into the design. The next important value
for heat exchange is the Reynolds number; the higher this value,
the more turbulent the air flow would be and the better the cool-
ing. For this chamber design with the small dimensions and com-
paratively low mass flows, the Reynolds number for pipe flow lies
in the laminar-turbulent transition zone 共2300⬍ Re⬍ 104兲. The
outer casing 共part 1 in Fig. 2兲 is considered adiabatic and therefore
insulated in the experimental test rig to minimize any outside
influence. Considering all three ways of heat transfer, namely,
conduction, radiation, and convection, leads to the overall energy
flow through the chamber walls, which can be described in the
following basic formula after 关28兴
Q̇ = k · Aref共tf1 − tf2兲 共1兲
where k is defined as the total thermal resistance
k= 冉 1 ␦
+ +
1
␣BK ␭ ␣ges
冊 −1
共2兲
including the wall thickness ␦, the thermal conductivity ␭th, and
the different heat transfer coefficients ␣, which can be calculated
by the Nusselt number.
Based on these formulas, a calculation routine was set up for
the thermal balance of a single layer cylindrical wall. Through an
iteration process, the different influences of wall thickness and
channel height for different entry temperatures were investigated.
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power
Fig. 4 Optimized geometry for minimal pressure loss
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Considering available space between the inner chamber wall and
the exhaust pipe as well as manufacturing constraints, the wall
thickness was kept mostly between 2 mm and 3 mm for the cy-
lindrical channels. Furthermore, these basic precalculations
showed that the material temperatures could be held well below
their thermal limits.
But beneath all material and thermal issues, pressure loss is the
other vital challenge in every combustion chamber design as it
directly influences not only the combustion chamber performance
but also the overall performance of the whole gas turbine and
becomes even more important in ␮-scale applications. Initial cal-
culations during the downscaling process of the regular micromix
burning principle resulted in a pressure loss of ⬃2.4% at the point
where the air enters the combustion chamber through the
U-shaped holes in the guiding plate, which is below the set limit
of 3%. In order to get some idea of the pressure loss introduced by
the recuperative wall cooling, a numerical simulation of the whole
design was set up. At design point conditions 共3 bars, 20 g/s兲, the
simulations resulted in a pressure loss of ⬃5.6% from the entry
into the first cylindrical channel at the outer wall up to the entry
into the combustion chamber plenum. Consequently, the initial
design was optimized by numerical simulations leading to the
configuration shown in Fig. 4. But even with rounded corners, the
pressure loss could only be lowered by about 0.2%, with the big-
gest loss still caused by the channel contraction at the entry of the
exhaust pipe cooling channel. The pressure loss was accepted at
this point in favor of getting the combustion chamber prototype
realized for experimental testing and prove the material choice.
3 Experimental Setup
After designing the combustion chamber itself to meet the di-
mensional limits set by the powerMEMS ␮-scale gas turbine,
there were still several hurdles to be overcome to put this design
into safe operation on the test rig. A cutaway view of the whole
test rig setup can be seen on Fig. 5. First of all, an outer casing
was designed, which fits to the electrical heater and safely leads
the air around the combustion chamber 共see also Fig. 2兲. The
casing consists of three parts, two flanged together tube pieces and
a back plate. To allow pressurized tests, all parts are sealed against
each other with graphite laminated inox gaskets. The first tube
piece also incorporates four hydrogen supply connections and an
electrical connection for the ignition, whereas the second casing
part around the chamber houses two opposite directed thermo-
couples and static pressure measurement ports. The back plate
centers the whole array in the casing.
To supply the hydrogen to the combustion chamber, four small
inox tubes were connected to the 90 deg elbow fittings in the outer
casing. The tubes are precisely bent around the chamber and
welded on the supply ring of the combustion chamber 共Fig. 6兲.
The bending of the tubes also prevents and compensates extra
stresses on the tubes and welding seams due to heat related ex-
pansion and shrinkage when cooling down again. The hydrogen
supply ring itself is welded around the combustor’s outer wall,
leaving a small cylindrical gap, which evenly distributes the fed
AUGUST 2011, Vol. 133 / 082301-3

Fig. 5 3D cutaway of complete test rig installation
hydrogen, before leading it to the laser drilled injection holes. The
biggest challenge in this design was to get gastight welding seams
for all the abovementioned fuel connections.
With no commercial, ready to use alternative available for this
small scale, the next item that needed a complete new design
compared with the first prototype 关21兴 was the ignition. Based on
the good results obtained with high voltage tungsten wire ignition
of the old prototype, a similar system should be used in the new
prototype as well. But with the new all stainless steel construction,
a solution had to be found to safely get the high voltage into the
hot combustor and produce a spark just at the hydrogen injection
zone. Furthermore, all feedthroughs needed to be gastight for al-
lowing any pressurized testing. The final solution comprises two
Fig. 6 Side view of combustion chamber without outer casing
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different sized ceramic isolators with airtight brazed metallic
feedtroughs. The bigger one was directly welded into a hole in the
outer casing and the smaller hollow feedthrough was welded and
ceramic glued into a small hole at the back of the combustion
chamber’s outer wall 共Fig. 6兲. A piece of tungsten wire was then
put through the isolator, reaching close to the step in the combus-
tion chamber. Inside the chamber, the tungsten wire was covered
with a specially fabricated small ceramic tube cemented in place
by ceramic glue, leaving only a very small end piece of the tung-
sten wire free for producing a spark right into the hydrogen injec-
tion zone. During assembly, the two ceramic feedthroughs were
connected from the inside and the connection point covered with
ceramic cement.
With an air and fuel supply, an ignition device, measuring ports
for temperature and pressure, the last thing to be incorporated to
the test rig setup was the already proven orifice device 共exten-
sively described in Refs. 关19,21兴兲, enabling the chamber to be
tested up to pressures of 5 bars. So an adapter flange was de-
signed, which can be screwed onto the chamber’s exhaust pipe
and thus also sealing the chamber compartment with a metal
O-ring at the back plate.
The complete prototype burner was then installed in the com-
bustion test lab already adapted to microcombustion investiga-
tions for test campaigns of the previous prototype 关20兴. Beneath
the existing exhaust gas analysis equipment, an 11 kW electric
heater in the air supply simulates the compressor outlet tempera-
ture. With the exhaust gas probe put into the exhaust pipe of the
orifice device, the emissions of both hydrogen and oxygen were
measured. As these values were directly linked to the combustion
efficiency—the more unburnt hydrogen you will find in the ex-
haust gas, the worse the burning efficiency of the combustion
Transactions of the ASME
Table 2 Overview of equivalent air flow rates in g/s for differ-
ent pressures; design point is at 3 bars

Pressure
Air flow rate 1 bar 2 bars 3 bars 5 bars

150% 10.2 20 30 50
100% 6.7 13.3 20 33.3
80% 5.3 10.6 16 26.7
66% 4.4 8.8 13.2 22
45% 3 6 9 15

chamber would be—a computational routine calculates the burn-

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ing efficiency, the outflow temperature, and ␭-value out of the
measured exhaust gas emissions.
As the estimated design point of the powerMEMS ultra-micro
gas turbine is at 20 g/s and 3 bar pressure, there has to be some Fig. 7 Burning efficiency against ␭-variation at ambient, non-
similarity calculations to get equivalent mass flow values for at- preheated conditions at different air mass flow rates
mospheric and other pressure conditions. These were done using
inlet兲 / 共Arefp3兲. More details of
the reduced mass flux density 共ṁairT0.5
this calculation can be found in Ref. 关21兴. The calculation results ␭-value of about 3.8. After this limit, the efficiency descends very
in a design point 共100%兲 mass flow rate of 6.7 g/s at ambient rapidly in a similar manner for all tested mass flows as described
pressure with 690 K inlet temperature. For a better comparability above. In contrast to the previous chamber 关21兴 at likewise con-
of the test results, the same mass flow variations of 45%, 66%, ditions, for each tested mass flow now a clearly distinguishable
80%, 100%, and 150% as in the previous test campaigns 关21兴 curve could be obtained, starting with the 150% mass flow and
were used. An overview of the resulting mass flow rates at differ- than becoming successively better up to the 45% mass flow rate.
ent pressures is given in Table 2. The tested mass flow rates are Compared with the old configuration, there is a clear improvement
shown in boldface. As the 11 kW electrical heater was originally visible. The stability limit is shifted from ␭ ⬇ 3.2 to ␭ ⬇ 3.8 and
dimensioned for the design point mass flow rate at 3 bars, the even the by far worst 150% curve is slightly better down to an
desired inlet temperature of 690 K could not be reached for much efficiency of 90%. The curve progression is nearly identical, ex-
higher mass flows. Consequently at 5 bar pressure conditions, a cept for the old curve dropping away not so fast. This behavior at
slightly lowered mass flow rate of 66% had to be chosen as maxi- ambient conditions is very favorable for the combustor’s cold start
mum affordable. characteristics and therefore should be kept in mind for ignition
limits when setting the control laws for a gas turbine operation.
4 Experimental Investigations In the next diagram 共Fig. 8兲, the burning efficiency for a com-
With the target to get a complete experimental mapping of the plete mass flow variation is shown at ambient pressure conditions
new prototype burner concept, tests were started with ignition but with preheated inlet air. Not surprisingly, the curves now in-
trials at ambient conditions. After a secure ignition could be guar- dicate a much improved burning efficiency toward higher
anteed, tests were started at ambient pressure from part load con- ␭-values compared with the ambient inlet temperature conditions.
ditions at 45% to extreme overload at 150% for cold and pre- For the 100% design point mass flow, 100% burning efficiency is
heated inlet temperature conditions. With all ambient condition reached up to ␭ ⬇ 8, thus well covering the design point ratio of
test campaigns successfully finished, testing was carried out for ␭ = 6. For part load conditions, 100% burning efficiency is reached
selected mass flow rates at 2 bar, 3 bar, and 5 bar pressure condi- up to ␭ ⬇ 10 for 66% and 80% mass flow rates and an even higher
tions. value of ␭ ⬇ 11 for the 45% mass flow rate. So the difference in
Sections 4.1 and 4.2 will show diagrams depicting the burning burning efficiency for the different air mass flow rates is much
efficiency for various inlet conditions and mass flow variations. more obvious than in Fig. 7, although the overall characteristic of
For comparison in all diagrams, you will find the corresponding
data of the previous prototype described in detail in Refs. 关20–22兴.
The ␭-value as well as the burning efficiency are calculated values
originating from the measured values of the exhaust gas analysis.
Compared with the old prototype, the recuperative chamber de-
veloped a quite different characteristic in burning behavior
throughout all mass flows and pressure conditions. Depending on
the chosen operation point, it burns very stable at 100% burning
efficiency up to a certain ␭-value, where the stability suddenly
breaks down and the combustion becomes unsteady. Because it
lacks stability, the burning efficiency also goes down very quickly.
The chamber could easily be relighted without external ignition.
This behavior causes the setting of the extinction limit to 98%
burning efficiency because below this value no secure and stable
burning can be obtained. So in all four of the following diagrams,
only trend curves can be given below ⬃95% burning efficiency
due to the impossibility to obtain proper measurement data in
most cases below this value.
4.1 Combustion at Ambient Pressure. Starting with the
worst off design inlet parameters at complete ambient conditions Fig. 8 Burning efficiency against ␭-variation at ambient, pre-
in Fig. 7, up to 100% mass flow a stability limit could be set at a heated „690 K… conditions at different air mass flow rates

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power AUGUST 2011, Vol. 133 / 082301-5

Fig. 9 Burning efficiency against ␭-variation at 100% air mass
flow rate for ambient pressure, 2 bar, and 3 bar
better burning efficiency toward higher ␭-values for reduced mass
flow rates stays the same in both diagrams. Concerning a com-
parison with the efficiency curve of the previous chamber at the
same inlet conditions 共ambient pressure, 690 K preheated air兲,
there is now a much more distinctive difference in the curve pro-
gression than in Fig. 7. Although the old curve starts a little bit
earlier at ␭ ⬇ 7.5 to lose efficiency, it then descends much slower
than the 100% curve of the recuperative cooled chamber.
4.2 Combustion at Pressurized Conditions. In Fig. 9, the
influence of pressure toward burning efficiency for the 100% mass
flow rate is depicted. The overall tendency of shifting the effi-
ciency curves toward lower ␭-values when increasing the pressure
is clearly noticeable. There is also a much bigger difference be-
tween the 1 bar and the 2 bar curve than between the 2 bar and the
3 bar curve. Nevertheless, even at design point pressure of 3 bars,
the chamber can be safely operated at 100% burning efficiency as
stability breaks down not before ␭ ⬇ 6.5. This is a vast improve-
ment compared with the old chamber configuration, which clearly
shows an inferior behavior of barely reaching about 92% burning
efficiency at the design point ␭-value, which is obviously well
behind the stability range of this configuration.
Figure 10 shows the pressure influence up to 5 bars onto the
burning efficiency for the part load mass flow rate of 66%. Again,
the overall characteristic of the curves is similar to the one found
in Fig. 9. Adding pressure also moves the stability curves toward
lower ␭-values and the large difference between ambient and pres-
Fig. 10 Burning efficiency against ␭-variation at 66% air mass
flow rate for ambient pressure, 3 bar, and 5 bar
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Fig. 11 Applied energy QH2 against ER for different air mass
flow rates at ambient and pressurized conditions
surized conditions is also still apparent. The improved efficiency
compared with the 100% mass flow rate for ambient pressure
could already be seen in Fig. 8, but comparing the 3 bar condi-
tions from Figs. 9 and 10, a similar improvement can be noticed.
So, in fact, also at reduced mass flow conditions up to a pressure
of 5 bars, the recuperative cooled chamber could be safely oper-
ated.
4.3 Summary of Experimental Investigations. To provide a
better insight into the real operation capabilities of the investi-
gated prototype, all preheated test runs from Secs. 4.1 and 4.2
were summarized together in Fig. 11. In this diagram, values of
the applied energy from hydrogen are plotted against the equiva-
lence ratio 共ER兲. The applied energy was calculated using the
constant net calorific value of hydrogen, the hydrogen mass flow
rate, and the burning efficiency. For better comparison, the pres-
surized values are fit into this diagram by dividing the resulting
energy values by the corresponding pressure value, thus leveling
these values toward the ambient pressure condition ones. Further-
more, the extinction limit values for each mass flow rate, which
was set to an efficiency rate of 98% as explained above, are dis-
played in this diagram.
Comparing this diagram with the corresponding one of the pre-
vious prototype 共Fig. 12兲 关22兴, there is barely any difference in the
progression of the operating lines as long as 100% burning effi-
ciency is effective for both cases. When the burning efficiency
starts to drop down toward leaner mixtures 共lower ERs兲 the oper-
ating lines will start to drop down too, because in the calculation
of the energy values, the efficiency is included as described above.
So the dropping down of an operating line means a loss of effi-
ciency in Figs. 11–13. The extinction limit can be found mostly at
lower ERs in Fig. 12 compared with Fig. 11, but one must be
aware that the limit is shifted from 90% toward 98% in the recu-
perative configuration, as shown in Fig. 11. The corresponding
98% efficiency line for the previous configuration will then con-
sequently be found at higher ERs. This implies clearly that in
terms of efficiency, the recuperative chamber shows an improve-
ment, whereas concerning the extinction limit, the old configura-
tion was better.
Scaling up Fig. 11 gives a more detailed view of the operating
lines at pressurized conditions, as can be seen in Fig. 13. For
tested mass flow rates of 100% and 66%, the operating lines at 1
bar, 2 bars, 3 bars, and 5 bars are displayed together with their
corresponding extinction limits. As explained above, again the
Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 12 Applied energy QH2 against ER for different air mass
flow rates at ambient, preheated conditions for the previous
combustion chamber prototype †22‡
operating lines can be seen dropping down toward lower ERs
when losing efficiency especially after the set extinction limit of
98% burning efficiency. Furthermore, in this diagram, one can see
the aforementioned shift of the extinction limit toward higher ERs
if pressure is applied. In consequence, this means an actual reduc-
tion in the possible operating range of the combustion chamber.
Although seeming to be in a safe distance from the design point,
this characteristic has to be very carefully applied to the control
laws for a possible ␮-scale gas turbine application.
5 Conclusions and Outlook
For the application in a ␮-scale gas turbine, a hydrogen fueled
10 kW microcombustor was designed with special respect to ma-
terial choice and system integration of fuel supply and ignition.
Extensive experimental investigations including mass flow and
inlet temperature variations, as well as pressurized tests, were suc-
cessfully carried out. The following data reduction and physical
Fig. 13 Applied energy QH2 against ER for different air mass
flow rates at ambient and pressurized conditions
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power
interpretation of the results lead to a complete characterization of
the combustor regarding future application into a ␮-scale gas tur-
bine.
With an addition of about 4 mm in length and otherwise nearly
unchanged chamber geometry, the micromix combustion chamber
prototype with recuperative cooled chamber walls shows an im-
provement in burning efficiency, enabling the secure operation at
the design point with full 100% efficiency in a stable burning
condition. This partly proves the theory derived from simulations
and described in Ref. 关21兴 that loss of burning efficiency and
stability at higher pressures for the regular micromix combustion
chamber configuration is linked to the combustion chamber
length. Small changes in chamber length could therefore improve
the burning efficiency and stability especially toward higher pres-
Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/gasturbinespower/article-pdf/133/8/082301/5657732/082301_1.pdf by Cranfield University user on 29 May 2023
sures. So new prototype designs with a further increased chamber
length should be taken into consideration for future work. With
the extinction limit set up to 98% burning efficiency, for imple-
menting the control laws for a later ␮-scale gas turbine applica-
tion, care had to be taken to avoid the point of stability breakdown
for all possible load variations.
The introduction of the recuperative cooling of the chamber
walls proves the feasibility of an all stainless steel combustion
chamber design in the 10 kW class. After a total burning time of
10.5 h, no sign of structural damage or signs of excessive wear
could be found in a visual inspection of the chamber parts after
the test campaigns 共Figs. 3 and 6兲. The use of stainless steel in-
stead of the much more expensive and difficult to machine inconel
alloys or ceramic materials allows a cost effective production of
the combustion chamber and thus helps reduce the overall price of
a possible ␮-scale gas turbine.
Reducing the additional pressure loss, resulting from the imple-
mentation of the cooling channels, to a minimum will be one of
the greatest challenges for future work. To finally prove the design
layout and material choice, extended endurance tests will be per-
formed in the future.
Although many hurdles are still to be overcome until this burn-
ing principle can be seen working in a real ␮-scale gas turbine, the
presented prototype already fulfills all set design point criteria for
a safe and reliable operation and introduced many new features
regarding gas turbine integration at microscale.
Acknowledgment
This work was funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung
und Forschung 共BMBF兲 via the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller
Forschungsvereinigungen e.V.” 共AiF, Grant No. 1729X05兲.
Nomenclature
ṁair; mpl ⫽ mass flow rate of air, g/s
Tinlet ⫽ combustion chamber inlet temperature, K
T4 ⫽ combustion chamber outlet temperature, K
Aref ⫽ reference area of chamber, mm2
p3 ⫽ inlet pressure, bar
␳ ⫽ density, kg/ m3
c ⫽ velocity, m/s
index H2 ⫽ hydrogen
␭ ⫽ air to fuel ratio/stoichiometric air to fuel ratio
1/␭ ⫽ ER
␩A ⫽ burning efficiency
Re ⫽ Reynolds number
Q̇ ⫽ applied energy, J/s
tf1 ⫽ temperature of airstream 1, °C
tf2 ⫽ temperature of airstream 2, °C
k ⫽ total thermal resistance, W / K m2
␣BK ⫽ heat transfer coefficient combustor, W / K m2
␣ges ⫽ total heat transfer coefficient, W / K m2
␦ ⫽ wall thickness, m
␭th ⫽ thermal conductivity, W / K m
QH2 ⫽ applied rate of energy from hydrogen, kJ/s
AUGUST 2011, Vol. 133 / 082301-7
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