DOI 10.

1007/s10749-020-01272-1
Power Technology and Engineering Vol. 54, No. 5, January, 2021

POWER PLANTS

GT-16 GAS TURBINE LOW-EMISSION COMBUSTOR:

RESULTS OF TESTS IN A SINGLE-BURNER CHAMBER
ON THE STAGNATION PROPERTY TEST FACILITY1

L. A. Bulysova,2 M. N Gutnik,3 V. D. Vasil’ev,3 A. G. Tumanovskii,3

A. M. Sipatov,4 A. D. Nugumanov,4 I. U. Fagalov,4 and V. V. Tsatiashvili4

Translated from Élektricheskie Stantsii, No. 7, July 2020, pp. 2 – 5.

This paper presents the comprehensive test results of gas turbine unit (GTU-16P) experimental low-emission
combustor (LEC) investigations at pressures up to 2000 kPa and a wide range of ambient temperatures within
the ±25°C. The technical solutions applied provided the transition and operation in low-emission modes with
automatic control of the LEC fuel channels without pulsations. The emission test results confirmed the high
combustion efficiency of fuel in the entire operating range and low emission of carbon and nitrogen oxides at
GTU loads from 70 to 100% in accordance with the technical assignment requirements. A system for auto-
matic control of LEC fuel valves depending on the load was developed and implemented, including the pro-
tection with transition to safe modes during pressure pulsations with amplitudes exceeding the permissible
level.
Keywords: low-emission combustor; gas turbine unit; air-fuel mixture; nitrogen oxide; stable combustion;
pressure pulsations; experimental investigations; control algorithms.

The low-emission combustor (LEC) is being developed
for the gas turbine unit (GTU)-16P based on the PS-90A air-
craft engine of the UEC-Aviadvigatel JSC. The LEC consists
of 12 remote combustion liners (CL) located around the cir-
cumference [1] and provides nitrogen oxide concentrations
of less than 50 mg/m3 at 15% O2 in the load range of
70%-100% and ambient air temperatures of ±25°C.
The paper presents the preliminary mixing combustion
chamber (CC) with swirling flow stabilization. The burner
assembly consists of a main burner and a pilot burner [1].
For the bench tests, a segment with a full-size CL, a
burner device (BD), and a gas collector (GC) were used.
At the first stage of development, experimental studies
were conducted at the All-Russian Thermal Engineering In-
1 The article was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and
Higher Education of the Russian Federation, with the unique identifier
RFMEFI57919X0160. Agreement No. 075-11-2019-079.
2 All-Russian Thermal Engineering Institute (ARTEI), Moscow, Russia;
e-mail: kc-vti@bk.ru
3 All-Russian Thermal Engineering Institute (ARTEI), Moscow, Russia.
4 UEC-Aviadvigatel JSC, Perm, Russia.
stitute (ARTEI) stand at inlet air pressures of up to 400 kPa.
After receiving all the main characteristics of the LEC that
meet the technical requirements, the LEC test compartment,
which consists of an inlet section (air supply), a section with
an experimental model of LEC, a measuring section, and a
water-cooled adjustable nozzle (throttler), was transferred to
the stagnation property stand in the test section of UEC-
Aviadvigatel. The power housing of the compartment simu-
lates the internal contours of the GTU CC.
Figure 1 presents a schematic of the test section of
UEC-Aviadvigatel.
Air was pumped in by compressors, heated with electric
heaters to the required temperature, and fed to the inlet to the
Inlet Compartment Outlet
Adjustable
measuring with test measuring
throttler
section object section
Fig. 1. Schematic of the test section of UEC-Aviadvigatel.

695
1570-145X/21/5405-0695 © 2021 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
696
P'300
P'400 P'401
Cooling
P2 P3 jackets
Fuel supply
BD CL GC
Single-burner
test compartment Air supply
Fig. 2. General scheme of the LEC measurements.
single-burner test compartment installed with LEC. Com-
pressed balloon gas (methane) was used as fuel.
The measuring water-cooled section was connected to
the compartment directly at the GC outlet. This section
comprises either sampling or thermocouple manifold valves.
An adjustable water-cooled nozzle was connected to this sec-
tion to enable the setting of LEC modes corresponding to its
operation at the GTU. The cooling water reached the pre-vol-
ume of the adjustable nozzle blade of the throat section at the
outlet, through which hot gases from the LEC and water sus-
pension (steam) from the cooling system passed.
During the tests, three fuel lines (diffusion, homoge-
neous 1, and homogeneous 2) were used. Each line had its
own control valve, a flow meter, and a pressure sensor.
Figure 2 presents the LEC preparation scheme. Pressure
losses were measured on the cooling jacket (dP1 = P1 – P2),
BD (dP2 = P1 – P3), and LEC as a whole (dP3 = P1 – P4).
Pressure pulsations were measured inside the LEC, com-
partment volume, and measuring sections P¢400 and P¢300.
XA-type thermocouples (ANSI-K) were installed on the
CC walls. Thermocouples for measuring the temperature of
the metal were located along the upper and lower genera-
trices of the CL and GC, with 25 points in total (circles ti in
Fig. 2).
During the tests, a high-precision automatic control sys-
tem (ACS) of fuel supply was used. Figure 3 presents a block
diagram of the LEC fuel line control.
The LEC ACS tasks were as follows:
— regulation of valves on fuel supply lines;
— control of the occurrence of dangerous modes and
their instant avoidance.
The ACS provided the following:
— simultaneous and precise automatic control of three
fuel supply valves in the CC in different operating modes;
— instant redistribution of the fuel gas supply from one
circuit to another;
— precise maintenance of excess air coefficients in the
combustion zone under various modes of the LEC operation
(based on the GTU power and during fuel redistribution
along the circuits);
L. A. Bulysova et al.
P'402
Parameter adjuster:
Measuring unit
á, PFR, MFR
of the ACS stand:
Automatic control/ Gb, Gt, Pt, ...
Remote control
measuring
section
Outlet
Computing unit
of the ACS stand
P4
P1 Feedback:
operating
the control
elements
Control elements unit:
control by valves
of three fuel channels
Fig. 3. Block diagram of LEC fuel lines control.
— automatic redistribution of fuel along the circuits
without fluctuations in the excess air coefficient in the CC,
exceeding Äá £ ±0.05 of the specified value.
The results of the LEC test under natural conditions us-
ing the bench systems described were set as below.
The LEC operating only on the pilot burner was imple-
mented from idle run (IR) to 70%. In this load range, CO
emissions did not exceed 160 mg/m3 (under normal condi-
tions and 15% O2), and the combustion efficiency was not
less than 99.5%.
The transition from a pilot burner to a low-emission
mode of operation was performed automatically by instanta-
neous variation in the proportion of fuel in the PB-PFR from
100 to 0% with fuel enrichment (with a minor total increase
in fuel in the CC at the time of redistribution). The time inter-
val required for redistribution did not exceed 15 – 20 sec. A
short-term increase in the amplitude of pressure pulsations
was recorded without further development of the auto oscil-
lation process. Further, the LEC was operated only using the
main burner.
Figure 4 presents the NO x and CO concentration depend-
ence (reduced to the current standard values in the nominal
mode for GTU-16P with a standard CC) under the GTU load
at ambient air temperatures (ta) equal to +15°C and –25°C.
The results were obtained in modes corresponding to the nat-
ural ones, namely, with inlet air pressure of 900 – 1950 kPa
and temperatures of 315 – 477°C. Figure 4 also shows the
values of NO x and CO concentrations at rated load with
ta = +25°C.
The NO x emissions increased gradually with increase in
load (Fig. 4a), whereas fuel was redistributed between the
main burner channels. The NO x concentration values ob-
tained in the LEC were significantly lower than the current
GT-16 Gas Turbine Low-Emission Combustor: Results of Tests
0.4
a a
2 1
0.3
1 0.8
NOx, CO
0.2
0.1 3 0.8
0.0
0.7 1.0
N 5
1.6
b
1.4
1.2
1 0.0
1.0
NOx, CO
0.8
0.6 2
4
0.4 3 temperature field at the GC outlet (b): 1, 2, along the upper and
0.2
0.0
0.7 N 1.0
Fig. 4. Relationship between NOx and CO during loading at the am-
bient air temperature: a, +15°C; b, –25°C; 1, NOx ; 2, NOx for
ta = +25°C; 3, CO; 4, CO for ta = +25°C.
values of the standard CC. The CO concentration remained
practically independent of the load (Fig. 4a).
Figure 4b presents the graphs of NO x and CO
dependences on the load obtained by simulating the GTU
modes at an ambient air temperature ta of –25°C. In this case,
the transition to a low-emission mode was possible only at
the rated load (arrow in Fig. 4b). After the transition, opera-
tion in the main burner was possible at 100 and 90% load
modes. In addition, the NO x and CO concentrations were
significantly lower than the effective values.
At low ambient temperatures, the 100% GTU load mode
corresponded to significantly low temperatures of the air en-
tering the CC, and combustion products formed inside. The
conditions necessary for a reliable transition at a given load
can be most easily created by bypassing a part of the air com-
pressed in the compressor to its inlet. The corresponding au-
tomatic control algorithms, harmonizing fuel consumption,
and air bypass have been applied successfully under the con-
ditions implemented currently at the GTU.
The temperature state of the CL walls and GC was as-
sessed in the entire load range considered. Figure 5a shows
the changes in the reduced temperature of the CL walls (to
the maximum permissible metal temperature) from the
dimensionless length of the CL (the current value of the dis-
697
1.0
tCL, rel. u.
0.9
2
0.7
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
x
1.0
b
0.6 4 3
6
h
0.4
0.2
0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
Average non-uniformity of the temperature field
Fig. 5. Relationship between ta = +15°C temperature of the CL
walls along its length (a) and plots of average non-uniformity of the
lower CL generatrices; 3, 4, supply of all fuel to pilot burner for IR
and 70% load; 5, fuel supply to Main 1 channel at 70% load; 6: fuel
supply to Main 1 and Main 2 channels at 100% load.
tance from the CL inlet end was reduced to its diameter)
measured along the lower and upper generatrices.
The wall temperatures were below the permissible val-
ues, with the exception of the temperatures measured in the
belt of mixer holes (Fig. 2). This condition was due to the
lack of a thermal barrier coating.
Figure 5b shows the diagrams of the average non-unifor-
mity of the temperature field at the outlet
T out - T i
q av = ,
i
T out - T in
where Tout and Tin are the temperatures of gas at the outlet
and air at the inlet, respectively, and Ti is the average temper-
ature at the ith measurement belt under different conditions
of fuel supply and loads. When fuel was supplied only to the
pilot burner, the diagram èav showed a pronounced maximum
reaching 1.17. Upon switching to a low-emission mode of
operation and supplying fuel only to the main burner, regard-
less of the distribution between its fuel channels, the temper-
ature field at the outlet was leveled, and the maximum value
of the average irregularity èav decreased to 1.09.
Figure 6 presents a diagram of the transition from the
pilot burner (PFR = 40%) to Main 1 channel (PFR = 0%) in
constant mode áconst. The redistribution time was 4 sec. Dur-
ing this time, a minor fluctuation in excess air coefficient and
its stabilization were given a value of áconst. The stabilization
time by á was approximately 8 sec. Such insignificant devia-
tions of the instantaneous values of the excess air coefficient
698
Time, sec
Fig. 6. Demonstration of the ACS operation during the transition
from PFR = 40 to PFR = 0% at constant áconst.
from the given one were demonstrated by the coordinated
movement of the pilot burner and Main 1 fuel valves.
The use of the ACS with fuel on the experimental LEC
model enabled the implementation of safety tests, direct tran-
sition from the pilot burner to the main burner, and reverse
transition from the main burner to the pilot burner. The
boundary of stable combustion was also removed during the
joint operation of Main 1 and Main 2 channels.
CONCLUSIONS
Tests of the LEC experimental model GTU-16P was con-
ducted at the bench of the UEC-Aviadvigatel JSC with stag-
nation properties in the entire range of modes and climatic
conditions. The following result was obtained:
L. A. Bulysova et al.
— in the load range from 70 to 100 and ambient air tem-
peratures from –5 to +25°C with a high completeness of fuel
combustion, the NOx emissions reduced significantly, that is,
by more than three times relative to the standard CC. In the
low-temperature region, the range of low-emission operation
of the CC narrows is a follows:
— the wall temperature of the CL and GC did not ex-
ceed the permissible maximum value, except for the mixer
hole zone in which the designed thermal barrier coating has
not been applied.
— the maximum values of the average non-uniformity
of the temperature field at the outlet from the LEC were 1.17
during the pilot burner operation and 1.09 during the main
burner operation.
When revising the LEC, the following are necessary:
— an algorithm should be implemented for controlling
the GTU loads to ensure the required conditions for fuel
combustion by bypassing a part of the air compressed in the
compressor to its inlet.
— based on the results obtained, the LEC design must
be optimized for further reduction of emissions, maximum
metal temperatures, and uneven outlet gas temperatures.
— the possibility of pressure pulsations during the tran-
sition to a low-emission mode must be minimized without
using the LEC ACS.
REFERENCES
1. L. A. Bulysova, A. G. Tumanovsky, M. N. Gutnik, V. D. Vasilyev,
A. M. Sipatov, and A. D. Nugumanov, “Ensuring low-emission
operation of the combustion chamber under a wide range of cli-
matic conditions as applied to aircraft-derived GTUs,” Élektr.
Stantsii, No. 12, 20 – 23 (2019).