Numerical Simulation of a hydrogen Fuelled Gas Turbine Combustor

The interest for hydrogen fuelled combustors is recently growing thanks to the development of gas turbines fed by high content hydrogen syngas. However, few CFD analysis are available in the literature for the combustion of pure hydrogen. This paper presents a CFD simulation of an air-hydrogen reacting flow inside a diffusive flame gas turbine combustor. The 3D geometrical model extends from the compressor discharge to the gas turbine inlet (both liner and air plenum are included). A coarse grid and a very simplified reaction scheme are adopted to reduce the computational effort. The aim of the study is to evaluate the capability of the presented CFD model to predict the liner wall temperatures and the turbine inlet temperature profile. Experimental data are employed to validate numerical results. The comparison shows that the model can be useful to analyse the reliability of some combustor components which have been designed for natural gas operation.