During the Preliminary design phase or when considering modifications to existing combustor designs it’s essential to make realistic predictions of
– Mass flow splits through the various air admission holes
– Total pressure losses
– Liner temperatures along the length of the combustor, to ensure temperatures do not exceed material specifications during all modes of operation.
Although powerful, 3D CFD solutions of combustors are specialized, time consuming processes and therefore are seldom used during initial sizing of a combustor.
It has been demonstrated that 1D/2D network tools, like Flownex, are capable of predicting with reasonable accuracy the same trends as more detailed numerical models.
The advantage, however, is Flownex’s rapid execution, which allows design modifications and parametric studies to be conducted more simply than ever before. Furthermore, the data obtained from the one-dimensional analysis can be used as boundary conditions for a more detailed three-dimensional model, ultimately supplementing a typical combustor design work flow.