The effect of aspect ratio on the flow characteristics of a hybrid solar receiver combustor

S. Long, T. C.W. Lau, A. Chinnici, Z. F. Tian, B. B. Dally, G. J. Nathan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

We present a systematic experimental study of the interaction between four rotationally-symmetric jets within a cylindrical chamber, under conditions relevant to a wide range of practical applications, including the Hybrid Solar Receiver Combustor (HSRC). The HSRC geometry is simplified here to a cylindrical cavity with four inlet jets (representing four burners), which are configured in an annular arrangement and aligned at an inclination angle (αj) to the axis with a tangential component (azimuthal angle θj) to generate a swirl in the chamber. In this study, we assess the configurations of αj = 25° and θj = 5°. The length of the chamber was varied from Lc = 148 mm to 74 mm and the diameter of the chamber was Dc = 74 mm, resulting in an aspect ratio of Lc/Dc = 2, 1.5 and 1. The inlet Reynolds number for each injected jet and the number of jets were fixed at ReD = 10,500 and 4, respectively. Velocity data obtained with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) were used to characterise the large-scale flow field within the selected experimental configurations. The results reveal a significant dependence of the mean flow-field on the aspect ratio Lc/Dc for the value of αj and θj considered here. More specifically, it was found that Lc/Dc can influence the position of the external recirculation zone (ERZ), the strength of the central resulting jet, and the recirculation rate (Kv).
Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 21st Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, AFMC 2018
PublisherAustralasian Fluid Mechanics Society
ISBN (Print)9780646597843
StatePublished - Jan 1 2018
Externally publishedYes

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