LEAN BLOWOUT RESEARCH IN A GENERIC GAS-TURBINE COMBUSTOR WITH HIGH OPTICAL ACCESS

The U.S. Air Force is conducting a comprehensive research program aime d at improving the design and analysis capabilities for flame stabilit y and lean blowout in the combustors of aircraft gas turbine engines. As part of this program, a simplified version of a generic gas turbine combustor is used. The intent is to provide an experimental data base against which lean blowout modeling might be evaluated and calibrated . The design features of the combustor and its instrumentation are hig hlighted, and the test facility is described. Lean blowout results for gaseous propane fuel are presented over a range of operating conditio ns at three different dome flow splits. Comparison of results with tho se of a simplified research combustor is also made. Lean blowout behav ior is complex, so that simple phenomenological correlations of experi mental data will not be general enough for use as design tools.