An experimental investigation of fluid flow and combustion characteristics of dual-fuel in a cylindrical combustion chamber

Combustion and fluid flow characteristics of coflowing LPG and kerosene have been investigated experimentally. A cylindrical water cooled combustion chamber was used to investigate the effect of changing the injection location and percentage of liquid fuel during gaseous fuel combustion. It was found that the injection of liquid fuel leads to an increase in the absolute value of maximum positive axial velocity and reduces the absolute value of the maximum negative axial velocity compared to the case of LPG alone. Also, a stable temperature distribution is noticed at axial distance of X/D approximately equal to 2.15 (where X is the axial distance measured from the inlet of diffuser, and D is chamber diameter). This is less than that of gaseous fuel combustion (approximately equal to 2.91). The change of injection location leads to a reduction in values of gas temperatures at X-in/D=0.15 then it increased to reach maximum values at X-inj/D=0.35 which is approximately the same value for combustion of LPG fuel only. Any further increase in the injection location leads to a reduction in gas temperature, especially at the upstream sections of the combustion chamber. Also, it was found that values of temperature along the combustion chamber were decreased with increasing the percentage of the injected liquid fuel due to incomplete combustion of liquid fuel. Values of combustion chamber efficiency (eta) for all percentage of liquid fuel at X-inf/D=0.35 are higher than those for combustion of LPG alone. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.