UCONN Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Job Ticket s4

UCONN Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Job Ticket

Sponsoring Company: GE Power

Project Title: Natural Gas Cane-Style Fuel Assembly Study

Prime Contact: Rachel LaDue [email protected] Faculty Advisor: Dr. Xinyu Zhao

The Engineering Challenge: GE’s low-NOx round burner, the “Radially Stratified Flame Core” burner (RSFC) is a versatile, low-cost, product (see figures 1 and 2). Currently, the fuel assembly for natural gas is a fair performer relative to NOx emissions, but the company is interested in driving the NOx emissions even lower.

GE would like to compare a gas cane type fuel assembly to the low momentum annular gas gun fuel assembly, which was analyzed by a UCONN senior design team (Team 1) in 2015-2016 (see figure 3).

Description of Problem/Project : The objective of this project is to conduct computational and experimental analysis on various gas cane configurations to assess best flame core mixedness and compatibility with the RSFC’s unique air staging strategy as compared to the low momentum gas gun.

Figure 1 Gas Cane Assembly Figure 2: As installed in RSFC burner

Figure 3: Team 1 (2015-2106) Low Momentum Gas Gun Mixedness Results Expected Deliverables/Approach:

 Review 2015-2106 Team 1 analyses and test results.  Reserach and recommend methods and metrics to quantify degree of mixedness  CFD analyses of various gas cane configurations  Retest low momentum configurtion to restablish a baseline set of data. GE has the test article.  Incorporate any recomendation into rig /instrumentation from team 1.  Test cane assembly concept with the same free area using various pipe sizes, quantities, and cane patterns  Provide natural pressure drop vs flow curves  Provide velocity contours via CFD using Ansys Fluent  Provide mixedness results with the RSFC’s secondary air  Provide comparison of CFD results vs experimental results

 Is there a specific software package required for the projects? Y _X__ N ___

Which package (name/version) __Ansys Fluent______

 U.S. Citizen/Person (green card) Required? Y____ N _X___

 Will Export Controlled data be used in project (EAR/ITAR) Y _____N_X__

 NDA/IP Agreements required? Y _X__ N __

 Other considerations:

Approval is required prior to purchase of lab testing equipment.