Influence of Fuel Atomization on Combustor Lean Blowout: An Empirical Approach

Empirical approach has been adopted to study the effect of operating conditions on atomizing parameters and influence of such parameters on lean blowout limit in a gas turbine combustor. Poor atomization represented by higher spray drop size is found to affect adversely the lean blowout limit. Low air pressure and low fuel temperature results in a higher fuel drop size and require more energy for evaporation and combustion initiation which has to come from more fuel or higher FAR thus raising the blowout limit. Empirical relations can predict reasonably when validated and updated with more and more experimental data.