Effect of hydrogen combustion on aircraft gas turbines
Following the commitments of the European Green Deal, aims at decarbonizing aviation by 2050 through the employment of hydrogen in jet engines. The experimental research on flammability limits and blow-off behavior at the German Aerospace Center in Cologne, Germany, enhances the knowledge of aviation-applied hydrogen combustion. Multiple hydrogen injectors will be run and driven to the extreme point of being extinguished and consecutively relighted while high-speed cameras record the occurring phenomena.
Baseline experimental research and simplified models are matched within HESTIA to understand effect of hydrogen combustion on jet engines in lab scale. Parallel, the experimental capabilities are extended to application-oriented, large scale systems as well as more complex and particularly hydrogen adapted numerical models based on engine data are developed. One focus point of HESTIA is researching the development of hydrogen injection systems and the evaluation of their capabilities.
Specifically, data for blow-off and relight behavior of hydrogen in jet engines is not yet available. The relight capabilities of current kerosene burning jet engines is limited by the low temperature and low pressure at cruise conditions. Only the stagnation pressure due to the flight speed results in an airflow through the engine. Contrary to liquid fuels, hydrogen facilitates ignition due to the omission of evaporation. Furthermore, hydrogen has wider flammability limits, which means it ignites at lower concentrations. To what extend this influences altitude relight capabilities of hydrogen combustion chambers is investigated at the atmospheric test rig of the Institute of Propulsion Technology in Cologne, Germany.
Image of an H2 flame
OH*-chemiluminescence of a hydrogen flame at the atmospheric test rig of the Institute of Propulsion Technology, German Aerospace Center in Cologne.
Multiple hydrogen injectors are extinguished and relighted to, for example, show the flame growth within the flow field using high speed cameras. Especially the optical accessibility of the ignition process is highlighted to produce impactful datasets using laser optical high-speed measurements. By swapping injectors, key aspects such as mixture, fuel distribution and the flow field are changed. The relative ignition position will be altered to expand the experimental scope. Comparing the results with numerical data of the same setup is part of HESTIA. The achieved insights into hydrogen combustion further enhance the understanding of hydrogens impact on jet engines to achieve safe and robust operation. HESTIA is funded as part of the EU’s Horizon Europe grant scheme.
Running Time
09/2022 - 09/2026
Keywords
Hydrogen, European Green Deal, Horizon Europe, hydrogen combustion in jet engines, gas turbine, decarbonization, sustainable aviation, optical measurements, spark plug, ignition, laser, climate-neutral, transformation of aviation, reacting flows, altitude relight, blow-off, reignition, extinguished, lean blow-off
Funded by the EU Horizon
Funded by the EU Horizon Europe, Grant agreement ID: 101056865
Credit:
Europäische Union
Project participants
Rolls Royce Deutschland Ltd & Co KG
DLR-Institut für Antriebstechnik
SAFRAN Tech
Technische Universität Darmstadt
GE Avio s.r.l.
Loughborough University
General Electrics Deutschland Holding GmbH
Università degli Studi di Firenze
MTU Aero Engines AG
Technische Universität München
EM2C / Centre national de la recherche scientifique
IMFT / Institut national polytechnique de Toulouse
CENTRALESUPELEC
Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III
M2P2 / Aix-Marseille Université
Czestochowa University of Technology
Centre européen de recherche et de formation avancée en calcul scientifique
National Research Council
Institut Pprime / École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d’Aérotechnique
Rolls Royce PLC
Université de Poitiers
University of Cambridge
CORIA / Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rouen
