Water droplet evaporation at high pressure and temperature levels - Part i: Experimental investigations of spray patterns at varied test conditions

Abstract

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.

Water injection into gas turbines is subject of investigations since decades, due to a high power and efficiency augmentation potential compared to the simple gas turbine cycle. Based on former research at ambient conditions, some technologies have already been realized, e.g. inlet fogging. Further applications of water injection at higher temperature and pressure levels are limited, because of few experimental data. In order to gain fundamental understanding at these boundary conditions, a novel test facility for droplet evaporation investigations has been built up at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The resulting spray patterns are recorded by a laser based measuring technology, Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA). Part I of the paper treats the experimental setup of the test facility; in particular the laser based measuring technology, as well as the measurement results of the spray pattern produced from a nozzle at high pressure and temperature levels. The focus of the investigations is on the droplet evaporation process in dependence on parameter variation of the environmental conditions.