Combustion in SI Engines, CI Engines,

and Gas Turbines

Combustion in SI Engines
The combustion process of SI engines can be divided
into three broad regions
ignition and flame development
Generally considered to be the consumption of the first 5%
of the air-fuel mixture (some sources use the first 10%)
During this period, ignition occurs and the combustion
process starts, but very little pressure rise is noticeable and
little or no useful work is produced

flame propagation
Bulk of the fuel and air mass, about 80-90%, is burned
during this period
Work produced in an engine cycle is the result of the flame
propagation period of the combustion process

Combustion in SI Engines

Picture of turbulent flame

propagation inside a spark
ignition engine

The pressure trace of an IC

engine experiencing knocking
shows unsteady waves

Combustion in SI Engines
Pressure in the cylinder is greatly increased which provides
the force to produce work in the expansion stroke

flame termination
The final 5% (some sources use 10%) of the air-fuel mass
burns in this period
During this time, pressure quickly decreases and combustion
stops

Combustion in SI Engines

Combustion in SI Engines

Combustion in SI Engines

Images of the flame propagation process in an HCSI

engine (color scale qualitatively represents burning
intensity.)
The presence of the spark is highlighted in the first image

Combustion in SI Engines
Combustion in SI engine ideally consists of an
exothermic subsonic flame progressing through a
premixed homogeneous air-fuel mixture
The spread of the flame front is greatly increased by
induced turbulence, swirl, and squish within the cylinder
Combustion in a gaseous fuel-air mixture ignited by
spark is characterized by the more or less rapid
development of a flame that starts from the ignition
point and spreads in a continuous manner outward from
the ignition point
When this spread continues to the end of the chamber
without change in its speed or shape, the combustion is
called normal

Combustion in SI Engines
When the mixture appears to ignite and burn ahead of the
flame, the phenomenon is called autoignition
When there is a sudden increase in the reaction rate,
accompanied by measurable pressure waves, the
phenomenon is called detonation

Combustion is initiated by an electrical discharge across

the electrodes of a spark plug (piloted ignition) which
occurs anywhere from 10to 30 before TDC, depending
on the geometry of the combustion chamber and the
immediate operating conditions of the engine
Combustion starts very slowly because of the high heat
losses to the relatively cold spark plug and gas mixture
Flame can generally be detected at about 6 of crank
rotation after spark plug firing

Combustion in SI Engines

Autoignition can occur when

critical pressure and
temperature are exceeded in
the engine

Engine knock occurs

when unburned gases
autoignite

Combustion in SI Engines

Combustion in SI Engines

Combustion in SI Engines
Applied potential is generally 25,000 - 40,000 volts, with a
maximum current on the order of 200 amps lasting about
10 nsec (1 nsec = 10-9 sec)
This gives a peak temperature on the order of 60,000 K
Overall spark discharge lasts about 0.001 second, with an
average temperature of about 6000 K
A stoichiometric mixture of hydrocarbon fuel requires
about 0.2 mJ (0.2 X 10 -3 J) of energy to ignite selfsustaining combustion
This varies to as much as 3 mJ for non-stoichiometric
mixtures
The discharge of a spark plug delivers 30 to 50 mJ of
energy, most of which, however, is lost by heat transfer

Combustion in SI Engines

Combustion in SI Engines

Combustion in SI Engines

Combustion in SI Engines
The P-V diagram of actual engines differs somewhat
from the ideal Otto cycle diagram due to heat losses,
friction, and the finite amount of time required for
release of the fuel energy

Pressure trace and heat release rate

Pressure-volume trace from
versus CAD for a research engine with a typical IC engine
a fuel mixture of 70% isooctane and
30% n-heptane

Combustion in SI Engines
Spark ignition timing has a significant
impact on the performance of an SI
engine
To produce the maximum torque for a
given rpm, the best timing is found when
the peak pressure occurs around 510
CAD after TDC
This optimal timing is referred to as the
maximum brake torque (MBT) timing
When the engine speed increases, timing
is advanced to achieve the best thermal
efficiency
If timing is advanced too early, an engine
may experience knocking

Combustion in SI Engines
The relation between flame development and pressure
depends on many factors
Effect of engine speed
The average flame speed remains nearly proportional to the
piston speed
If the spark is advanced as speed increases in such a way as
to keep peak pressure at the optimum crank angle (15 to
20 ATC), the apparent time loss will be nearly independent
of speed

Effect of cylinder size

The ratio of flame speed is nearly the same for similar
cylinders of different sizes
At a given piston speed, burning time will be nearly inversely
proportional to bore, and, since rpm is inversely proportional to
bore, the burning angle will be nearly independent of the bore

Combustion in SI Engines
At a given rpm, average flame speed will be nearly proportional
to bore, and effective burning angle will again be independent
of the bore

Effect of Reynolds Index

Flame speed always increases with Reynolds number

Effect of combustion-chamber shape

Flame speed is higher in combustion chamber with squish
than in an open type combustion chamber
The more compact the chamber, the greater the rate of
pressure rise

Effect of stroke-bore ratio

Flame angles tend to be larger as the stroke is reduced, at a
given piston speed, with a given bore
The increase in angle is not as great as the increase in rpm

Abnormal Combustion in SI Engines

The two major abnormal combustion phenomena are
knock and surface ignition
These abnormal combustion phenomena are of concern
because
when severe, they can cause major engine damage
even if not severe, they are regarded as an objectionable
source of noise

Knock is the noise (transmitted through the engin e

structure) associated with autoignition of a portion of the
fuel-air mixture ahead of the advancing flame front
Autoignition is the spontaneous ignition and the resulting
very rapid reaction of a portion or all of the fuel-air
mixture

Abnormal Combustion in SI Engines

Surface ignition is ignition of the fuel-air mixture by a
hot spot on the combustion chamber walls such as an
overheated valve or spark plug, or glowing combustion
chamber deposit: i.e., by any means other than the
normal spark discharge
It can occur before the occurrence of the spark
(preignition) or after (postignition)

When autoignition occurs repeatedly, during otherwise

normal combustion events, the phenomena is called

spark-knock

Spark-knock is controllable by the spark advance:

advancing the spark increases the knock severity or
intensity and retarding the spark decreases the knock

Abnormal Combustion in SI Engines

Abnormal Combustion in SI Engines

Abnormal Combustion in SI Engines

Of all the engine surface-ignition phenomena, preignition
is potentially the most damaging
Knock primarily occurs under wide-open-throttle
operating conditions thus a direct constraint on engine
performance
It also constrains engine efficiency, since by effectively
limiting the temperature and pressure of the end-gas, it
limits the engine compression ratio
The occurrence and severity of knock depend on the knock
resistance of the fuel and on the antiknock characteristics
of the engine

Abnormal Combustion in SI Engines

Schematic
representation of engine
knock
Pressure trace in knocking combustion

Combustion in CI Engines
CI engines are merited with high engine efficiency (up to
45%) because of (1) higher compression ratios, (2) no
throttling, (3) lower running speed than SI engines,
therefore less friction losses, and (4) lean air/fuel
mixture
At most load ranges, CI engines are more fuel efficient
than SI engines
These engines are heavier than spark ignition engines
because of the need to support higher internal pressures
in the cylinders
They are also noisier because of the spontaneous
ignition of the charge

Combustion in CI Engines
Advantages of diesel engines as compared to SI engines
Compression ratio (CR) is higher, leading to higher thermal
efficiency
Since no throttling valve is needed, intake losses are
lower, thus efficiency is higher
Overall equivalence ratio is lean (f ~ 0.70.8), so less
unburned hydrocarbons and CO are leftover from the gas
phase combustion
Walls and crevices contain air only during the compression
stroke, so in principle, no hydrocarbons and CO go
unburned due to quenching in the crevices

Combustion in CI Engines
Disadvantages of diesel engines as compared to SI
engines
The liquid spray flame burns in diffusion flame mode,
causing high temperatures that result in high NOx
At high loads, soot/particles are formed
Cost of diesel engines is high due to the high-pressure
injection system
Engines must be heavier to withstand the higher pressures
Maximum operable engine speed (RPM) is lower than in SI
engines, so peak power output is lower

Combustion in CI Engines
Diesel spray consists of several
processes in sequence including
evaporation, mixing with air, and
ultimately combustion
Diesel spray consists of three distinct
zones
(1) spray evaporation
(2) mixing with surrounding hot air
(3) combustion
An estimate of the total physical
time required to complete the entire
spray combustion process in a diesel
engine is:
ttotalphysicaltime = tevap + tmix + tcomb

Combustion in CI Engines
The total physical time places an upper limit on how fast
the engine can run
Usually the injection timing is set around 30 Before Top
Dead Center (BTDC) with a total burn duration of 70
Crank Angle Degrees (CAD)
When the engine is run at 3,000 rpm, the total time
available for spray combustion is about 3.9 ms
For reference, droplets of size of 10 mm can be vaporized at
900 K and 4 MPa (40 bar) within 0.5 ms

Current diesel engines employ high boost pressures,

high injection pressures and high exhaust gas
recirculation (EGR) rates than ever used before to
pursue better fuel economy and meet stringent
emissions standards

Combustion in CI Engines
The combustion processes themselves are principally
governed by mixture formation, auto-ignition and
turbulent diffusion
The basic feature of a CI engine is operation with
heterogeneous mixture
This enables operation with extremely lean overall fuel-toair (F/A) ratio, since local values can be kept well within
the flammability limits
The consequences are the two persistent problems with
the diesel engine emissions: formation of nitric oxides
(NOx) and soot particles

Combustion in CI Engines
Mixture preparation and in-cylinder motion have a critical
impact on autoignition, combustion, and formation of
pollutants in a CI engine
Over a period of time, the direct injection concept has
achieved absolute dominance over the divided chamber
(prechamber or swirl-chamber) owing to the significant
efficiency advantages

Combustion in CI Engines
In CI engines, fresh air enters the cylinder during the
intake process and mixes with whatever amount of
exhaust residual might be present
The air often enters the cylinder at pressures higher than
the ambient pressure owing to turbocharging

After the intake valve (or port) closes, the fresh charge
is compressed by the piston to very high pressures and
temperatures
The fuel is injected at high velocities through small holes
on the injector nozzle just before the piston reaches the
TDC
The piston top is shaped in a way that allows
development of the spray, fuel atomization, and good
mixing with air

Combustion in CI Engines
Fuel evaporates and mixes with air, and owing to very
high gas temperatures, autoignites after a delay of only
a few crank-angles
Fuel/air mixture prepared during the ignition-delay
period burns rapidly and this is referred to as a
premixed phase of burning
The injection continues after ignition, and the
subsequent stage of the process controlled by mixing
rates is called a diffusion phase
The premixed burning is much more dominant at low
loads (relatively small amount of fuel injected), and
diffusion burning is more dominant at high load (large
amount of fuel injected)

Combustion in CI Engines

Spray combustion

Combustion processes in a
typical diesel engine

Temporal trajectories
of local f and T values in the
combustion chamber

Combustion in CI Engines

(a) the typical profile demonstrating a

premixed spike followed by a diffusion
burning phase

(b) sequence of rate of heat-release

profiles obtained during a fueling change,
from low to high. Lower loads display
relatively more premixed burning (back),
while at high loads diffusion part
becomes more dominant (front).

Rate of heat release obtained in a conventional CI engine

Combustion in CI Engines
The rate of heat release is defined as the rate at which
the chemical energy of the fuel is released by the
combustion process
The overall compression-ignition diesel combustion
process can be defined as:
Ignition delay (ab): The period between the start of fuel
injection into the combustion chamber and the start of
combustion [determined from the change in slope on the
p-q diagram, or from a heat-release analysis of the p(q)
data, or from a luminosity detector]
Premixed or rapid combustion phase (bc): In this
phase, combustion of the fuel which has mixed with air to
within the flammability limits during the ignition delay
period occurs rapidly in a few crank angle degree

Combustion in CI Engines

for SI engine

Combustion in CI Engines
When this burning mixture is added to the fuel which
becomes ready for burning and bums during this phase, the
high heat-release rates characteristic of this phase result

Mixing-controlled combustion phase (cd): Once the

fuel and air which premixed during the ignition delay have
been consumed, the burning rate (or rate of heat release)
is controlled by the rate at which mixture becomes
available for burning
While several processes are involved liquid fuel
atomization, vaporization, mixing of fuel vapor with air,
preflame chemical reactions the rate of burning is
controlled in this phase primarily by the fuel vapor-air mixing
process
The rate of heat release may or may not reach a second
(usually lower) peak in this phase; it decreases as this phase
progresses

Combustion in CI Engines
Late combustion phase (de): Heat release continues at a
lower rate well into the expansion stroke
Several reasons for this are:
A small fraction of the fuel may not yet burned
A fraction of the fuel energy is present in soot and fuel-rich
combustion products and can still be released
The cylinder charge is non-uniform and mixing during this
period promotes more complete combustion and lessdissociated product gases
The kinetics of the final burnout processes become slower as
the temperature of the cylinder gases fall during expansion

Combustion in CI Engines
Spray Evaporation
The fuel injected into the engine cylinder through orifices
of an injector undergoes breakup, atomization and
evaporation, and simultaneously mixes with air entrained
into the spray plume
The initial droplet size depends on the orifice diameter,
injection pressure and air density, and ranges generally from
10 to 20mm in diameter
The cavitation bubbles generated in the nozzle and orifice
flow collapse instantly when released in the high pressure
ambient air
When the injection pressure is over some 200MPa, the
injection velocity exceeds the sound velocity in the incylinder air, and shockwaves originating from the orifice exit
is observed

Combustion in CI Engines
The spray droplets transfer their momentum to the
entrained air and decrease rapidly their relative velocities,
and simultaneously receive heat from the entrained air
The increased vapor pressure on the hot surface of the
droplets drives molecular mass transport, i.e., evaporation
With the progress of droplets evaporation inside the spray
plume, both local mixture temperature and vapor pressure
approach to their adiabatic-saturation conditions which
depend on the local fuelair ratio and initial air
temperature
When the ambient air pressure exceeds twice the fuel
critical pressure and the ambient air temperature is higher
than around 1.5 times the fuel critical temperature, the
fuel droplet reaches critical temperature during
evaporation and turns instantly into gas phase

Combustion in CI Engines
Auto Ignition
Fuel air mixtures formed during ignition delay period burn
explosively when combustion starts and therefore, ignition
delay together with the fuel injection rate and air motion
plays a key role in determining the initial heat release rate
As the extent of homogeneity of fuel air mixtures formed
during ignition delay is responsible for the spatial and
temporal distributions of and T in the flame during the
early stage of combustion, ignition delay affects largely the
formation of NO and soot
Auto-ignition of diesel sprays depends essentially on two
processes that progress simultaneously, the physical
process governing mixture formation and the chemical
process leading to exothermic reactions

Combustion in CI Engines
The physical properties of a fuel such as density, surface
tension, viscosity, and volatility concern closely
atomization, evaporation and mixture formation in the
spray of this particular fuel
The cetane number is also an important index that relates
closely chemical process
The in-cylinder air conditions such as pressure,
temperature and oxygen concentration are all involved in
both processes
The effect of orifice diameter on ignition delay attracts
attention because it tends to become smaller with the
increase in injection pressure
Ignition delay decreases with the decrease in orifice diameter
but remains unchanged when the orifice diameter is smaller
than 0.05 mm

Combustion in CI Engines
At temperatures above 1000 K, the difference between
ignition delays for large and small orifices is bigger than
that at lower temperatures, because the physical delay
occupies a major portion in the total ignition delay at high
ambient temperatures

Combustion in CI Engines
Instead of one state for the premixed flame, two
boundary states are considered for diffusion flames: fuel
(which may be diluted in other gases) and oxidizer
(diluted or not)
Fuel and oxidizer diffuse towards the reaction zone where
they burn and generate heat
Temperature is maximum in this zone and diffuses away
from the flame front towards the fuel and oxidizer streams

Diffusion flame structure

Combustion in CI Engines
The figure illustrates some important considerations:
Far away on each side of the flame, the gas is either too
rich or too lean to burn
Chemical reactions can proceed only in a limited region,
where fuel and oxidizer are mixed adequately
The most favorable mixing is obtained where fuel and
oxidizer are in stoichiometric proportions: a diffusion flame
usually lies along the points where mixing produces a
stoichiometric mixture

The flame structure is steady only when fuel and oxidizer

streams are pushed against each other at given speeds
In a pure one-dimensional unstrained case, the flame
spreads with time t, gets choked in its combustion products
and the reaction rate slowly decreases as 1/t

Combustion in CI Engines
A diffusion flame does not exhibit a reference speed as
premixed flames: the flame is unable to propagate
towards fuel because of the lack of oxidizer and it cannot
propagate towards oxidizer stream because of the lack of
fuel accordingly, the reaction zone does not move
significantly relatively to the flow field

Combustion in CI Engines

Evolving jet just after ignition

Fully developed reacting jet with

dark zones indicating high-soot
concentrations in the head
vortex

Combustion in CI Engines

Schematic representation of spray dispersion

Combustion in CI Engines

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

There are two general types of injection systems:
Cam-operated injection system pressure increase and
fuel metering are coupled mechanically
The cam moves the tappet of the injection pump, which for
its part "compresses" the fuel volume
The resulting climbing pressure opens a valve and thus
releases the feeding pipe for the injection nozzle
The return line is opened via a trimming edge, and so the
fuel pressure falls, the valve closes, and injection is over

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

Common-rail injection system pressure increase and fuel
metering are completely separated
By means of a mechanically or electrically operated high
pressure pump, fuel is continually delivered into a high
pressure reservoir (common rail)
With an electronically controlled injector, fuel is taken from
the common rail and sprayed into the combustion chamber

In the case of the distributor injection pump (DIP),

only one pump unit exists for all cylinders
During one engine revolution, the DIP piston makes as
many strokes (2-stroke engine) or half as many strokes (4stroke engine) as there are cylinders, and via one rotation
of the distributor head, the fuel is added to the single
injection pipes

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

Functional diagram of a distributor injection pump

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

For smaller engines, DIP is less expensive than inline
injection pumps or unit pump systems (UPS)
Modern distributor injection pumps can create a maximum
pump pressure of 800 1,000 bar
However, through purposeful exploitation of the pressure
waves spreading in the injection pipe, a heightening of this
maximum pressure to approx. 1,500 bar at the nozzle
orifice is possible with existing systems

The UPS system is a modularly built high pressure

injection system consisting of an injection pump, a short
high pressure pipe and an injector-nozzle combination
Injection start and the injection amount are measured by
means of a solenoid valve for every cylinder

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

With the help of the solenoid valve, access to a
compensating volume is opened/closed
An opening of the valve causes a rapid decline in pressure
in front of the injection nozzle and thus leads to a closing
of the nozzle

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

The injection pump and injection
nozzle form a unit in unit injection
system (UIS), which is installed at
every cylinder separately
A fast-switching solenoid valve controls
the injection start and finish
It receives its shift signal from an
electronic control unit, in the electronic
module of which an injection map is
stored
In the UIS, injection pressures up to
2,000 bar can be represented which
makes low fuel consumption and
emission levels possible

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

In the electronically controlled common rail system
(CR), fuel is led to the common rail, a high-pressure
reservoir built as a "pipe", with pressures in the area of
1,200 < p < 2,000 bar, from there the fuel is regulated
and led to each cylinders

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

With common rail injection system, almost any injection
path can be represented, whereby the advantages of CR
injection systems can only be realized when current
solenoid valve/piezo valve controlled injectors are
replaced with electronically controlled, directly activating
piezo common rail injectors whereby pressuremodulated piezo CR injectors represent a highly
promising advance
As opposed to cam-operated injection systems, the
operating speed of the high pressure pump does not
have to be rigidly coupled to the engine speed because
of the common rail systems disassociation of pressure
production and control functions

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

Through this, higher injection pressures can be realized
even at smaller engine speeds, which causes better
mixture formation and thus improved emission behavior
The common rail injection system should become
universally successful in the near future due to its
important advantages with regard to both pollutant
reduction as well as constructive performance, whereby
injection pressures well over 2,000 bar are under
consideration

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

Fuel is injected into the combustion chamber through
the bores in the injection nozzle
In the injection process, the fuel should be atomized to
the highest possible degree in order to achieve a good
air-fuel mixing
For varying combustion processes and fuels, varying
nozzle designs are utilized

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

Pintle nozzles are employed in pre- and swirl chamber
engines
They have a stroke dependent opening cross-section, are
advantageous with respect to combustion noise, tend
however towards carbonization (bung-hole nozzle)

Multi-hole orifice nozzles are employed in direct injection

diesel engines sac hole nozzles typically for
conventional injection systems and mini-sac hole nozzles
as well as seat-type nozzles for common rail injection
systems
The injection nozzle is integrated into an injector, which
is screwed into the cylinder as a structural group

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

In case of two-spring injectors, varying spring constants
are employed
At injection start, the weaker spring only allows a
restricted needle lift and thus a limited delivery rate
Only when the injection pressure exceeds the spring force
of the second spring does full needle lift and the maximal
injection rate become possible
Through the so-produced pre-injection of a smaller
quantity of fuel, a softer pressure increase in the
combustion chamber and thus a lower level of noise is
achieved

CIE Injection Methods and Systems

Standard and two-spring injectors

Combustion in Gas Turbines

Chemiluminescence images of a turbulent CH4/H2/N2 jet flame (Red =

15,200)
The long exposure image (far left) indicates the mean flame structure,
and the six shorter exposures to the right illustrate the instantaneous
turbulent structure

Combustion in Gas Turbines

The long-exposure image on the left of the figure shows
the mean envelope of the reaction zone, which is
distributed across the mixing layer of the jet and the
coflow
The six short-exposure images illustrate the complex
instantaneous structure of the turbulent flames
As the jet exit-velocity increases, the flame becomes
increasingly turbulent

Combustion in Gas Turbines

Diagram and photograph of

a model gas turbine
combustor operating on
CH4/air at atmospheric
pressure
Fuel is injected from an
annulus separating two
swirling air streams

Combustion in Gas Turbines

In this combustor, two annular swirling flows of air
surround a ring that injects fuel
The turbulent flame spreads out as a cone, and there
are inner and outer recirculation zones
The central theme in nonpremixed combustion is that
the structure and stability of a given flame depend on
the coupling between turbulent mixing and chemical
reactions
Reference velocity
The theoretical velocity for flow of combustor-inlet air
through an area equal to the maximum cross section of
the combustor casing (25 fps (8 mps) in a reverse-flow
combustor; 80-135 fps (24-41 mps) in a straight-throughflow turbojet combustor)

Combustion in Gas Turbines

Profile factor
The ratio between the maximum exit temperature and the
average exit temperature

Traverse number (temperature factor)

The peak gas temperature minus mean gas temperature
divided by mean temperature rise in nozzle design
The difference between the highest and the average radial
temperature

Pressure drop
A pressure loss occurs in a combustor because of
diffusion, friction, and momentum
The pressure drop value is 2-10% of the static pressure
(compressor outlet pressure) the efficiency of the engine
will be reduced by an equal percent

Combustion in Gas Turbines

The fundamental pressure loss from combustion is
proportional to the air velocity squared
Since compressor discharge velocities can be on the
order of 500 ft/sec (152.4 m/sec), the combustion
pressure loss can be up to one-quarter of the pressure
rise produced by the compressor
For this reason, air entering the combustor is first diffused
to lower the velocity
Even with a diffuser, velocities are still too high to permit
stable combustion

With flame speeds of a few fps, a steady flame cannot

be produced by simple injection into an airstream with a
velocity one to two orders of magnitude greater

Combustion in Gas Turbines

Even if ignited initially, the flame will be carried
downstream and cannot be sustained without continuous
ignition
A baffle of some type needs to be added to create a
region of low velocity and flow reversal for flame
stabilization
The baffle creates an eddy region in the flow continually
drowning in gases to be burned, mixing them, and
completing the combustion reaction
It is this steady circulation that stabilizes the flame and
provides continuous ignition
The problem in combustion then becomes one of
producing only enough turbulence for mixing and burning,
and avoiding an excess, which results in increased
pressure loss

Combustion in Gas Turbines

A simple bluff body, such as a baffle placed in the flow
stream, is the simplest case of flame stabilization
There are various ways to create flame stability in the
primary zone
In one, a strong vortex is created by swirl vanes around
the fuel nozzle

Combustion in Gas Turbines

Another flow pattern is formed when combustor air is
admitted through rings of radial jets
Jet impingement at the combustor axis results in upstream
flow
The upstream flow forms a toroidal recirculation zone that
stabilizes the flame

Combustion in Gas Turbines

Velocity is an important factor in primary zone design
A fixed velocity value in the combustor creates a limited
range of mixture strength for which the flame is stable
Also, different flame stabilizing arrangements (baffles, jets,
or swirl vanes) exhibit different ranges of burnable
mixtures at a given velocity

Combustion in Gas Turbines

In the primary zone fuel-to-air ratios are about 60:1; the
remaining air must be added somewhere
About 15-20 percent air is introduced around the jet of
fuel in this zone to provide the necessary high temperature
for rapid conbustion

Some 30 percent secondary, or dilution, air should only

be added after the primary reaction has reached
completion
Dilution air should be added gradually so as not to chill the
flame locally and quench the reaction
The addition of a flame tube as a basic combustor
component accomplishes this

Combustion in Gas Turbines

Finally, in the tertiary or dilution zone the remaining air
is mixed with the products of combustion to cool them
down to the temperature required at inlet to the turbine
Sufficient turbulence must be promoted so that the hot
and cold streams are thoroughly mixed to give the desired
outlet temperature distribution