Enhancing ammonia combustion with minimum hydrogen blended in presence of self-excited intermittent pulsating oscillations

In this work, we propose and test a partial premixed fuel injection design of NH3−H2−O2 with double ring-shaped inlets to enhance ammonia combustion in an open-ended combustor by generating and sustaining pulsating combustion oscillations. Emphasis is being placed on determining the minimum amount of hydrogen being blended with ammonia in the presence of such self-excited pulsating oscillations. With the numerical model validated by comparing with experimental and theoretical data, we identify and systemically investigate three key thermodynamic parameters. They are shown to strongly affect the thermal, combustion, and emission performances. These parameters include the following: (1) total fuel mass flow rate ṁf; (2) mass fraction of hydrogen ω̇H2; and (3) the temperature TH of a heat exchanger implemented downstream of the combustor. It is interesting to observe that intermittent pulsating oscillations are sustained by such ammonia–hydrogen combustion. Furthermore, comparison is conducted between the present results and those with the classical single ring-shaped fuel inlet under the same flow and operating conditions. It is found that the exothermic heat of the proposed double-ring inlets is increased by 98.7% on average. The frequency of such intermittent oscillations is shown to increase with the decreased NH3 proportion. When pure hydrogen is supplied and passing through the outer ring inlet, the combustion limit can be greatly expanded, even if the inlet mass fraction of hydrogen is very small. The minimum hydrogen blended with ammonia is shown to be 0.1% to achieve a sustainable combustion and large-amplitude oscillations. The NO emission is found to be decreased, and H2O is shown to increase. The present study open ups an approach to enhance ammonia combustion by improving its flammability limit with the minimal hydrogen blended.