PIV measurements to understand the flow differences between reacting and non-reacting conditions were conducted in an optically accessible single can combustor. An industrial fuel nozzle was installed at the inlet of the test section to generate the swirl flow for flame stabilization and simulate realistic conditions of a gas turbine combustor. Five different equivalence ratios between 0.50 and 0.75 were tested with propane as fuel. Main air flow was also varied from Reynolds number from 50000 to 110000 with respect to the fuel nozzle diameter. Effect of preheating was tested by changing inlet air temperature from 23 to 200°C. The pressure at the test section was close to atmospheric condition throughout the tests.

The measurements were performed with a 2-D PIV system. Time-averaged flow velocity, vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) were obtained from PIV data and flow structures under different conditions were compared. Swirl jet impingement location on the liner wall was determined as well to understand the impact on the liner wall. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) further analyzed the data to compare coherent structures in the reacting and non-reacting flows.