INCAS BULLETIN, Volume 13, Issue 1/ 2021, pp. 89 – 95 (P) ISSN 2066-8201, (E) ISSN 2247-4528 Experimental Prediction of Lean Blowout Limits for 3kW Micro Gas Turbine Combustor fuelled with LPG V. KIRUBAKARAN* ,1,a , David BHATT 1,b *Corresponding Author 1 Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr.Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Avadi, Chennai, India, kirubakaranvijayakumar@gmail.com*, davidbhatt@gmail.com DOI: 10.13111/2066-8201.2021.13.1.9 Received: 30 June 2020/ Accepted: 28 January 2021/ Published: March 2021 Copyright © 2021. Published by INCAS. This is an “open access” article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Abstract: The Lean Blowout Limit of the combustor is one of the important performance parameters for a gas turbine combustor design. This study aims to predict the total pressure loss and Lean Blowout (LBO) limits of an in-house designed swirl stabilized 3kW can-type micro gas turbine combustor. The experimental prediction of total pressure loss and LBO limits was performed on a designed combustor fuelled with Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for the combustor inlet velocity ranging from 1.70 m/s to 11 m/s. The results show that the predicted total pressure drop increases with increasing combustor inlet velocity, whereas the LBO equivalence ratio decreases gradually with an increase in combustor inlet velocity. The combustor total pressure drop was found to be negligible; being in the range of 0.002 % to 0.065 % for the measured inlet velocity conditions. These LBO limits predictions will be used to fix the operating boundary conditions of the gas turbine combustor. Key Words: Lean Blowout Limit, Total pressure loss, Micro Gas Turbine Combustor 1. INTRODUCTION The development of a micro gas turbine combustor is challenging when compared to a small and large gas turbine combustor. The combustion chamber of a gas turbine engine decides the overall performance of the engine. The flow field inside the combustor is very complex because of the turbulent flow field. The combustor consists of several subcomponents like pre- diffuser, snout, swirler, flame tube, and annulus. The pre-diffuser converts the high kinetic energy of incoming air from the compressor to pressure rise with minimal loss, which gives sufficient time to mix the air/ fuel for complete combustion. Along with the downstream, the component called snout is placed in line with the pre-diffuser. It is a sub-component of the combustor which distributes the designed mass flow to the flame tube and annulus. Followed by a component called a swirler, it is used to create a recirculation zone inside the flame tube. This is responsible for better air/ fuel mixing and igniting fresh incoming air/ fuel mixture from burnt gas to ensure continuous combustion. The flame tube has primary, secondary, and dilution zones. The primary zone maintains a stoichiometric air/fuel ratio, in which combustion is initiated. It is followed by a secondary zone in which the complete combustion will take place. The secondary zone exhibits the highest flame temperature in the entire engine. a Research Scholar b Assistant Professor