Gas Turbine Combustor: Swirl Flame Stabilization

Inside a real gas-turbine combustor, fuel and air race through at tens of metres per second — far faster than a flame could ever propagate upstream against them. Swirl vanes solve this by spinning the flow hard enough to trigger vortex breakdown, which opens a central toroidal recirculation zone (CTRZ) that continuously feeds hot combustion products back to the flame base. This simulation renders that recirculating flow field in 3D: adjust the swirler vane angle, fuel/air equivalence ratio and inlet velocity to grow or collapse the CTRZ, watch particles ignite as they pass through it, and read live the swirl number, Damköhler number, laminar flame speed and recirculation-zone size that together decide whether the flame stays anchored, blows out, or risks flashing back into the swirler.