Book Review: Unsteady Combustor Physics

Abstract

Combustion dynamics is a subject that has been studied for several decades that started due to the requirements of aerospace industries. But in recent times, instabilities that accompany techniques like lean premixed combustion adopted in land-based applications also have reinforced the interest of the combustion community in this area. Thus this area is becoming a major area of combustion research. However, working in this subject requires knowledge of a number of disciplines apart from combustion, which makes initiation into the area of combustion dynamics rather challenging for a beginner. Traditionally, in studies of combustion instabilities, the role of acoustics have received the major attention primarily because of the strong coupling that exists between acoustic disturbances and heat release rate fluctuations and the catastrophic influence that this coupling can have on the performance and even structural integrity of the combustion systems. The current research trend, however, looks beyond thermoacoustics and critically investigates the roles of various factors like flow dynamics, combustion chemistry, heat and species transport to name a few. It is in this context that the utility of the present book under review has to be assessed. The book is designed as an advanced level textbook and gives a broad overview of the various factors that play major roles in combustion dynamics. As stated by the author in the “Preface” the book requires prior knowledge of fluid mechanics and combustion but no prerequisite in acoustics. The first part of the book (Chapters 1 to 6) introduces the basic concepts of reacting flow, hydrodynamic stability and acoustic wave propagation. Starting from general introductions to the subjects, the chapters bring out topics that are directly relevant to combustion dynamics. The second part of the book (Chapters 6 to 12) deals with interactions of these three subjects that are observed in combustion dynamic problems. The first chapter gives a very concise but useful coverage of the basics of transport phenomena in reacting flows. Although primarily of recapitulative nature, the treatment International journal of spray and combustion dynamics · Volume .6 · Number . 2 .2014 – pages 221 – 223 221