Implementing active combustion control in propulsion systems

Abstract

There has been a renewed interest in active combustion control technology, fueled by rapidly developing component technology as well as an increased awareness of the potential benefits offered by the use of in-situ feedback control processes. While earlier studies were motivated mainly by instability suppression in propulsion applications, recent research and developments on active combustion control have considered a large variety of applications involving a wide range in scope. Some of the new interests have come from power generation and incineration industries as well as more traditional propulsion industry. The scope and the hardware considered in these investigations vary widely, stemming from, for instance, the use of simple Rijke tube for control algorithm development to full-scale implementation into an industrial gas turbine. Active control activities in recent years are characterized by a shift in the emphasis from the general proof-of-concept studies to more focused investigations considering potential transition into particular systems. As a result, many of the recent studies on active combustion control considered system-related aspects as well as component technologies. This paper provides a brief review of active combustion control studies summarizing recent activities in this field. Also, the results of present investigation on scaling issues for liquid-fueled active instability suppression will be presented, and the outlook for future implementation of this technology in high-speed propulsion systems will be discussed.