Neural Control Application to Combustion Processes

Abstract

Combustion processes exist in many applications related to power generation, heating and propulsion; for example, steam and gas turbines, domestic and industrial burners, and jet and ramjet engines. The characteristics of these processes include not only several interacting physical phenomena but also a wide variety of dynamic behaviour. In terms of their impact on system performance, pressure oscillations are of most significance. In some applications, pressure oscillations are undesirable since they result in excessive vibration, causing high levels of acoustic noise and in extreme cases mechanical failure. In the frequency domain, the pressure is characterised by dominant peaks at discrete frequencies which correspond to the acoustic modes of the combustion chamber.