Flame Root Research Articles

Role of secondary hydrogen injection on flame stabilization of ammonia/air swirling flames

Ammonia is widely recognized as one of the most advanced hydrogen carriers and can be utilized as a fuel in gas turbines. Premixing hydrogen into the ammonia carbon free fuel system can substantially enhance stable limits, but it significantly promotes cross-reactions, leading to increased NO production. Recent findings related to other fuels suggest that the alternative approach for mitigating combustion instabilities involves introducing minimal pure hydrogen at the chamber inlet in a non-premixed mode. This may introduce a novel approach to stabilize ammonia/air swirl flames by extending the stability through a minimal hydrogen via secondary injection, with minimal impact on increasing nitrogen oxide emissions. In the present study, the flame stabilization mechanism and nitrogen oxide emission behaviors of swirl ammonia/air flames by a secondary hydrogen injection were compared with the premixed ammonia/ hydrogen/air flames. OH-/NO-PLIF and PIV techniques were applied to reveal the lean blow-off characteristics and the reacting flow features. The NOx emissions were measured by the FTIR gas analyzer. The large eddy simulation method with a developed dynamic thickened flame model was employed to further reveal the experimental findings. Experimental results show that the flame stabilization limits are largely depended on the way in which hydrogen is introduced. The secondary hydrogen injection exhibits the stronger enhancement ability for the lean/rich blow-off limits, primarily due to the local diffusion hydrogen flame at the flame root providing more active radicals and higher temperature gases. The NO emission shows an increase with the addition of premixed hydrogen, while in the secondary hydrogen injection, NO emission deteriorates due to higher temperatures, with the NO emission increasing by less than 10% compared with the ammonia flame. In the large eddy simulation analyses, the physical effects of the secondary hydrogen injection enhance the flame stability by increasing the resistance of the flame root to extinction. The heat release rate and the mass fractions of NH and H near the flame root are significantly increased by 2% secondary hydrogen injection. The enhancement of the ammonia decomposition process is stronger with secondary hydrogen injection than with fully premixed hydrogen addition. For 2% secondary hydrogen injection case, the local hydrogen injection to form a non-premixed combustion mode can provide much higher capability to increase the local heat release rate compared to the fully premixed mode.Novelty and significance statement: Introducing small amount of hydrogen to ammonia flame can effectively improving the flame stabilization in a swirl combustor. In this study, it is found that the flame stabilization limits are largely depended on the way in which hydrogen is introduced. Comparing the way of premixing hydrogen in the unburned mixture, a larger effect on blow-off limits extension was found when introducing a separate non-premixed hydrogen at the chamber inlet, which is mentioned as the secondary hydrogen injection. The lean blow-off limits can be extended from about 0.67 to 0.59 when only introducing 2% secondary hydrogen injection by heat value. The NO emission shows in the secondary hydrogen injection, NO emission deteriorates by less than 10% compared with the ammonia flame. A thickened flame model for non-premixed combustion was established and verified adequate with velocity field and flame structure. The mechanisms of enhancing flame stabilization by hydrogen introduction including physical and chemical effects for premixing and injection cases were revealed. Furthermore, the difference in the mechanisms of the two cases was emphasized.

Effect of air distribution mode on jet flame and emission characteristics of high temperature gas-solid mixed fuel

The characteristics of the flame can not only intuitively reflect the flow, mixing and reaction processes of fuel and oxidant, but also provide detailed information on combustion efficiency and stability. The present study aims to delve into the jet flame characteristics and emission properties of high-temperature gas-solid mixed fuel. A comprehensive series of experiments were conducted on a custom-designed test platform. During the experiments, variations in both the position (h3 = 200, 600, 1000 mm) and velocity (v3 = 67, 138, 223 m/s) of the tertiary air were introduced. The study focused on analyzing the flame lift-off distance, the correlation coefficient of the flame root, the normalized root mean square temperature distribution within the flame body area, and the NOx emission characteristics across various air distribution scenarios. The experimental findings reveal that alterations in the position of tertiary air exert a greater influence on the flame lift-off distance than variations in its velocity. Furthermore, temporal fluctuations in the correlation coefficient of the flame root and the normalized root mean square temperature distribution within the flame body region serve as effective indicators of flame stability. Notably, an increase in both the tertiary air position and velocity leads to a notable reduction in NOx emissions. Additionally, through a quantitative analysis of flame stability, temperature distribution uniformity, and NOx emission characteristics, this study establishes a correlation between flame characteristics and pollutant emission profiles. This correlation offers a more comprehensive understanding of the combustion process involved in high-temperature gas-solid mixed fuel.

Exploring the stabilization mechanism of NH3/CH4 non-premixed flames under gradient magnetic fields

This study explores the stabilization of non-premixed NH3/CH4 flames using gradient magnetic fields, overcoming challenges like low flame speed and instability inherent in ammonia—a carbon-free fuel and efficient hydrogen carrier. The action of the magnetic field modified the flame flow field, resulting in the suppression of emissions. By applying magnetic fields, the blending ratio of ammonia in the diffusion flame was elevated, resulting in an increase of 69% in the limit concentration to a near-pure level of 0.914. Measurements with Particle Image Velocimetry and schlieren system, alongside computational fluid dynamics, reveal how gradient magnetic fields mitigate flame detachment, lift-off, and blowout by altering flame root stabilization mechanisms. Specifically, gradient magnetic fields reduce localized flow velocity at the flame root and improve mass transfer. This indicates that gradient magnetic fields can significantly enhance the stability of NH3/CH4 flames, suggesting a promising route toward cleaner energy production and environmental sustainability.

A deep learning-based dynamic deformable adaptive framework for locating the root region of the dynamic flames.

Traditional optical flame detectors (OFDs) in flame detection are susceptible to environmental interference, which will inevitably cause detection errors and miscalculations when confronted with a complex environment. The conventional deep learning-based models can mitigate the interference of complex environments by flame image feature extraction, which significantly improves the precision of flame recognition. However, these models focus on identifying the general profile of the static flame, but neglect to effectively locate the source of the dynamic flame. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel dynamic flame detection method named Dynamic Deformable Adaptive Framework (DDAF) for locating the flame root region dynamically. Specifically, to address limitations in flame feature extraction of existing detection models, the Deformable Convolution Network v2 (DCNv2) is introduced for more flexible adaptation to the deformations and scale variations of target objects. The Context Augmentation Module (CAM) is used to convey flame features into Dynamic Head (DH) to feature extraction from different aspects. Subsequently, the Layer-Adaptive Magnitude-based Pruning (LAMP) where the connection with the smallest LAMP score is pruned sequentially is employed to further enhance the speed of model detection. More importantly, both the coarse- and fine-grained location techniques are designed in the Inductive Modeling (IM) to accurately delineate the flame root region for effective fire control. Additionally, the Temporal Consistency-based Detection (TCD) contributes to improving the robustness of model detection by leveraging the temporal information presented in consecutive frames of a video sequence. Compared with the classical deep learning method, the experimental results on the custom flame dataset demonstrate that the AP0.5 value is improved by 4.4%, while parameters and FLOPs are reduced by 25.3% and 25.9%, respectively. The framework of this research extends applicability to a variety of flame detection scenarios, including industrial safety and combustion process control.

Experimental study on conical flame transfer functions considering velocity profiles

This paper investigates the linear thermoacoustic dynamic response of laminar premixed stoichiometric propane/air flames under different oncoming flow velocity profiles. Experiments focused on four nozzle thickness-to-diameter ratios: 0.75, 1.5, 2.5 and 3.75, and three different mean bulk velocities: 1.1m/s, 1.2m/s and 1.3m/s. As the nozzle thickness-to-diameter ratio increases, the velocity profile transitions from a developing velocity profile to a fully developed velocity profile. The flame transfer function (FTF) gain exceeds unity at low frequencies. Notably, the effect of the velocity profile is mainly manifested in the moderate frequency range where the FTF gain decreases. When the velocity profile approaches the resonance frequency of the corresponding small orifice, the decline in FTF gain becomes less pronounced. For fully developed velocity profiles, the decrease in mean bulk velocity leads to an increase in FTF gain at low frequencies, but a more rapid decrease at higher frequencies. Additionally, this paper also investigates segmented flame transfer functions (segFTFs) at various axial positions along the flame. With the increase in frequency, the effect of flame front disturbance on FTF changes from the overall flame displacement caused by flame root stand-off distance, to the effect of flame front wrinkle counteracting effect. The different velocity profiles significantly impact the flame dynamic response, thereby affecting the flame heat release rate and consequently the FTF.

Experimental investigation of multi-burner array with lean lifted spray flames in inline and inclined configurations

Lean combustion in gas turbines garners attention for emissions reduction, yet it faces stability challenges demanding careful design considerations. In this study, a novel CHAIRLIFT combustor concept, which integrates low swirl lean lifted spray flames known for substantial nitrogen oxides emissions reduction, into a Short Helical Combustors (SHC) arrangement, is investigated. A comprehensive experimental test campaign explores key parameters, including staggered arrangement offset, equivalence ratios, and air inlet temperature, to evaluate its performance. The results reveal exceptional stability in low swirl, lifted flames compared to moderate swirl flames with larger inner recirculation zones. The unwanted flow deflection of highly swirled flames in the SHC arrangement is effectively avoided with the investigated low swirl, lifted flames. The study emphasizes the significant influence of fuel droplet evaporation time on flame stability near the flame root under low air inlet temperatures. Furthermore, at high air inlet temperatures, the complex flame stability mechanism in inclined configurations is controlled by various parameters, including outer recirculation zone size, air inlet temperature, and additional vortices generated by pressure differences near the wall. OH∗ chemiluminescence results corroborate these stability mechanisms, showing that at lower temperatures, the flame stabilizes closer to the nozzle exit due to local rich pockets near the shear layer. Conversely, at the same tilt angle, higher air inlet temperatures lead to an increased flame lift-off height due to faster evaporation and enhanced mixing. Exhaust gas analyses confirm the potential of the investigated lean lifted spray flames in a multi-burner arrangement to achieve very low NOx emissions over a wide range of operating conditions for all investigated burner inclinations. These findings may facilitate the future development and optimization of lean combustion technology for aircraft engines.

Effect of Deflector on the Combustion Characteristics of a Micro-Combustor With a Controlled Centrally Slotted Bluff Body

Abstract Flame tip-opening in a micro-combustor with a controlled centrally slotted bluff body adversely affects the combustion characteristics, leading to reduced average combustion efficiency and exhaust gas temperature. To minimize the adverse effects of the flame tip-opening, a deflector is introduced in the micro-combustor, downstream to the bluff body, and its effect on various combustion parameters is studied. The insertion of a deflector significantly increases the exhaust gas temperatures in the central region by establishing a secondary flame root. However, sudden changes in the flow direction caused by the insertion of deflector induce a sudden expansion-compression strain on the flame front, thereby slightly reducing the temperature of the flame zones on either side of the central region. A downstream shift in the position of the deflector marginally mitigates the adverse effects of sudden expansion-compression strain on the exhaust gas temperature, as they are induced within the secondary reaction flame zones. On the other hand, the downstream shift of the deflector negatively impacts the exhaust gas temperature in the central region due to the reduced length available for near-complete combustion downstream of the secondary flame root. In conclusion, the deflector positioned farther from the outlet is found to result in better overall combustion characteristics at higher controllable flow ratios.

Combustion instability and emission characteristics of spray flame under flue gas jet

In this paper, dry flue gas was injected into the combustion chamber in a jet pattern that collided diagonally to control the combustion instability of ethanol spray flame. The effects of jet flow rate, jet height, and jet temperature were experimentally studied. The results show that the closer the jet point is to the flame root, the better the control effect on the pressure oscillations is. And as the jet flow rate grows, the pressure damping also increases, reaching a maximum of 68.7 %. However, the CO emissions also reached the maximum level of 5020.8 mg/m3. Moreover, it is observed that the oscillation frequencies tend to shift to a higher frequency at a significant jet flow rate. The flame will also transition from a high-fat type to a compact type, forming a low-temperature zone at the tail. 80 ℃ is the optimal jet temperature, which is conducive to flame and sound field decoupling. At this temperature, the pressure oscillations can not only be well suppressed, but also the emissions of CO and NOx are at relatively low levels. The flue gas jet provides a solution to the combustion instability of liquid fuels, expanding its practical application.

Multi-Objective Experimental Combustor Development Using Surrogate Model-Based Optimization

Abstract The majority of premixed industrial gas turbine combustion systems feature two or more separately controlled fuel lines. Every additional fuel line improves the operational flexibility but increases the complexity of the system. When designing such a system, the goals are low emissions of various pollutants and avoiding lean blowout or extinction. Typically, these limitations become critical under different load conditions of the machines. Therefore, it is particularly challenging to develop combustors for stable and clean combustion over a wide operating range. In this study, we apply the Gaussian process regression machine learning method for application to burner development, with the aim of improving the process, which is often driven by a trial-and-error approach. To do so, a special pilot unit is installed into a full-scale industrial swirl combustor. The pilot features 61 positions of fuel injection, each of which is equipped with an individual valve, allowing to modify the fuel–air mixture close to the flame root in various degrees. In fully automatized atmospheric tests, we use the pilot system to train two surrogate models for different design objectives of the combustor, relevant for full load and part load operation, respectively. Once trained, the models allow for prediction for any possible injection scheme. In combination, they can be used to identify pilot injector configurations with an improved operation range in terms of low NOx emissions and part load stability. The adopted multimodel approach enables combustor design specifically for high operational flexibility of gas turbines, but can also be extended to other similar industrial development processes.

On the flame transfer function models for laminar premixed conical and V- flames considering the stretch effect

This paper investigates a predictive model that considers the impact of stretch on the dynamic response of laminar premixed conical and V- flames; the flame stretch consists of two components: the flame curvature and flow strain. The steady and perturbed flame fronts are determined via the linearized G-equation associated with the flame stretch model. Parameter analyses of the effects of Markstein length L, flame radius R and unstretched flame aspect ratio β are also conducted. Results show that the flame stretch reduces the steady flame height, with this effect being more significant for larger Markstein lengths and smaller flame sizes. The effects of flame stretch on perturbed flames are evaluated by comparing the flame transfer function (FTF) considering the flame stretch and not. For flames of different sizes, the impact of flame stretch on FTF gain can be divided into three regions. When both β and R are relatively small, due to the decrease in steady flame height and the impact of flow strain, the FTF gain increases. As β and R gradually increase, the FTF gain of the conical flame oscillates periodically while the FTF gain of the V-flame decreases, primarily due to the flame curvature enhancing the flame front disturbance and the wrinkle counteracting effect. When β and R are large, a disruption in wrinkle counteracting effect ensues, leading to a significant increase in FTF gain. Furthermore, as the actual flame height is reduced, the flame stretch also reduces the FTF phase lag which is related to the disturbance propagation time from the flame root to the tip.

Experimental investigation on the combustion characteristics and thermoacoustic instability of liquid spray flame with blended fuel

This study experimentally investigates the combustion characteristics and thermoacoustic instability of two fuels, ethanol and RP-3, at five different blending ratios. The flame images, root temperature of blended fuel flame and pollutant emissions were photographed and tested. The experimental results indicate that high-pressure pulsation amplitude and airflow disturbance can enhance droplets’ evaporation and combustion processes, resulting in a reduction in flame length. Lower evaporation temperature ensures a higher temperature of the flame root while increasing the blend ratio of RP-3 and increasing the global equivalence ratio can increase the temperature level inside the combustion chamber. The root temperature of ethanol flame can reach over 1400 K. Fuel characteristics and burner structure can influence the coupling between pressure pulsation and flame heat release pulsation, leading to differences in the amplitude of combustion instability. The shorter the outlet length of the burner, the wider the stability range of the flame. Moreover, the increase in total burner length results in a shift of the oscillation dominant frequency towards lower frequencies. Emission characteristic curves reveal that high-pressure pulsation amplitude can improve the combustion efficiency of blended RP-3 fuel but are unfavorable for the complete combustion of ethanol. Meanwhile, under the dilution effect of the airflow, the emissions of NOx and CO at the outlet gradually decrease as the airflow increases.

Near blowout instabilities and identification based on multivariate analysis with high-speed multi-species optical diagnostic techniques

Early prediction and depth analysis of lean blowouts are desirable for both aeroengine and stationary gas turbines. This study used a combination of high-speed multi-species optical diagnostic techniques and multivariate analysis methods to investigate near-blowout instabilities and identify combustion conditions. The flame root dynamic behavior and heat release pulsation characteristics were investigated using advanced modal decomposition methods. Results showed that a near-blowout flame exhibited a characteristic frequency (∼200 Hz) or “fingerprint” related to the temporal and spatial coupling characteristics of CH and OH radicals. Furthermore, flame image feature screening and multivariate fusion for combustion condition identification are reported for the first time. Significant differential features and effective fusion models were investigated and discussed. The identification accuracy of the multivariate fusion feature model compared with that of the geometric feature model improved by more than 24 %. Moreover, simplified fusion models of low-order moment and geometric features were constructed with relatively high identification accuracy (99 %) and low relative standard deviation value (14.1 %). These results demonstrate the significant potential of combining multi-species optical diagnostic techniques and multivariate analysis methods, thereby expanding their application to the field of combustion science.

Experimental study on effects of ammonia enrichment on the thermoacoustic instability of lean premixed swirling methane flames

Ammonia (NH3) has recently emerged as a promising carbon-free energy carrier. Further development and application of NH3 as fuel in the gas turbine industry can significantly reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and contribute to the achievement of a carbon–neutral society. This study experimentally examined the thermoacoustic instability characteristics of a laboratory-scaled lean premixed gas turbine model combustor operated with different NH3 blending ratios with methane (CH4). Experiments conducted under a wide range of inlet velocities and equivalence ratios suggest that NH3 concentration is critical in determining the characteristics of the instability. Specifically, when the NH3 proportion is less than 50 %, the addition of NH3 causes a mode transition of the instability. However, when the content of NH3 is greater than 50 %, it is shown that the instabilities are suppressed, indicating that the addition of a certain amount of NH3 can enhance the stability of CH4 flames. Additional analysis of flame dynamics reveals that the introduction of NH3 causes the lengthening of the flame front and weakens heat release rate fluctuations in the flame root regions. Further Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) analysis of the flow field shows that the instability modes are strongly coupled with periodic vortex motions of the flow dynamics along the shear layers. Finally, the mode shifting phenomena is successfully predicted by low-order thermoacoustic network modeling. It is suggested that the change in convective time delay caused by NH3 addition is responsible for such transitions.

Effect of the nozzle structure on the flame stability and OH* chemiluminescence of CH4/O2 inverse diffusion impinging flame

In the present study, the stability of CH4/ O2 inverse diffusion impinging flame is studied using OH* chemiluminescence diagnosis. The effects of different nozzle incidence angles and the impinging distance (H) on the stability of impinging flame and OH* chemiluminescence are investigated. The obtained results show that the flame root of the 45° nozzle breaks and makes noise near the blowout, the lift-off limit has a linear correlation with the impinging distance. It is found that the 90° nozzle has the maximum lift-off limit, the 45° nozzle has the maximum blowout limit. When the impinging distance is more than 20 mm, the lift-off state does not occur for the 60° nozzle. The flame is in the attachment state, the OH* chemiluminescence of the three nozzles enhances as the oxygen flow rate (uO2) increases. The radial distribution of OH* radicals shows that the peak intensity of the flame decreases with decreasing nozzle incidence angle. The position of the core area of 45° and 60° nozzles increases with the increase of oxygen flow rate. Meanwhile, the position of the reaction core area of the 90° nozzle increases with the oxygen flow rate in the attachment state and decreases monotonically in the lift-off state.

Effects of swirl intensity on flame stability and NO emission in swirl-stabilized ammonia/methane combustion

Ammonia is an attractive clean fuel for its potential to reduce CO2 emission and fossil fuel consumption. However, ammonia combustion has been mainly discouraged by the low flammability and the high fuel NOx emissions. This study numerically investigates the effects of swirl intensity on combustion characteristics in swirl-stabilized ammonia/methane combustion. Large eddy simulation was performed by using OpenFOAM, and the accuracy of numerical results was validated by the experiment. The results show that swirl intensity will significantly affects the flow field and flame structure, and flame stability decreases with the swirl number increasing. The high swirl intensity leads to extinguishing at the flame root, while the low swirl intensity cannot generate the central recirculation zone to stabilize the flame. Selective non-catalytic reduction of NO (SNCR) is the key to controlling NO emission, the decrease of temperature will promote the reduction of NO, while the decrease of residence time will inhibit the reduction of NO. Meanwhile, SNCR will weaken the correlation between NO and OH in ammonia/methane combustion. NO emission will decrease with the swirl intensity increasing. In a word, medium swirl number (S ≈ 0.76) is proper to control NO emission and ensure flame stability.

Influence of pilot H[formula omitted] injection on methane-air swirled flame stabilization and acoustic response

Large Eddy Simulation is used to investigate the effect of localized pilot H2 injection on the Flame Transfer Function (FTF) of a premixed CH4-air swirled flame. The response of a perfectly premixed methane-air flame is compared to the one with an additional pilot hydrogen injection that supplies 10% of the original power. Numerical simulations are validated against experiments in terms of global FTF values at selected forcing frequencies, acoustic pressure and velocity signals, CH* flame images and flame root position dynamics. The unforced cases are first considered showing that, when H2 is injected in the center, the flame becomes slightly lifted with a localized diffusion front above the pilot injection. As in the experiments, LES retrieves that hydrogen pilot injection leads to a global redistribution of the heat release rate towards the flame root due to higher burning rates which translates to an overall FTF gain reduction over the entire frequency range explored. Then, the flame acoustic response for the two injection strategies is scrutinized at two distinct forcing frequencies: 240 Hz where the FTF gain difference is maximum, and 590 Hz where the FTF phase shift is maximum. LES reveals that, despite H2 pilot injection does not modify the dynamics of the large vortical structures shed in the external shear layer of the swiling jet which are synchronized by the acoustic forcing, the redistribution of the heat release rate towards the flame base weakens their interaction with the flame tip, explaining partly the FTF gain reduction at the two selected frequencies. In addition to that, a marked axial movement of the internal recirculation zone is observed at 240 Hz during the forcing cycle. For the pilot injection, it leads to an oscillation of the lifted flame root while, for the CH4-air case, the flame anchoring point is not affected. This additional oscillation leads for the pilot case to heat release rate fluctuations acting in phase opposition with respect to those observed at the flame tip, generating a further drop of the FTF gain at this specific frequency. The increased burning rate at the flame root and the flame length reduction of the pilot hydrogen flame also affect the characteristic time lag of the flame response. For both frequencies f = 240 Hz and 590 Hz, the phase shift between the two injection strategies is proportional to the flame length reduction caused by hydrogen injection. These simulations confirm that pilot hydrogen injection is an efficient way to reduce the acoustic response of swirled flames over a large frequency bandwidth.

Analysis of flame instability in low-emission tower-type gas turbine combustor with multi-stage methane injection

A low-emission tower-type coaxial-staged combustor with a pilot stage, first main stage and second main stage is simulated in this study. The flow field, flame structure, vortex-mixing interaction, and flame instabilities are predicted with large eddy simulation and partially stirred reactor model. Heat radiation is not considered in the simulations. The results show that the maximum of the averaged length and width of the inner recirculation zone are approximately 249.8 and 71.3 mm, respectively. The distributions of the fuel from various stages in the combustor are analyzed based on the respective mixture fractions. The pressure and heat release rate (HRR) in the combustor fluctuate periodically with a frequency of about 373 Hz. Both HRR and pressure fluctuations increase and then decrease with time, and there is a phase difference of 46.1° between them. Due to the combustion instabilities, the flame structures change periodically, including attached flame and lifted V-shaped flame, in one HRR oscillation cycle. Moreover, the swirling flame length also varies periodically with time. As the pilot stage and first main stages are turned-off, the frequency of HRR fluctuations and pressure fluctuations, as well as the flame root dynamics, are significantly affected. It is also found that the effects of the fuel ratio of the first and second main stages have a significant influence on the flame root dynamics, e.g., different degrees of flashback observed in different cases.

Control of Thermoacoustic Oscillations and NOx Emissions by Bias Jets in the Form of Corner Tangential Slots

ABSTRACT Corner tangential and bias combustion technology have significant advantages in optimizing combustion and pollutant emissions. This paper combined the corner tangential, bias combustion and jet technology for the first time to control thermoacoustic oscillations and pollutant NOx emissions synchronously. The control feasibility was examined by three variables: widths of corner tangential slots, bias jets ratios, and jet flow rates. Results indicate that the widths of corner tangential slots and bias jets ratios significantly affect the suppression effectiveness of thermoacoustic oscillations and NOx emissions. The synchronous control effectiveness with larger widths of corner tangential slots and smaller bias jets ratios is better than that with smaller widths of corner tangential slots and larger bias jets ratios. The maximum damping ratio of dynamic pressure and CH* can achieve 90.1% and 82%, respectively. The dynamic pressure drops from 39.2 Pa to 3.9 Pa and CH* reduces from 0.006 arb.units to 0.001 arb.units. A lower oscillations frequency will form by the bias jets, which avoids the occurrence of high-frequency and high-amplitude thermoacoustic self-excited oscillations. Besides, the NOx emissions drop from 26.2 ppm to 13.9 ppm reaching a maximum reduction of 12.3 ppm. Meanwhile, a slimmer flame root and flatter flame front are triggered. Two flame modes are summarized as Model A and Model B. This research realized an efficient simultaneous control of thermoacoustic oscillations and pollutant NOx emissions, which could be a helpful guideline for designing lean premixed flames.

Flame stabilization and thermoacoustic instability during operating condition modulations: Roles of pilot and main flames

Operating condition modulation plays a key role in the startup process of practical gas turbine applications. The present article investigates the operating condition modulations of a centrally staged swirl burner regarding the flame stabilization and thermoacoustic instability, in which the roles of pilot and main flames have been distinguished. The global characteristic of thermoacoustic instabilities during operating condition modulations has been explored in a wide operating range by incrementally increasing equivalence ratios in the pilot stage (ϕp) and main stage (ϕm). Transitions of stability regimes under self-excited conditions have been observed with increasing ϕm and show difference with ϕp= 1.1–1.3. Two modes of stable flame stabilizations under un-excited conditions have been identified with ϕm variation, including pilot and staged flames. Their main difference is the varied attachment of flame roots along pilot shear layers and main shear layer. At self-excited conditions, three different instability modes have been revealed with increasing ϕm, i.e., pilot mode, hybrid mode, and staged mode. The periodic interaction between the pilot flame and the main stage stream is shown to be necessary for sustaining a large-scale convective motion of pilot flame to trigger strong thermoacoustic instabilities in pilot and staged modes. For the hybrid mode, the periodic attachment of the main flame root has suppressed the convective motion and, thus, caused weakened thermoacoustic couplings. The present investigation reveals the unique and various interactions between pilot and main flames during operating condition modulations, which can assist startup design in practical centrally staged combustion systems.

Effect of swirler vane angle on the combustion characteristics of premixed lean hydrogen-air mixture in a swirl micro-combustor

This study analyses the influence of swirler vane angle (β) on the combustion characteristics of premixed lean hydrogen-air flame in a swirl micro-combustor via numerical simulations. The results show that lower flammability limit (LFL) under β = 15° is larger than that of β = 0°; and β = 30°, 45° and 60° have very little difference in the LFL, and their LFL are smaller than that of β = 0° Flame anchoring mainly depends on the corner recirculation zone (CRZ) when β is 0° and 15°, and when β exceeds 30°, flame anchoring is chiefly determined by the inner recirculation zone (IRZ). The flame stabilization ability of IRZ is stronger than that of CRZ, but excessive swirling intensity will increase the length of IRZ, which in turn results in a decrease in stabilization ability. Increasing β improves outer wall temperature when inlet velocity is relatively small. Under a larger inlet velocity, an enormous β reduces combustor thermal performance and combustion efficiency due to the downstream movement of flame root and reaction zone. This work helps us to better understand the swirling flame characteristics in micro-combustor and provides guidance for the design and optimization of swirl micro-combustor.