Heat Release Rate Oscillations Research Articles

On the mechanism of open-loop control of thermoacoustic instability in a laminar premixed combustor

We identify mechanisms through which open-loop control of thermoacoustic instability is achieved in a laminar combustor and characterize them using synchronization theory. The thermoacoustic system comprises two nonlinearly coupled damped harmonic oscillators – acoustic and unsteady heat release rate (HRR) field – each possessing different eigenfrequencies. The frequency of the preferred mode of HRR oscillations is less than the third acoustic eigenfrequency where thermoacoustic instability develops. We systematically subject the limit-cycle oscillations to an external harmonic forcing at different frequencies and amplitudes. We observe that forcing at a frequency near the preferred mode of the HRR oscillator leads to a greater than 90 % decrease in the amplitude of the limit-cycle oscillations through the phenomenon of asynchronous quenching. Concurrently, there is a resonant amplification in the amplitude of HRR oscillations. Further, we show that the flame dynamics plays a key role in controlling the frequency at which quenching is observed. Most importantly, we show that forcing can cause asynchronous quenching either by imposing out-of-phase relation between pressure and HRR oscillations or by inducing period-2 dynamics in pressure oscillations while period-1 in HRR oscillations, thereby causing phase drifting between the two subsystems. In each of the two cases, acoustic driving is very low and hence thermoacoustic instability is suppressed. We show that the characteristics of forced synchronization of the pressure and HRR oscillations are significantly different. Thus, we find that the simultaneous characterization of the two subsystems is necessary to quantify completely the nonlinear response of the forced thermoacoustic system.

Effect of the fuel-air flow velocity on heat release rate of swirling non-premixed methane flames

A laboratory-scale gas turbine model combustor fueled with methane is studied experimentally with the aid of three-dimensional computed tomography of chemiluminescence (3D-CTC) and high speed (5 kHz) chemiluminescence imaging. Various fuel-lean operating conditions were tested to investigate the impact of flow velocity on heat release rate oscillation and spatial structure transition with fixed global equivalence ratio of about 0.65 and dump plane velocity of 2.9–18.3 m/s. In the study of combustion structure transition, the three-dimensional relative emissions of CH* were measured and taken as qualitative indicators of the heat release rate. This 3D measurement method utilizes CH* images from 8 directional as inputs combined with tomographic algorithms to compute the 3D distribution of CH* CL intensities. For all tested conditions, pronounced extension of inner recirculation zone (IRZ) along the nozzle is observed under the attached (V-shaped) swirl stabilized flames. During the increase of Reynolds number, the heat release zone changing obviously along the nozzle radial and axis direction, and the largest heat release plane moves downstream significantly. In addition, an intensified high-speed camera was adopted for the heat release dynamics study. Strong oscillations appeared in the flame zone that significantly affected the total heat release oscillations, and oscillation increases with the raise of Reynolds number.

Experimental of combustion instability in NTO/MMH impinging combustion chambers

This paper presents an experimental study into dynamics of chamber pressure and heat release rate during self-excited spinning and standing azimuthal mode in NTO/MMH (nitrogen tetroxide/monomethylhydrazine) impinging combustion chambers. Nine cases including two combustion chamber configurations were conducted. The operating conditions of all unstable cases were located in the instability region according to Hewitt empirical correlation. The results show that chamber pressure oscillations keep pace with the corresponding OH* chemiluminescence intensity over the whole combustion region in the spinning and standing modes. It is indicated that the Rayleigh index is positive over the whole combustion area in all the unstable cases. A significant supersonic flame front structure of the first-order spinning mode was found in a cylindrical chamber, which means that a detonation wave could exist in the cylindrical chamber without a center body. The pressure and heat release rate oscillations at the pressure node are nonnegligible although their amplitudes are lower than those at the pressure antinode in the first-order standing mode with an annular chamber. Besides, the dominant frequency of pressure and heat release rate oscillations at the pressure node is twice as high as that at the pressure antinode.

Mutual synchronization of two lean-premixed gas turbine combustors: Phase locking and amplitude death

In a can-annular gas turbine combustion system, low-frequency self-excited combustion instabilities can arise from coupled interactions between adjacent can combustors, rather than from individual combustors. These interactions—in either a push–push or a push–pull mode – are caused by the presence of a cross-talk area upstream of the first stage turbine stator vanes. The mechanisms governing the selection and growth of the interaction modes are not well understood, particularly for systems with multiple oscillators (combustors). Here we describe experimental observations of mutual synchronization between two coupled-combustors, each containing a lean-premixed swirl-stabilized turbulent flame, subjected to symmetric and asymmetric inlet boundary conditions. Our results reveal that when two combustors oscillating at different natural frequencies are connected via a cross-talk area, they can become mutually synchronized with each other, exhibiting global oscillations at a common frequency. The presence of cross-talk communication can excite strong oscillations in the coupled dual-combustor system, even when each combustor is individually stable in isolation. By contrast, for certain asymmetric inlet boundary conditions, coupling the two combustors together stops them from oscillating completely, even though each combustor in isolation oscillates in a large-amplitude limit cycle. In nonlinear dynamics, such mode suppression is known as amplitude death and is a classical feature of coupled self-excited oscillators, with potentially wider applications for passive control of combustion instabilities. We analyze a large set of experimental data in non-dimensional domains, and demonstrate that the coupled mode is not defined by the phase difference between the heat release rate oscillations of the two combustors, but rather by the phase difference between their acoustic pressure fluctuations. Mode selection is found to be strongly correlated to the degree of asymmetry in the magnitude of the flames' heat release rate oscillations in adjacent combustors. As well as providing the first experimental evidence of amplitude death in a combustion system, this study reveals a previously unrecognized role of combustor-to-combustor interactions in provoking self-excited combustion instabilities in multiple-combustor gas turbine systems.

High-repetition-rate burst-mode-laser diagnostics of an unconfined lean premixed swirling flame under external acoustic excitation.

Lean premixed swirling flames are important in practical combustors, but a commonly encountered problem of practical swirl combustors is thermo-acoustic instability, which may cause internal structure damage to combustors. In this research, a high-repetition-rate burst-mode laser is used for simultaneous particle image velocimetry and planar laser-induced fluorescence measurement in an unconfined acoustically excited swirl burner. The time-resolved flow field and transient flame response to the acoustic perturbation are visualized at 20 kHz, offering insight into the heat release rate oscillation. The premixed mixture flow rate and acoustic modulation are varied to study the effects of Reynolds number, Strouhal number, and acoustic modulation amplitude on the swirling flame. The results suggest that the Strouhal number has a notable effect on the periodic movements of the inner recirculation zone and swirling flame configuration.

Forced synchronization and asynchronous quenching of periodic oscillations in a thermoacoustic system

We perform an experimental and theoretical study to investigate the interaction between an external harmonic excitation and a self-excited oscillatory mode ($f_{n0}$) of a prototypical thermoacoustic system, a horizontal Rijke tube. Such an interaction can lead to forced synchronization through the routes of phase locking or suppression. We characterize the transition in the synchronization behaviour of the forcing and the response signals of the acoustic pressure while the forcing parameters, i.e. amplitude ($A_{f}$) and frequency ($f_{f}$) of forcing are independently varied. Further, suppression is categorized into synchronous quenching and asynchronous quenching depending upon the value of frequency detuning ($|\,f_{n0}-f_{f}|$). When the applied forcing frequency is close to the natural frequency of the system, the suppression in the amplitude of the self-excited oscillation is known as synchronous quenching. However, this suppression is associated with resonant amplification of the forcing signal, leading to an overall increase in the response amplitude of oscillations. On the other hand, an almost 80 % reduction in the root mean square value of the response oscillation is observed when the system is forced for a sufficiently large value of the frequency detuning (only for$f_{f}<f_{n0}$). Such a reduction in amplitude occurs due to asynchronous quenching where resonant amplification of the forcing signal does not occur, as the frequency detuning is significantly high. Further, the results from a reduced-order model developed for a horizontal Rijke tube show a qualitative agreement with the dynamics observed in experiments. The relative phase between the acoustic pressure ($p^{\prime }$) and the heat release rate ($\dot{q}^{\prime }$) oscillations in the model explains the occurrence of maximum reduction in the pressure amplitude due to asynchronous quenching. Such a reduction occurs when the positive coupling between$p^{\prime }$and$\dot{q}^{\prime }$is disrupted and their interaction results in overall acoustic damping, although both of them oscillate at the forcing frequency. Our study on the phenomenon of asynchronous quenching thus presents new possibilities to suppress self-sustained oscillations in fluid systems in general.

Sensitivity analysis of thermoacoustic instability with adjoint Helmholtz solvers

© 2018 American Physical Society. Gas turbines and rocket engines sometimes suffer from violent oscillations caused by feedback between acoustic waves and flames in the combustion chamber. These are known as thermoacoustic oscillations and they often occur late in the design process. Their elimination usually requires expensive tests and redesign. Full scale tests and laboratory scale experiments show that these oscillations can usually be stabilized by making small changes to the system. The complication is that, while there is often just one unstable natural oscillation (eigenmode), there are many possible changes to the system. The challenge is to identify the optimal change systematically, cheaply, and accurately. This paper shows how to evaluate the sensitivities of a thermoacoustic eigenmode to all possible system changes with a single calculation by applying adjoint methods to a thermoacoustic Helmholtz solver. These sensitivities are calculated here with finite-difference and finite-element methods, in the weak form and the strong form, with the discrete adjoint and the continuous adjoint, and with a Newton method applied to a nonlinear eigenvalue problem and an iterative method applied to a linear eigenvalue problem. This is a detailed comparison of adjoint methods applied to thermoacoustic Helmholtz solvers. matlab codes are provided for all methods and all figures so that the techniques can be easily applied and tested. This paper explains why the finite difference of the strong form equations with replacement boundary conditions should be avoided and why all of the other methods work well. Of the other methods, the discrete adjoint of the weak form equations is the easiest method to implement; it can use any discretization and the boundary conditions are straightforward. The continuous adjoint is relatively easy to implement but requires careful attention to boundary conditions. The summation by parts finite difference of the strong form equations with a simultaneous approximation term for the boundary conditions is more challenging to implement, particularly at high order or on nonuniform grids. Physical interpretation of these results shows that the well-known Rayleigh criterion should be revised for a linear analysis. This criterion states that thermoacoustic oscillations will grow if heat release rate oscillations are sufficiently in phase with pressure oscillations. In fact, the criterion should contain the adjoint pressure rather than the pressure. In self-adjoint systems the two are equivalent. In non-self-adjoint systems, such as all but a special case of thermoacoustic systems, the two are different. Finally, the sensitivities of the growth rate of oscillations to placement of a hot or cold mesh are calculated, simply by multiplying the feedback sensitivities by a number. These sensitivities are compared successfully with experimental results. With the same technique, the influence of the viscous and thermal acoustic boundary layers is found to be negligible, while the influence of a Helmholtz resonator is found, as expected, to be considerable.

Investigation of flame behavior and dynamics prior to lean blowout in a combustor with varying mixedness of reactants for the early detection of lean blowout

Lean blowout is one of the major challenges faced when the gas turbine combustors are operated with lean fuel–air mixture to meet the emission norm. We experimentally study the flame behavior and the dynamics of heat release rate fluctuations during a transition to lean blowout. The study comprising flame visualization and estimating several measures to predict lean blowout for both premixed and partially premixed flames (using fuel ports F1 to F5) in a swirl stabilized dump combustor. To that end, we acquire unsteady heat release rate in terms of CH* chemiluminescence obtained through a photomultiplier tube with a narrow band-pass filter. For evaluating different statistical measures, we use National Instrument Labview software while acquiring the heat release rate oscillations. For premixed and partially premixed flames, such measures and the flame behavior show a different and, in some cases, even opposite trends as lean blowout is approached. However, in both premixed and partially premixed flames, the mean and root mean square values of the heat release rate fluctuation decrease as we decrease the equivalence ratio. Further, we show that the value of mean frequency calculated using Hilbert transform of the heat release rate fluctuations is a good indicator of lean blowout. Apart from the early prediction of lean blowout, different statistics of heat release rate oscillations, such as kurtosis and skewness, are shown to identify only the occurrence of lean blowout for premixed (F1 and F2) and flames with lower level of premixing (F3). They are not useful for the flames with high levels of unmixedness like F4 and F5. On the other side, probability density function is seen useful for both premixed and partially premixed flames. In short, we present the relative importance of different measures stated earlier for the identification and early prediction of lean blowout for both premixed and partially premixed flames.

The effect of variable fuel staging transients on self-excited instabilities in a multiple-nozzle combustor

Combustion instability in gas turbine engines is often mitigated using fuel staging. Fuel staging, sometimes referred to as fuel splitting, is a strategy by which fuel is unevenly distributed between different nozzles of a multiple-nozzle combustor. These fuel splits are conducted in a transient manner in real engines, and the effects of these transients on instability are not well characterized. This work fills this gap by systematically studying the effects of transient fuel staging on self-excited combustion instability by varying the amount of staging fuel (staging amplitude), timescale in which the fuel is added (transient duration), and whether staging fuel is added or subtracted (transient direction). In this work, three staging amplitudes, five transient durations, and both transient directions are considered. The transient timescales are broadly divided into “short” duration transients, which have fuel delivery timescales shorter than the characteristic instability decay or onset timescales, and “long” duration transients, which have fuel delivery timescales longer than the characteristic instability decay or onset timescales. For short duration transients, we find the instability decay timescale depends on staging amplitude but does not depend on transient duration. For long duration transients, we find the instability decay timescale does not strongly depend on staging amplitude. The instability onset timescale is found to be longer and more variable between runs than the instability decay timescale for a given fuel delivery timescale. The onset timescale is also longer in duration and more variable than the decay timescale at a given fuel delivery timescale, implying that the instability rise process is overall more variable and slower than the instability decay process. Analysis of combustor damping rates show a strong dependence of damping rate on staging amplitude but no strong dependence on transient duration or direction. Instantaneous phase difference images between p′ and q˙′ are used to differentiate regions in the combustor that have constructive versus destructive interference between heat release rate oscillations and pressure fluctuations. The phase images show that p′ and q˙′ become in-phase early in the transient for the onset transients.

Impact of Precessing Vortex Core Dynamics on Shear Layer Response in a Swirling Jet

Combustion instability, the coupling between flame heat release rate oscillations and combustor acoustics, is a significant issue in the operation of gas turbine combustors. This coupling is often driven by oscillations in the flow field. Shear layer roll-up, in particular, has been shown to drive longitudinal combustion instability in a number of systems, including both laboratory and industrial combustors. One method for suppressing combustion instability would be to suppress the receptivity of the shear layer to acoustic oscillations, severing the coupling mechanism between the acoustics and the flame. Previous work suggested that the existence of a precessing vortex core (PVC) may suppress the receptivity of the shear layer, and the goal of this study is to first, confirm that this suppression is occurring, and second, understand the mechanism by which the PVC suppresses the shear layer receptivity. In this paper, we couple experiment with linear stability analysis to determine whether a PVC can suppress shear layer receptivity to longitudinal acoustic modes in a nonreacting swirling flow at a range of swirl numbers. The shear layer response to the longitudinal acoustic forcing manifests as an m = 0 mode since the acoustic field is axisymmetric. The PVC has been shown both in experiment and linear stability analysis to have m = 1 and m = −1 modal content. By comparing the relative magnitude of the m = 0 and m = −1,1 modes, we quantify the impact that the PVC has on the shear layer response. The mechanism for shear layer response is determined using companion forced response analysis, where the shear layer disturbance growth rates mirror the experimental results. Differences in shear layer thickness and azimuthal velocity profiles drive the suppression of the shear layer receptivity to acoustic forcing.

Strong Azimuthal Combustion Instabilities in a Spray Annular Chamber With Intermittent Partial Blow-Off

This article reports experiments carried out in the MICCA-spray combustor developed at EM2C laboratory. This system comprises 16 swirl spray injectors. Liquid n-heptane is injected by simplex atomizers. The combustion chamber is formed by two cylindrical quartz tubes allowing full optical access to the flame region and it is equipped with 12 pressure sensors recording signals in the plenum and chamber. A high-speed camera provides images of the flames and photomultipliers record the light intensity from different flames. For certain operating conditions, the system exhibits well defined instabilities coupled by the first azimuthal mode of the chamber at a frequency of 750 Hz. These instabilities occur in the form of bursts. Examination of the pressure and the light intensity signals gives access to the acoustic energy source term. Analysis of the phase fluctuations between the two signals is carried out using cross-spectral analysis. At limit cycle, large pressure fluctuations of 5000 Pa are reached, and these levels persist over a finite period of time. Analysis of the signals using the spin ratio indicates that the standing mode is predominant. Flame dynamics at the pressure antinodal line reveals a strong longitudinal pulsation with heat release rate oscillations in phase and increasing linearly with the acoustic pressure for every oscillation levels. At the pressure nodal line, the flames are subjected to large transverse velocity fluctuations leading to a transverse motion of the flames and partial blow-off. Scenarios and modeling elements are developed to interpret these features.

Thermoacoustic instability as mutual synchronization between the acoustic field of the confinement and turbulent reactive flow

Thermoacoustic instability is the result of a positive coupling between the acoustic field in the duct and the heat release rate fluctuations from the flame. Recently, in several turbulent combustors, it has been observed that the onset of thermoacoustic instability is preceded by intermittent oscillations, which consist of bursts of periodic oscillations amidst regions of aperiodic oscillations. Quantitative analysis of the intermittency route to thermoacoustic instability has been performed hitherto using the pressure oscillations alone. We perform experiments on a laboratory-scale bluff-body-stabilized turbulent combustor with a backward-facing step at the inlet to obtain simultaneous data of acoustic pressure and heat release rate fluctuations. With this, we show that the onset of thermoacoustic instability is a phenomenon of mutual synchronization between the acoustic pressure and the heat release rate signals, thus emphasizing the importance of the coupling between these non-identical oscillators. We demonstrate that the stable operation corresponds to desynchronized aperiodic oscillations, which, with an increase in the mean velocity of the flow, transition to synchronized periodic oscillations. In between these states, there exists a state of intermittent phase synchronized oscillations, wherein the two oscillators are synchronized during the periodic epochs and desynchronized during the aperiodic epochs of their oscillations. Furthermore, we discover two different types of limit cycle oscillations in our system. We notice a significant increase in the linear correlation between the acoustic pressure and the heat release rate oscillations during the transition from a lower-amplitude limit cycle to a higher-amplitude limit cycle. Further, we present a phenomenological model that qualitatively captures all of the dynamical states of synchronization observed in the experiment. Our analysis shows that the times at which vortices that are shed from the inlet step reach the bluff body play a dominant role in determining the behaviour of the limit cycle oscillations.

The Effect of Fuel Staging on the Structure and Instability Characteristics of Swirl-Stabilized Flames in a Lean Premixed Multinozzle Can Combustor

Fuel staging is a commonly used strategy in the operation of gas turbine engines. In multinozzle combustor configurations, this is achieved by varying fuel flow rate to different nozzles. The effect of fuel staging on flame structure and self-excited instabilities is investigated in a research can combustor employing five swirl-stabilized, lean-premixed nozzles. At an operating condition where all nozzles are fueled equally and the combustor undergoes a self-excited instability, fuel staging successfully suppresses the instability: both when overall equivalence ratio is increased by staging as well as when overall equivalence ratio is kept constant while staging. Increased fuel staging changes the distribution of time-averaged heat release rate in the regions where adjacent flames interact and reduces the amplitudes of heat release rate fluctuations in those regions. Increased fuel staging also causes a breakup in the monotonic phase behavior that is characteristic of convective disturbances that travel along a flame. In particular, heat release rate fluctuations in the middle flame and flame–flame interaction region are out-of-phase with those in the outer flames, resulting in a cancelation of the global heat release rate oscillations. The Rayleigh integral distribution within the combustor shows that during a self-excited instability, the regions of highest heat release rate fluctuation are in phase-with the combustor pressure fluctuation. When staging fuel is introduced, these regions fluctuate out-of-phase with the pressure fluctuation, further illustrating that fuel staging suppresses instabilities through a phase cancelation mechanism.

Onset of thermoacoustic instability in turbulent combustors: an emergence of synchronized periodicity through formation of chimera-like states

Thermoacoustic systems with a turbulent reactive flow, prevalent in the fields of power and propulsion, are highly susceptible to oscillatory instabilities. Recent studies showed that such systems transition from combustion noise to thermoacoustic instability through a dynamical state known as intermittency, where bursts of large-amplitude periodic oscillations appear in a near-random fashion in between regions of low-amplitude aperiodic fluctuations. However, as these analyses were in the temporal domain, this transition remains still unexplored spatiotemporally. Here, we present the spatiotemporal dynamics during the transition from combustion noise to limit cycle oscillations in a turbulent bluff-body stabilized combustor. To that end, we acquire the pressure oscillations and the field of heat release rate oscillations through high-speed chemiluminescence ($CH^{\ast }$) images of the reaction zone. With a view to get an insight into this complex dynamics, we compute the instantaneous phases between acoustic pressure and local heat release rate oscillations. We observe that the aperiodic oscillations during combustion noise are phase asynchronous, while the large-amplitude periodic oscillations seen during thermoacoustic instability are phase synchronous. We find something interesting during intermittency: patches of synchronized periodic oscillations and desynchronized aperiodic oscillations coexist in the reaction zone. In other words, the emergence of order from disorder happens through a dynamical state wherein regions of order and disorder coexist, resembling a chimera state. Generally, mutually coupled chaotic oscillators synchronize but retain their dynamical nature; the same is true for coupled periodic oscillators. In contrast, during intermittency, we find that patches of desynchronized aperiodic oscillations turn into patches of synchronized periodic oscillations and vice versa. Therefore, the dynamics of local heat release rate oscillations change from aperiodic to periodic as they synchronize intermittently. The temporal variations in global synchrony, estimated through the Kuramoto order parameter, echoes the breathing nature of a chimera state.

Non-stationary local thermoacoustic phase relationships in a gas turbine combustor

A framework is presented for analyzing the local instantaneous phase difference between non-stationary heat release rate and pressure oscillations that is appropriate for use in high-pressure liquid-fueled combustors. High-speed OH* chemiluminescence images were used as a qualitative marker of the heat release rate, from which the local phase shift relative to the pressure was calculated using the Hilbert transform technique. Two types of behavior were observed during time sequences with constant amplitude pressure oscillations. For the first behavior, a region with out-of-phase pressure and heat release rate oscillations moved upstream along the nozzle shear layer towards the nozzle. For the second behavior, transitions occurred between out-of-phase oscillations in a region along the centerline and a toroidal region close to the nozzle. For time periods with increasing amplitude pressure fluctuations, in-phase heat release rate and pressure oscillations developed throughout the upstream portion of the combustor. These in-phase oscillations could extend along the burner centerline and towards the downstream portion of the combustor. This behavior is reversed during time periods with decreasing amplitude pressure oscillations; the upstream portion of the combustor transitions to featuring regions with out-of-phase oscillations.

The experimental investigation on the response of the Burke–Schumann flame to acoustic excitation

This paper presents experiments showing the response of a diffusion jet flame to acoustic forcing. The experimental results from the Burke–Schumann flame, which is a special case of the diffusion flame, are compared with the analytical results. The flame response is described by comparing the flame surface, flame length, and heat release oscillation measurements with those from reference papers that have calculated the analytical solution. The flame shape depends on both the forcing frequency and the mean input velocity. The flame shape is divided into three types depending on the forcing frequency. The local stagnation point of the flame propagation and the cutting phenomenon are shown with a low-frequency forcing of the test condition. The flame consists of an undulation form when a high forcing frequency is used as the test condition. At a specific frequency, no flame oscillation is seen, even with acoustic forcing. The forcing frequency also affects the flame length. The mean input velocity affects the magnitude of flame surface oscillations. The heat release ratio oscillation shows that both a premixed flame and a diffusion flame act like low-pass filters. The Peclet number's dependence on the flame surface and the response of the heat release both fit well with the analytical results, whereas the Strouhal number's dependence on the flame surface varies slightly from the analytical solution. The heat release rate oscillation is closely connected to the flame surface oscillations.

Injector-Driven Combustion Instabilities in a Hydrogen/Oxygen Rocket Combustor

Self-excited combustion instabilities of the first tangential mode have been found in a research combustor operated with the cryogenic propellant combination of hydrogen/oxygen. In a series of consecutive test campaigns, the influence of operating conditions on these self-excited combustion instabilities was examined. This included a variation of the combustion chamber pressure, the mixture ratio, and the propellant temperatures. It has been shown how these operating parameters influence the resonance frequencies of the combustion chamber. The analysis of the influence of operating conditions on the oscillation amplitude of the first tangential mode indicated that the instability occurred when the frequency of the first tangential mode of the combustion chamber was shifted into the frequency of the second longitudinal mode of the liquid oxygen injector. With a variation of the injector length, and therefore its longitudinal resonance frequencies, this hypothesis has been tested. Based on the experimental observations it was concluded that the observed instabilities were a result of the interaction of combustion chamber resonance frequencies with injector resonance frequencies. The heat release rate oscillation was shown to be a result of the injector acoustics and not of the combustion chamber pressure oscillations.

System Level Analysis of Acoustically Forced Nonpremixed Swirling Flames

This paper reports an experimental investigation of dynamic response of nonpremixed atmospheric swirling flames subjected to external, longitudinal acoustic excitation. Acoustic perturbations of varying frequencies (fp = 0–315 Hz) and velocity amplitudes (0.03 ≤ u′/Uavg ≤ 0.30) are imposed on the flames with various swirl intensities (S = 0.09 and 0.34). Flame dynamics at these swirl levels are studied for both constant and time-dependent fuel flow rate configurations. Heat release rates are quantified using a photomultiplier (PMT) and simultaneously imaged with a phase-locked CCD camera. The PMT and CCD camera are fitted with 430 nm ±10 nm band pass filters for CH* chemiluminescence intensity measurements. Flame transfer functions and continuous wavelet transforms (CWT) of heat release rate oscillations are used in order to understand the flame response at various burner swirl intensity and fuel flow rate settings. In addition, the natural modes of mixing and reaction processes are examined using the magnitude squared coherence analysis between major flame dynamics parameters. A low-pass filter characteristic is obtained with highly responsive flames below forcing frequencies of 200 Hz while the most significant flame response is observed at 105 Hz forcing mode. High strain rates induced in the flame sheet are observed to cause periodic extinction at localized regions of the flame sheet. Low swirl flames at lean fuel flow rates exhibit significant localized extinction and re-ignition of the flame sheet in the absence of acoustic forcing. However, pulsed flames exhibit increased resistance to straining due to the constrained inner recirculation zones (IRZ) resulting from acoustic perturbations that are transmitted by the co-flowing air. Wavelet spectra also show prominence of low frequency heat release rate oscillations for leaner (C2) flame configurations. For the time-dependent fuel flow rate flames, higher un-mixedness levels at lower swirl intensity is observed to induce periodic re-ignition as the flame approaches extinction. Increased swirl is observed to extend the time-to-extinction for both pulsed and unpulsed flame configurations under time-dependent fuel flow rate conditions.

Optical Measurement of Local and Global Transfer Functions for Equivalence Ratio Fluctuations in a Turbulent Swirl Flame

Equivalence ratio fluctuations are known to be one of the key factors controlling thermoacoustic stability in lean premixed gas turbine combustors. The mixing and thus the spatiotemporal evolution of these perturbations in the combustor flow is, however, difficult to account for in present low-order modeling approaches. To investigate this mechanism, experiments in an atmospheric combustion test rig are conducted. To assess the importance of equivalence ratio fluctuations in the present case, flame transfer functions for different injection positions are measured. By adding known perturbations in the fuel flow using a solenoid valve, the influence of equivalence ratio oscillations on the heat release rate is investigated. The equivalence ratio fluctuations in the reaction zone are measured spatially and temporally resolved using two optical chemiluminescence signals, captured with an intensified camera. A steady calibration measurement allows for the quantitative assessment of the equivalence ratio fluctuations in the flame. This information is used to obtain a mixing transfer function, which relates fluctuations in the fuel flow to corresponding fluctuations in the equivalence ratio of the flame. The current study focuses on the measurement of the global, spatially integrated, transfer function for equivalence ratio fluctuations and the corresponding modeling. In addition, the spatially resolved mixing transfer function is shown and discussed. The global mixing transfer function reveals that, despite the good spatial mixing quality of the investigated generic burner, the ability to damp temporal fluctuations at low frequencies is rather poor. It is shown that the equivalence ratio fluctuations are the governing heat release rate oscillation response mechanism for this burner in the low-frequency regime. The global transfer function for equivalence ratio fluctuations derived from the measurements is characterized by a pronounced low-pass characteristic, which is in good agreement with the presented convection–diffusion mixing model.

Effect of fuel–air mixture velocity on combustion instability of a model gas turbine combustor

Nowadays, it is easy for unstable combustion phenomenon to develop in a gas turbine that is working in a lean premixed condition. To eliminate the onset of these instabilities and develop effective approaches for control, the mechanisms responsible for their occurrence must be understood. The flame recirculation zone is very important, as it can modulate the fuel flow rate and may be the source of instability, plus its flame structure has a major impact on heat release rate oscillation and flame stabilization. In this study, we conducted experiments under various operating conditions with a model gas turbine combustor to examine the relation of combustion instability and flame structure by OH chemiluminescence. Swirling CH4 - air flame was investigated with an overall equivalence ratio of 1.2 to lean blowout limit and dump plane velocity of 30–70 m/s. Phase-locking analysis was performed to identify structural changes at each phase of the reference dynamic pressure sensor under conditions of instability. At an unstable condition, flame root size varies a lot compared to stable condition which is because of air and fuel mixture flow rate changes due to combustor pressure modulation. After this structural change, local extinction and re-ignition occur and it can generate a feedback loop for combustion instability. This analysis suggests that pressure fluctuation of combustion causes deformation of flame structure and variation of flame has a strong effect on combustion instability. In this study, we observed two types of combustion instability characteristics related to the instability of both the thermo-acoustic and flame vortex type.