Dynamics and mechanisms of pressure, heat release rate, and fuel spray coupling during intermittent thermoacoustic oscillations in a model aeronautical combustor at elevated pressure

2017 ◽  
Vol 185 ◽  
pp. 319-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Kheirkhah ◽  
J. D. Maxim Cirtwill ◽  
Pankaj Saini ◽  
Krishna Venkatesan ◽  
Adam M. Steinberg
Author(s):  
Mitchell L. Passarelli ◽  
J. D. Maxim Cirtwill ◽  
Timothy Wabel ◽  
Adam M. Steinberg ◽  
A. J. Wickersham

Abstract This paper analyzes intermittent self-excited thermoacoustic oscillations in which the pressure (P′) and heat release rate (q̇′) fluctuations are harmonically coupled. That is to say, P′ and q̇′ do not oscillate at the same frequencies, but rather at frequencies in integer ratios. Thus, this system represents a case dominated by nonlinear cross-mode coupling. The measurements were obtained in an optically-accessible combustor equipped with an industrial gas turbine fuel injector operating with liquid fuel under partially-premixed conditions at elevated pressure. High-speed chemiluminescence (CL) imaging of OH* was used as an indicator of the heat release rate. The data was processed using spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) to isolate the dominant heat release and pressure modes. Synchronization theory was used to determine when the modes are coupled and how their interaction manifests in the measurements, particularly how it relates to the observed intermittency. The results show three distinct intervals of synchronized oscillation shared by all the mode pairs analyzed. The first interval exhibits the same characteristics as a pair of noisy, phase-locked self-oscillators, with phase-slipping and frequency-pulling. While the behaviour of the second interval differs among mode pairs, strong frequency-pulling is observed during the third interval for all pairs.


Author(s):  
José G. Aguilar ◽  
Matthew P. Juniper

In gas turbines, thermoacoustic oscillations grow if moments of high fluctuating heat release rate coincide with moments of high acoustic pressure. The phase between the heat release rate and the acoustic pressure depends strongly on the flame behaviour (specifically the time delay) and on the acoustic period. This makes the growth rate of thermoacoustic oscillations exceedingly sensitive to small changes in the acoustic boundary conditions, geometry changes, and the flame time delay. In this paper, adjoint-based sensitivity analysis is applied to a thermoacoustic network model of an annular combustor. This reveals how each eigenvalue is affected by every parameter of the system. This information is combined with an optimization algorithm in order to stabilize all thermoacoustic modes of the combustor by making only small changes to the geometry. The final configuration has a larger plenum area, a smaller premix duct area and a larger combustion chamber volume. All changes are less than 6% of the original values. The technique is readily scalable to more complex models and geometries and the inclusion of further constraints, such that the combustion chamber itself should not change. This demonstrates why adjoint-based sensitivity analysis and optimization could become an indispensible tool for the design of thermoacoustically-stable combustors.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 260-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Semlitsch ◽  
Alessandro Orchini ◽  
Ann P Dowling ◽  
Matthew P Juniper

Numerical simulations aid combustor design to avoid and reduce thermoacoustic oscillations. Non-linear heat release rate estimation and its modelling are essential for the prediction of saturation amplitudes of limit cycles. The heat release dynamics of flames can be approximated by a flame describing function. To calculate a flame describing function, a wide range of forcing amplitudes and frequencies needs to be considered. For this reason, we present a computationally inexpensive level-set approach, which accounts for equivalence ratio perturbations on flames with arbitrarily complex shapes. The influence of flame parameters and modelling approaches on flame describing functions and time delay coefficient distributions are discussed in detail. The numerically obtained flame describing functions are compared with experimental data and used in an acoustic network model for limit cycle prediction. A reasonable agreement of the heat release gain and limit cycle frequency is achieved even with a simplistic, analytical velocity fluctuation model. However, the phase decay is over-predicted. For sophisticated flame shapes, only the realistic modelling of large-scale flow structures allows the correct phase decay predictions of the heat release rate response.


2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Chen ◽  
L. Qu ◽  
Y. X. Yang ◽  
G. Q. Kang ◽  
W. K. Chow

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3247
Author(s):  
Dong Hwan Kim ◽  
Chi Young Lee ◽  
Chang Bo Oh

In this study, the effects of discharge area and atomizing gas type in a twin-fluid atomizer on heptane pool fire-extinguishing performance were investigated under the heat release rate conditions of 1.17 and 5.23 kW in an enclosed chamber. Large and small full cone twin-fluid atomizers were prepared. Nitrogen and air were used as atomizing gases. With respect to the droplet size of water mist, as the water and air flow rates decreased and increased, respectively, the Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of the water mist decreased. The SMD of large and small atomizers were in the range of approximately 12–60 and 12–49 μm, respectively. With respect to the discharge area effect, the small atomizer exhibited a shorter extinguishing time, lower peak surface temperature, and higher minimum oxygen concentration than the large atomizer. Furthermore, it was observed that the effect of the discharge area on fire-extinguishing performance is dominant under certain flow rate conditions. With respect to the atomizing gas type effect, nitrogen and air appeared to exhibit nearly similar extinguishing times, peak surface temperatures, and minimum oxygen concentrations under most flow rate conditions. Based on the present and previous studies, it was revealed that the effect of atomizing gas type on fire-extinguishing performance is dependent on the relative positions of the discharged flow and fire source.


Fuel ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 288 ◽  
pp. 119656
Author(s):  
Robbert Willems ◽  
Frank Willems ◽  
Niels Deen ◽  
Bart Somers

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