Passive Control of Noise and Instability in a Swirl-Stabilized Combustor With the Use of High-Strength Porous Insert

Author(s):  
Daniel Sequera ◽  
Ajay K. Agrawal

Swirl-stabilized combustion and porous inert medium (PIM) combustion are two methods that have been used extensively, although independently, for flame stabilization. In this study, the two concepts are combined so that the porous insert serves as a passive device to mitigate combustion noise and instabilities. A properly shaped PIM is placed within the combustor to directly influence the turbulent flow field and vortical and/or shear layer structures associated with the outer recirculation zone and inner recirculation zone. After presenting the concept, the paper provides a conceptual understanding of the changes in the mean flow field caused by the PIM. Combustion experiments were conducted at atmospheric pressure using HfC/SiC coated open-cell foam structures of different pore sizes and shapes. Measurements of sound pressure level (SPL) and CO and NOx emissions were taken for different equivalence ratios and reactant flow rates. Combustion mode and PIM geometry to decrease the SPL are identified. The results show that the porous insert can reduce combustion noise without adversely affecting NOx and CO emissions. Experiments show that the proposed concept can also mitigate combustion instabilities encountered at high reactant flow rate.

Author(s):  
Daniel Sequera ◽  
Ajay K. Agrawal

Swirl-stabilized combustion and porous inert medium (PIM) combustion are two methods that have been used extensively, although independently, for flame stabilization. In this study, the two concepts are combined so that the porous insert serves as a passive device to mitigate combustion noise and instabilities. A properly shaped PIM is placed within the combustor to directly influence the turbulent flow field and vortical and/or shear layer structures associated with the outer recirculation zone and inner recirculation zone. After presenting the concept, the paper provides a conceptual understanding of the changes in the mean flow field caused by the PIM. Combustion experiments were conducted at atmospheric pressure using HfC/SiC coated open-cell foam structures of different pore sizes and shapes. Measurements of sound pressure level (SPL) and CO and NOx emissions were taken for different equivalence ratios and reactant flow rates. Combustion mode and PIM geometry to decrease the SPL are identified. Results show that the porous insert can reduce combustion noise without adversely affecting NOx and CO emissions. Experiments show that the proposed concept can also mitigate combustion instabilities encountered at high reactant flow rate.


Author(s):  
Alex Borsuk ◽  
Justin Williams ◽  
Joseph Meadows ◽  
Ajay K. Agrawal

High strength porous inert media (PIM) placed in the reaction zone of a swirl-stabilized lean-premixed combustor is a passive method of controlling combustion noise and instabilities. In this study, the effect of swirler location and swirl number on combustion without and with PIM has been investigated experimentally, using a methane-fueled quartz combustor at atmospheric pressure. Three axial swirlers were designed with eight vanes, a solid centerbody, and vane angles of 30, 45, and 55 deg to yield calculated swirl numbers of 0.45, 0.78, and 1.10, respectively. Swirler location was varied to obtain recess depth in the premixer tube of 0.0 cm, 2.5 cm, and 5.0 cm. A downstream bluff body was used with the recessed swirlers to stabilize the flame at the dump plane. Experiments were conducted at constant air flow rate of 300 SLPM and equivalence ratios of 0.70, 0.75, and 0.80. PIM annular rings with increasing and decreasing cross-sectional area in the flow direction were tested, referred to as diverging and converging PIM. The performance of each test case is compared by observing the flame behavior and measuring sound pressure level (SPL) with a microphone probe. Results include total SPL and SPL in one-third octave bands. PIM proved effective in mitigating combustion noise and instability for all flush-mounted swirlers with total SPL reductions of up to 7.6 dBA. The effectiveness of the PIM generally improved with increasing equivalence ratio. Combustion instability that occurred within the frequency band centered about 630 Hz was suppressed with both PIM configurations. These results confirm that PIM is an effective method to control combustion noise and instabilities in swirl-stabilized LPM combustion.


Author(s):  
Alex Borsuk ◽  
Justin Williams ◽  
Joseph Meadows ◽  
Ajay K. Agrawal

High strength porous inert media (PIM) placed in the reaction zone of a swirl-stabilized lean-premixed combustor is a passive method of controlling combustion noise and instabilities. In this study, the effect of swirler location and swirl number on combustion without and with PIM has been investigated experimentally, using a methane-fueled quartz combustor at atmospheric pressure. Three axial swirlers were designed with 8 vanes, a solid centerbody, and vane angles of 30, 45, and 55 degrees to yield calculated swirl numbers of 0.45, 0.78, and 1.10, respectively. Swirler location was varied to obtain recess depth in the premixer tube of 0.0 cm, 2.5 cm, and 5.0 cm. A downstream bluff body was used with the recessed swirlers to stabilize the flame at the dump plane. Experiments were conducted at constant air flow rate of 300 SLPM and equivalence ratios of 0.70, 0.75, and 0.80. PIM annular rings with increasing and decreasing cross-sectional area in the flow direction were tested, referred to as diverging and converging PIM. The performance of each test case is compared by observing the flame behavior and measuring sound pressure level (SPL) with a microphone probe. Results include total SPL and SPL in one-third octave bands. PIM proved effective in mitigating combustion noise and instability for all flush-mounted swirlers with total SPL reductions of up to 7.6 dBA. The effectiveness of the PIM generally improved with increasing equivalence ratio. Combustion instability that occurred within the frequency band centered about 630 Hz was suppressed with both PIM configurations. These results confirm that PIM is an effective method to control combustion noise and instabilities in swirl-stabilized LPM combustion.


Author(s):  
John Kornegay ◽  
Daniel Depperschmidt ◽  
Ajay K. Agrawal

Although lean premixed combustion (LPM) is very clean and basically soot-free, it has one serious drawback, i.e., tendency to develop thermo-acoustic instabilities. These instabilities can be very violent, at the least causing unwanted noise and vibration, and in more serious cases, complete engine failure. Current research has shown methods to address such instabilities using passive and active mitigation techniques. In this study, thermo-acoustic instabilities in a swirl-stabilized LPM combustion system are mitigated using a high-strength metallic porous insert fabricated by a 3D additive manufacturing technique. Although the technique has been demonstrated in our previous studies, the present focus is to utilize a given porous insert geometry to mitigate thermo-acoustic instabilities in different length combustion chambers producing different resonant frequencies, to overcome the typical limitation of passive techniques. For each combustor length, experiments are conducted over a range of equivalence ratios and reactant flow rates. In all cases, porous insert was effective in significantly reducing the sound pressure level (SPL) at the frequency of the instability, with reductions of 20 dB and higher. Time-resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements are acquired to describe flow and turbulence fields in the combustor without and with porous insert. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis is used to quantify the energy content of turbulent modes, and harmonic reconstruction is performed to illustrate the dramatic changes in the oscillatory flow field when the porous insert is used. The ability of the porous insert to adjust to different geometric and operating conditions of the combustor is a unique capability, inherent to its fundamental operating principle.


2011 ◽  
Vol 689 ◽  
pp. 97-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Gudmundsson ◽  
Tim Colonius

AbstractPrevious work has shown that aspects of the evolution of large-scale structures, particularly in forced and transitional mixing layers and jets, can be described by linear and nonlinear stability theories. However, questions persist as to the choice of the basic (steady) flow field to perturb, and the extent to which disturbances in natural (unforced), initially turbulent jets may be modelled with the theory. For unforced jets, identification is made difficult by the lack of a phase reference that would permit a portion of the signal associated with the instability wave to be isolated from other, uncorrelated fluctuations. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which pressure and velocity fluctuations in subsonic, turbulent round jets can be described aslinearperturbations to the mean flow field. The disturbances are expanded about the experimentally measured jet mean flow field, and evolved using linear parabolized stability equations (PSE) that account, in an approximate way, for the weakly non-parallel jet mean flow field. We utilize data from an extensive microphone array that measures pressure fluctuations just outside the jet shear layer to show that, up to an unknown initial disturbance spectrum, the phase, wavelength, and amplitude envelope of convecting wavepackets agree well with PSE solutions at frequencies and azimuthal wavenumbers that can be accurately measured with the array. We next apply the proper orthogonal decomposition to near-field velocity fluctuations measured with particle image velocimetry, and show that the structure of the most energetic modes is also similar to eigenfunctions from the linear theory. Importantly, the amplitudes of the modes inferred from the velocity fluctuations are in reasonable agreement with those identified from the microphone array. The results therefore suggest that, to predict, with reasonable accuracy, the evolution of the largest-scale structures that comprise the most energetic portion of the turbulent spectrum of natural jets, nonlinear effects need only be indirectly accounted for by considering perturbations to the mean turbulent flow field, while neglecting any non-zero frequency disturbance interactions.


Author(s):  
Yanfei Gao ◽  
Yangwei Liu ◽  
Luyang Zhong ◽  
Jiexuan Hou ◽  
Lipeng Lu

AbstractThe standard k-ε model (SKE) and the Reynolds stress model (RSM) are employed to predict the tip leakage flow (TLF) in a low-speed large-scale axial compressor rotor. Then, a new research method is adopted to “freeze” the turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate of the flow field derived from the RSM, and obtain the turbulent viscosity using the Boussinesq hypothesis. The Reynolds stresses and mean flow field computed on the basis of the frozen viscosity are compared with the results of the SKE and the RSM. The flow field in the tip region based on the frozen viscosity is more similar to the results of the RSM than those of the SKE, although certain differences can be observed. This finding indicates that the non-equilibrium turbulence transport nature plays an important role in predicting the TLF, as well as the turbulence anisotropy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaston Latessa ◽  
Angela Busse ◽  
Manousos Valyrakis

<p>The prediction of particle motion in a fluid flow environment presents several challenges from the quantification of the forces exerted by the fluid onto the solids -normally with fluctuating behaviour due to turbulence- and the definition of the potential particle entrainment from these actions. An accurate description of these phenomena has many practical applications in local scour definition and to the design of protection measures.</p><p>In the present work, the actions of different flow conditions on sediment particles is investigated with the aim to translate these effects into particle entrainment identification through analytical solid dynamic equations.</p><p>Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are an increasingly practical tool that provide an accurate representation of both the mean flow field and the large-scale turbulent fluctuations. For the present case, the forces exerted by the flow are integrated over the surface of a stationary particle in the streamwise (drag) and vertical (lift) directions, together with the torques around the particle’s centre of mass. These forces are validated against experimental data under the same bed and flow conditions.</p><p>The forces are then compared against threshold values, obtained through theoretical equations of simple motions such as rolling without sliding. Thus, the frequency of entrainment is related to the different flow conditions in good agreement with results from experimental sediment entrainment research.</p><p>A thorough monitoring of the velocity flow field on several locations is carried out to determine the relationships between velocity time series at several locations around the particle and the forces acting on its surface. These results a relevant to determine ideal locations for flow investigation both in numerical and physical experiments.</p><p>Through numerical experiments, a large number of flow conditions were simulated obtaining a full set of actions over a fixed particle sitting on a smooth bed. These actions were translated into potential particle entrainment events and validated against experimental data. Future work will present the coupling of these LES models with Discrete Element Method (DEM) models to verify the entrainment phenomena entirely from a numerical perspective.</p>


Author(s):  
Tommaso Bacci ◽  
Tommaso Lenzi ◽  
Alessio Picchi ◽  
Lorenzo Mazzei ◽  
Bruno Facchini

Modern lean burn aero-engine combustors make use of relevant swirl degrees for flame stabilization. Moreover, important temperature distortions are generated, in tangential and radial directions, due to discrete fuel injection and liner cooling flows respectively. At the same time, more efficient devices are employed for liner cooling and a less intense mixing with the mainstream occurs. As a result, aggressive swirl fields, high turbulence intensities, and strong hot streaks are achieved at the turbine inlet. In order to understand combustor-turbine flow field interactions, it is mandatory to collect reliable experimental data at representative flow conditions. While the separated effects of temperature, swirl, and turbulence on the first turbine stage have been widely investigated, reduced experimental data is available when it comes to consider all these factors together.In this perspective, an annular three-sector combustor simulator with fully cooled high pressure vanes has been designed and installed at the THT Lab of University of Florence. The test rig is equipped with three axial swirlers, effusion cooled liners, and six film cooled high pressure vanes passages, for a vortex-to-vane count ratio of 1:2. The relative clocking position between swirlers and vanes has been chosen in order to have the leading edge of the central NGV aligned with the central swirler. In order to generate representative conditions, a heated mainstream passes though the axial swirlers of the combustor simulator, while the effusion cooled liners are fed by air at ambient temperature. The resulting flow field exiting from the combustor simulator and approaching the cooled vane can be considered representative of a modern Lean Burn aero engine combustor with swirl angles above ±50 deg, turbulence intensities up to about 28% and maximum-to-minimum temperature ratio of about 1.25. With the final aim of investigating the hot streaks evolution through the cooled high pressure vane, the mean aerothermal field (temperature, pressure, and velocity fields) has been evaluated by means of a five-hole probe equipped with a thermocouple and traversed upstream and downstream of the NGV cascade.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Nardecchia ◽  
Annalisa Di Bernardino ◽  
Francesca Pagliaro ◽  
Paolo Monti ◽  
Giovanni Leuzzi ◽  
...  

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is currently used in the environmental field to simulate flow and dispersion of pollutants around buildings. However, the closure assumptions of the turbulence usually employed in CFD codes are not always physically based and adequate for all the flow regimes relating to practical applications. The starting point of this work is the performance assessment of the V2F (i.e., v2¯ − f) model implemented in Ansys Fluent for simulating the flow field in an idealized array of two-dimensional canyons. The V2F model has been used in the past to predict low-speed and wall-bounded flows, but it has never been used to simulate airflows in urban street canyons. The numerical results are validated against experimental data collected in the water channel and compared with other turbulence models incorporated in Ansys Fluent (i.e., variations of both k-ε and k-ω models and the Reynolds stress model). The results show that the V2F model provides the best prediction of the flow field for two flow regimes commonly found in urban canopies. The V2F model is also employed to quantify the air-exchange rate (ACH) for a series of two-dimensional building arrangements, such as step-up and step-down configurations, having different aspect ratios and relative heights of the buildings. The results show a clear dependence of the ACH on the latter two parameters and highlight the role played by the turbulence in the exchange of air mass, particularly important for the step-down configurations, when the ventilation associated with the mean flow is generally poor.


2001 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. R. Maddah ◽  
H. H. Bruun

This paper presents results obtained from a combined experimental and computational study of the flow field over a multi-element aerofoil with and without an advanced slat. Detailed measurements of the mean flow and turbulent quantities over a multi-element aerofoil model in a wind tunnel have been carried out using stationary and flying hot-wire (FHW) probes. The model configuration which spans the test section 600mm×600mm, is made of three parts: 1) an advanced (heel-less) slat, 2) a NACA 4412 main aerofoil and 3) a NACA 4415 flap. The chord lengths of the elements were 38, 250 and 83 mm, respectively. The results were obtained at a chord Reynolds number of 3×105 and a free Mach number of less than 0.1. The variations in the flow field are explained with reference to three distinct flow field regimes: attached flow, intermittent separated flow, and separated flow. Initial comparative results are presented for the single main aerofoil and the main aerofoil with a nondeflected flap at angles of attacks of 5, 10, and 15 deg. This is followed by the results for the three-element aerofoil with emphasis on the slat performance at angles of attack α=10, 15, 20, and 25 deg. Results are discussed both for a nondeflected flap δf=0deg and a deflected flap δf=25deg. The measurements presented are combined with other related aerofoil measurements to explain the main interaction of the slat/main aerofoil and main aerofoil/flap both for nondeflected and deflected flap conditions. These results are linked to numerically calculated variations in lift and drag coefficients with angle of attack and flap deflection angle.


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