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

Author(s):  
Mark Frederick ◽  
Kiran Manoharan ◽  
Joshua Dudash ◽  
Brian Brubaker ◽  
Santosh Hemchandra ◽  
...  

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.

Author(s):  
Mark Frederick ◽  
Joshua Dudash ◽  
Jacqueline O’Connor ◽  
Kiran Manoharan ◽  
Santosh Hemchandra ◽  
...  

Combustion instability, or 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 non-reacting 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.


Author(s):  
Thomas L. Kaiser ◽  
Thierry Poinsot ◽  
Kilian Oberleithner

The hydrodynamic instability in an industrial, two-staged, counter-rotative, swirled injector of highly complex geometry is under investigation. Large eddy simulations show that the complicated and strongly nonparallel flow field in the injector is superimposed by a strong precessing vortex core. Mean flow fields of large eddy simulations, validated by experimental particle image velocimetry measurements are used as input for both local and global linear stability analysis. It is shown that the origin of the instability is located at the exit plane of the primary injector. Mode shapes of both global and local linear stability analysis are compared to a dynamic mode decomposition based on large eddy simulation snapshots, showing good agreement. The estimated frequencies for the instability are in good agreement with both the experiment and the simulation. Furthermore, the adjoint mode shapes retrieved by the global approach are used to find the best location for periodic forcing in order to control the precessing vortex core.


Author(s):  
Jens S. Müller ◽  
Finn Lückoff ◽  
Kilian Oberleithner

The fundamental impact of the precessing vortex core (PVC) as a dominant coherent flow structure in the flow field of swirl-stabilized gas turbine combustors has still not been investigated in depth. In order to do so, the PVC needs to be actively controlled to be able to set its parameters independently to any other of the combustion system. In this work, open-loop actuation is applied in the mixing section between the swirler and the generic combustion chamber of a non-reacting swirling jet setup to investigate the receptivity of the PVC with regard to its lock-in behavior at different streamwise positions. The mean flow in the mixing section as well as in the combustion chamber is measured by stereoscopic particle image velocimetry and the PVC is extracted from the snapshots using proper orthogonal decomposition. The lock-in experiments reveal the axial position in the mixing section that is most suitable for actuation. Furthermore, a global linear stability analysis is conducted to determine the adjoint mode of the PVC which reveals the regions of highest receptivity to periodic actuation based on mean flow input only. This theoretical receptivity model is compared with the experimentally obtained receptivity data and the applicability of the adjoint-based model for the prediction of optimal actuator designs is discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 162 (8) ◽  
pp. 3100-3114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kilian Oberleithner ◽  
Michael Stöhr ◽  
Seong Ho Im ◽  
Christoph M. Arndt ◽  
Adam M. Steinberg

Author(s):  
Jens S. Müller ◽  
Finn Lückoff ◽  
Kilian Oberleithner

The fundamental impact of the precessing vortex core (PVC) as a dominant coherent flow structure in the flow field of swirl-stabilized gas turbine combustors has still not been investigated in depth. In order to do so, the PVC needs to be actively controlled to be able to set its parameters independently to any other of the combustion system. In this work, open-loop actuation is applied in the mixing section between the swirler and the generic combustion chamber of a nonreacting swirling jet setup to investigate the receptivity of the PVC with regard to its lock-in behavior at different streamwise positions. The mean flow in the mixing section as well as in the combustion chamber is measured by stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV), and the PVC is extracted from the snapshots using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). The lock-in experiments reveal the axial position in the mixing section that is most suitable for actuation. Furthermore, a global linear stability analysis (LSA) is conducted to determine the adjoint mode of the PVC which reveals the regions of highest receptivity to periodic actuation based on mean flow input only. This theoretical receptivity model is compared with the experimentally obtained receptivity data, and the applicability of the adjoint-based model for the prediction of optimal actuator designs is discussed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 622 ◽  
pp. 291-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. GRIFFITH ◽  
T. LEWEKE ◽  
M. C. THOMPSON ◽  
K. HOURIGAN

Pulsatile inlet flow through a circular tube with an axisymmetric blockage of varying size is studied both numerically and experimentally. The geometry consists of a long, straight tube and a blockage, semicircular in cross-section, serving as a simplified model of an arterial stenosis. The stenosis is characterized by a single parameter, the aim being to highlight fundamental behaviours of constricted pulsatile flows. The Reynolds number is varied between 50 and 700 and the stenosis degree by area between 0.20 and 0.90. Numerically, a spectral element code is used to obtain the axisymmetric base flow fields, while experimentally, results are obtained for a similar set of geometries, using water as the working fluid. For low Reynolds numbers, the flow is characterized by a vortex ring which forms directly downstream of the stenosis, for which the strength and downstream propagation velocity vary with the stenosis degree. Linear stability analysis is performed on the simulated axisymmetric base flows, revealing a range of absolute instability modes. Comparisons are drawn between the numerical linear stability analysis and the observed instability in the experimental flows. The observed flows are less stable than the numerical analysis predicts, with convective shear layer instability present in the experimental flows. Evidence is found of Kelvin–Helmholtz-type shear layer roll-ups; nonetheless, the possibility of the numerically predicted absolute instability modes acting in the experimental flow is left open.


2015 ◽  
Vol 765 ◽  
pp. 45-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Vo ◽  
Luca Montabone ◽  
Gregory J. Sheard

AbstractThe structure and stability of Stewartson shear layers with different heights are investigated numerically via axisymmetric simulation and linear stability analysis, and a validation of the quasi-two-dimensional model is performed. The shear layers are generated in a rotating cylindrical tank with circular disks located at the lid and base imposing a differential rotation. The axisymmetric model captures both the thick and thin nested Stewartson layers, which are scaled by the Ekman number ($\mathit{E}\,$) as $\mathit{E}\,^{1/4}$ and $\mathit{E}\,^{1/3}$ respectively. In contrast, the quasi-two-dimensional model only captures the $\mathit{E}\,^{1/4}$ layer as the axial velocity required to invoke the $\mathit{E}\,^{1/3}$ layer is excluded. A direct comparison between the axisymmetric base flows and their linear stability in these two models is examined here for the first time. The base flows of the two models exhibit similar flow features at low Rossby numbers ($\mathit{Ro}$), with differences evident at larger $\mathit{Ro}$ where depth-dependent features are revealed by the axisymmetric model. Despite this, the quasi-two-dimensional model demonstrates excellent agreement with the axisymmetric model in terms of the shear-layer thickness and predicted stability. A study of various aspect ratios reveals that a Reynolds number based on the theoretical Ekman layer thickness is able to describe the transition of a base flow that is reflectively symmetric about the mid-plane to a symmetry-broken state. Additionally, the shear-layer thicknesses scale closely to the expected ${\it\delta}_{vel}\propto A\mathit{E}\,^{1/4}$ and ${\it\delta}_{vort}\propto A\mathit{E}\,^{1/3}$ for shear layers that are not affected by the confinement ($A\mathit{E}\,^{1/4}\lesssim 0.34$ in this system, the ratio of tank height to shear-layer radius). The linear stability analysis reveals that the ratio of Stewartson layer radius to thickness should be greater than $45$ for the stability of the flow to be independent of aspect ratio. Thus, for sufficiently small $A\mathit{E}\,^{1/4}$ and $A\mathit{E}\,^{1/3}$, the flow characteristics remain similar and the linear stability of the flow can be described universally when the azimuthal wavelength is scaled against $A$. The analysis also recovers an asymptotic scaling for the normalized azimuthal wavelength which suggests that ${\it\lambda}_{{\it\theta},c}^{\ast }\propto (|\mathit{Ro}|/\mathit{E}\,^{2})^{-1/5}$ for geometry-independent shear layers at marginal stability.


Author(s):  
Samuel Hansford ◽  
Jacqueline O’Connor ◽  
Kiran Manoharan ◽  
Santosh Hemchandra

In this study, we experimentally investigate both the intrinsic instability characteristics and forced response to transverse acoustic excitation of a non-reacting, swirling flow for application to combustion instability in annular gas turbine engines. The non-axisymmetry of the velocity field is quantified using an azimuthal mode decomposition of the time-averaged velocity field that shows that (1) the flow field is largely axisymmetric, (2) axisymmetry decreases with downstream distance, and (3) forcing does not significantly alter the time-averaged shape of the flow field. The flow field is analyzed in a companion linear stability analysis that shows that the most unstable modes in the flow field are m=−1 and m=−2, which agrees with the experimental observations and shows that the intrinsic dynamics of this flow field are non-axisymmetric with respect to the jet axis. The linear stability analysis captures the spatial variation of mode strength for certain modes, particularly mode m=−1, but there are some deviations from the experimental results. Most notably, these deviations occur for mode m=0 at radii away from the jet axis. Experimental results of the forced response of the flow indicate that the intrinsic instability characteristics of the flow field have an impact on the forced-response dynamics. Response of the flow field to a velocity anti-node in a standing transverse acoustic field shows non-axisymmetric vortex rollup and the dominance of the m=−1 and m=1 azimuthal modes in the fluctuating flow field. In the presence of a pressure anti-node, the m=0 mode of the fluctuating flow field is very strong at the jet exit, indicating an axisymmetric response, and ring vortex shedding is apparent in the flow measurements from high-speed PIV. However, further downstream, the strength of the axisymmetric mode decreases and the m=−1 and m=1 modes dominate, resulting in a tilting of the vortex ring as it convects downstream. Implications for flame response to transverse acoustic fields are discussed.


Author(s):  
Kilian Oberleithner ◽  
Sebastian Schimek ◽  
Christian Oliver Paschereit

The prediction of large-scale flow structures in combustor flows and their impact on the flame dynamics is of great importance to avoid thermoacoustic instabilities in modern gas turbine design. The streamwise growth of these so-called coherent structures depends on the receptivity of the shear layers, which can be predicted numerically by means of linear stability analysis. We demonstrate this approach on an isothermal swirling jet that is dominated by a self-excited helical mode that features a precessing vortex core, showing that this theoretical concept successfully predicts the frequency, the source, and the shape of this mode. The analysis is further applied to a reacting flow with a swirl-stabilized flame, pointing out important connections between the shear layer receptivity and the measured amplitude dependence of the flame transfer function. The theoretical findings suggest that the saturation of the global heat release rate fluctuations observed at moderate forcing amplitudes is caused by vanishing shear layer receptivity.


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