Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Combustion; Flame dynamics'

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-93).
Combustion instability in premixed combustors mostly arises due to the coupling between heat release rate dynamics and system acoustics. It is crucial to understand the instability mechanisms to design reliable, high efficiency, low emission gas turbine combustors. In this thesis, elementary processes acting as a source of unsteady heat release rate are described. These elementary processes are acoustic wave-flame interactions, flame-vortex interactions, equivalence ratio fluctuations, flame-wall interactions and the unsteady stretch rate. To investigate the flame- vortex interaction mechanism, a parametric study is performed in single and double expansion dump combustors. 2-D simulations are performed using the random vortex method combined with thin flame model of premixed combustion. The inlet velocity of the combustor is forced sinusoidally at various amplitudes and frequencies, and the heat release rate response is evaluated. It is shown that the heat release rate dynamics are governed by the cyclical formation of a large wake vortex and its interaction with the flame. Maximum heat release rate in a cycle is reached a short time after the breakup of the vortex, which causes rapid burning of the reactants trapped within the structure. The geometry and operating conditions of the combustor control the mechanism by which the vortex breakup is initiated. For short cavities, the impingement of the large wake vortex onto the forward facing step is responsible from the vortex breakup.
(cont.) On the other hand, in long cavities, the vortex breakup is initiated as the wake vortex impinges on the upper cavity wall in single expansion dump combustor, or the vortex forming in the other half of the combustor in double expansion dump combustor. Furthermore, the effect of the air injection in the cross stream direction close to the dump plane on equivalence ratio is investigated. It is shown experimentally that high amplitude pressure oscillation in the combustor during unstable operation causes fluctuation in the injected jet velocity. The oscillatory jet velocity affects the incoming equivalence ratio depending on the momentum ratio of the jet to the primary stream. A critical momentum ratio is defined at which the amplitude of the equivalence ratio oscillations reaches a maximum.
by Hurrem Murat Altay.
S.M.

Modeling the Response of Premixed Flames to Flow Disturbances Preetham 178 pages Directed by Dr. Tim Lieuwen Low emissions combustion systems for land based gas turbines rely on a premixed or partially premixed combustion process. These systems are exceptionally prone to combustion instabilities which are destructive to hardware and adversely affect performance and emissions. The success of dynamics prediction codes is critically dependent on the heat release model which couples the flame dynamics to the system acoustics. So the principal objective of the current research work is to predict the heat release response of premixed flames and to isolate the key non-dimensional parameters which characterize its linear and nonlinear dynamics. Explicit analytical solutions of the G- equation are derived in the linear and weakly nonlinear regime using the Small Perturbation Method (SPM). For the fully nonlinear case, the flame-flow interaction effects are captured by developing an unsteady, compressible, coupled Euler-G-equation solver with a Ghost Fluid Method (GFM) module for applying the jump conditions across the flame. The flame s nonlinear response is shown to exhibit two qualitatively different behaviors. Depending on the operating conditions and the disturbance field characteristics, it is shown that a combustor may exhibit supercritical bifurcations leading to a single stable limit cycle amplitude or exhibit sub-critical bifurcations wherein multiple stable solutions for the instability amplitude are possible. In addition, this study presents the first analytical model which captures the effects of unsteady flame stretch on the heat release response and thus extends the applicability of current models to high frequency instabilities, such as occurring during screech. It is shown that unsteady stretch effects, negligible at low frequencies (100 s of Hz) become significant at screeching frequencies (1000 s of Hz). Furthermore, the analysis also yields insight into the significant spatial dependence of the mean and perturbation velocity field induced by the coupling between the flame and the flow field. In order to meaningfully compare the heat release response across different flame configurations, this study has identified that the reference velocity (for defining the transfer function) should be based on the effective normal velocity perturbing the flame and the Strouhal number should be based on the effective residence time of the flame wrinkles.

Thesis (M. S.)--Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010.
Committee Chair: Tim Lieuwen; Committee Member: Jeff Jagoda; Committee Member: Suresh Menon. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Air pollution regulations have driven modern power generation systems to move from diffusion to premixed combustion. However, these premixed combustion systems are prone to combustion instability, causing high fluctuations in pressure and temperature. This results in shortening of component life, system failure, or even catastrophic disasters. A large number of studies have been performed to understand and quantify the onset of combustion instability and the limit cycle amplitude. However, much work remains due to the complexity of the process associated with flow dynamics and chemistry. This thesis focuses on identifying, quantifying and predicting mechanisms of flame response subject to disturbances. A promising tool for predicting combustion instability is a flame transfer function. The flame transfer function is obtained by integrating unsteady heat release over the combustor domain. Thus, the better understanding of spatio-temporal characteristics of flame is required to better predict the flame transfer function. The spatio-temporal flame response is analyzed by the flame kinematic equation, so called G-equation. The flame is assumed to be a thin interface separating products and reactant, and the interface is governed by the local flow and the flame propagation. Much of the efforts were done to the flame response subject to the harmonic velocity disturbance. A key assumption allowing for analytic solutions is that the velocity is prescribed. For the mathematical tools, small perturbation theory, Hopf-Lax formula and numerical simulation were used. Solutions indicated that the flame response can be divided into three regions, referred to here as the near-field, mid-field, and farfield. In each regime, analytical expressions were derived, and those results were compared with numerical and experimental data. In the near field, it was shown that the flame response grows linearly with the normal component of the velocity disturbance. In the mid field, the flame response shows peaks in gain, and the axial location of these peaks can be predicted by the interference pattern by two characteristic waves. Lastly, in the far field where the flame response decreases, three mechanisms are studied; they are kinematic restoration, flame stretch, and turbulent flow effects. For each mechanism, key parameters are identified and their relative significances are compared.

Combustor blowout is a very serious concern in modern land-based and aircraft engine combustors. The ability to sense blowout precursors can provide significant payoffs in engine reliability and life. The objective of this work is to characterize the blowout phenomenon and develop a sensing methodology which can detect and assess the proximity of a combustor to blowout by monitoring its acoustic signature, thus providing early warning before the actual blowout of the combustor. The first part of the work examines the blowout phenomenon in a piloted jet burner. As blowout was approached, the flame detached from one side of the burner and showed increased flame tip fluctuations, resulting in an increase in low frequency acoustics. Work was then focused on swirling combustion systems. Close to blowout, localized extinction/re-ignition events were observed, which manifested as bursts in the acoustic signal. These events increased in number and duration as the combustor approached blowout, resulting an increase in low frequency acoustics. A variety of spectral, wavelet and thresholding based approaches were developed to detect precursors to blowout. The third part of the study focused on a bluff body burner. It characterized the underlying flame dynamics near blowout in greater detail and related it to the observed acoustic emissions. Vorticity was found to play a significant role in the flame dynamics. The flame passed through two distinct stages prior to blowout. The first was associated with momentary strain levels that exceed the flames extinction strain rate, leading to flame holes. The second was due to large scale alteration of the fluid dynamics in the bluff body wake, leading to violent flapping of the flame front and even larger straining of the flame. This led to low frequency acoustic oscillations, of the order of von Karman vortex shedding. This manifested as an abrupt increase in combustion noise spectra at 40-100 Hz very close to blowout. Finally, work was also done to improve the robustness of lean blowout detection by developing integration techniques that combined data from acoustic and optical sensors.

This thesis investigates large scale flow rotation in two configurations. In the first, the effect of flow rotation on a laminar flame is investigated. The flame is anchored in the wake of a cylindrical bluff body. The flow rotation is introduced by turning the cylinder along its axis. It is shown by Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS), that the cylinder rotation breaks the symmetry of both flame branches. Flame Transfer Function (FTF) measurements performed by the Wiener-Hopf Inversion suggest, that low rotation rates lead to deep gaps in the gain and the flame becomes almost insensitive to acoustic perturbation at a specific frequency. It furthermore is demonstrated that this decrease in gain of the FTF is due to destructive interference of the heat release signals caused by the two flame branches. The frequency at which the gain becomes almost zero can be adjusted by tuning the cylinder rotation rate. The study suggests that controlling the symmetry of the flame could be a tool of open-loop control of thermoacoustic instabilities.

Lean premixed combustors are highly susceptible to combustion instabilities, caused by the coupling between heat release fluctuations and combustor acoustics. In order to predict the conditions under which these instabilities occur and their limit cycle amplitudes, understanding of the amplitude dependent response of the flame to acoustic excitation is required. Extensive maps of the flame response were obtained as a function of perturbation amplitude, frequency, and flow velocity. These maps illustrated substantial nonlinearity in the perturbation velocity - heat release relationship, with complex topological dependencies that illustrate folds and kinks when plotted in frequency-amplitude-heat release space. A detailed analysis of phase locked OH PLIF images of acoustically excited swirl flames was used to identify the key controlling physical processes and qualitatively discuss their characteristics. The results illustrate that the flame response is not controlled by any single physical process but rather by several simultaneously occurring processes which are potentially competing, and whose relative significance depends upon forcing frequency, amplitude of excitation, and flame stabilization dynamics. An in-depth study on the effect of acoustic forcing on the turbulent flame properties was conducted in a turbulent Bunsen flame using PIV measurements. The results showed that the flame brush thickness and the local consumption speed were modulated in the presence of acoustic forcing. These results will not only be a useful input to help improve combustion dynamics predictions but will also help serve as validation data for models.

The interactions between laminar premixed flames and counter-rotating vortex pairs in natural and synthetic gas mixtures have been computationally investigated through the use of Direct Numerical Simulations and parallel processing. Using a computational model for premixed combustion, laminar flames are simulated for single- and two-component fuel mixtures of methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen. These laminar flames are forced to interact with superimposed laminar vortex pairs, which mimic the effects of a pulsed, two-dimensional slot-injection. The premixed flames are parameterized by their unstretched laminar flame speed, heat release, and flame thickness. The simulated vortices are of a fixed size (relative to the flame thickness) and are parameterized, solely, by their rotational velocity (relative to the flame speed). Strain rate and surface curvature measurements are made along the stretched flame surfaces to study the effects of additive syngas species (CO and H2) on lean methane-air flames. For flames that share the same unstretched laminar flame speed, heat release, and flame thickness, it is observed that the effects of carbon monoxide on methane-air mixtures are essentially negigible while the effects of hydrogen are quite substantial. The dynamics of stretched CH4/Air and CH4/CO/Air flames are nearly identical to one another for interactions with both strong and weak vortices. However, the CH4/H2/Air flames demonstrate a remarkable tendency toward surface area growth. Over comparable interaction periods, the flame surface area produced during interactions with CH4/H2/Air flames was found to be more than double that of the pure CH4/Air flames. Despite several obvious differences, all of the interactions revealed the same basic phenomena, including vortex breakdown and flame pinch-off (i.e. pocket formation). In general, the strain rate and surface curvature magnitudes were found to be lower for the CH4/H2/Air flames, and comparable between CH4/Air and CH4/CO/Air flames. Rates of flame stretching are not explicitely determined, but are, instead, addressed through observation of their individual components. Two different models are used to determine local displacement speed values. A discrepancy between practical and theoretical definitions of the displacement speed is evident based on the instantaneous results for CH4/Air and CH4/H2/Air flames interacting with weak and strong vortices.

Le déploiement de technologies à faibles émissions dans les moteurs d’avion ne nécessite pas seulement que les nouvelles conceptions émettent des quantités réduites de polluants, mais également que leur comportement dynamique (allumage, extinction et instabilités de combustion) soit compatible avec les normes de sécurité élevées en vigueur dans l’aéronautique. Ce travail de recherche se concentre sur ces derniers aspects. Une chambre annulaire transparente équipée de 16 injecteurs swirlés représentant à échelle réduite le foyer d’un moteur d’hélicoptère est utilisée conjointement avec un système à un seul secteur pour étudier les problèmes dynamiques. Théorie, expérimentation et simulation aux grandes échelles sont combinées pour examiner une gamme de questions ayant trait à la dynamique de l’injecteur, la structure de l’écoulement, la détermination du niveau de rotation, les caractéristiques du spray, le couplage entre l’injection et le champ acoustique. Une base de données d’injecteurs est introduite pour étudier l’impact des paramètres d’injection sur la dynamique de la combustion. Ces injecteurs sont examinés dans des conditions stables et instables en combinant des diagnostics laser et des simulations permettant la caractérisation de comportements spécifiques à la dynamique du spray et du système d’injection. Un résultat important est que la présence d’un film liquide formé sur la paroi de l’injecteur induit une distribution multimodale des vitesses des gouttelettes. Une nouvelle méthode est introduite pour examiner le comportement spatio-temporel de l’écoulement et de la flamme lorsque l’injecteur est soumis à des modulations axiales. Une étude du processus par lequel les perturbations convectives se couplent au champ acoustique permet d’examiner les délais qui contrôlent l’instabilité de combustion et d’identifier les rôles respectifs de la convection et de l’évaporation des gouttes. La tomographie à grande vitesse reposant sur des particules de SnO2 fournit des résultats majeurs sur la structure du noyau tourbillonnaire en précession et montrent son comportement sous forçage acoustique. L’impact de la perte de charge de l’injecteur sur les instabilités de combustion est examiné à l’aide de plusieurs systèmes d’injection avec des niveaux de rotation semblables. Il est démontré que ce paramètre joue un rôle majeur dans le couplage entre la flamme et le plénum. Les résultats précédents sont utilisés pour guider les expériences sur la chambre de combustion annulaire. L’accent est mis sur les oscillations de combustion de grande amplitude couplées par un mode azimutal stationnaire induisant une extinction de flamme au voisinage de la ligne nodale de pression. La déformation du champ acoustique est suivie à l’aide d’une développement en série d’harmoniques azimutaux permettant la détermination des conditions critiques conduisant à ce phénomène. De nouveaux résultats sont également présentés sur la dynamique transitoire d’un injecteur lors de l’allumage et sur l’extinction pauvre avec une preuve de concept de la possibilité d’étendre la limite d’extinction par des décharges plasma nanoseconde
The deployment of low-emission technologies in aero-engines does not only require that new designs produce reduced amounts of pollutants, but also that their dynamical behavior (ignition, blow-off, and combustion instabilities) be compatible with the high safety standards prevailing in aeronautics. This research is focused on the latter aspect of combustor design. A transparent annular combustor equipped with 16 swirled spray injectors is used to represent at the laboratory scale the combustion chamber of a jet engine. This system is used in conjunction with a single sector rig to investigate dynamical issues.Theory, experimentation and large eddy simulation are combined to examine a range of items pertaining to the injector dynamics, flow structure, swirl number determination, spray characteristics, and coupling between injector flow and acoustic field. A database of injectors is introduced to investigate the impact of injection parameters on combustion dynamics. These injectors are examined under steady and unsteady conditions by combining laser diagnostics and high-fidelity simulations which allows the characterization of spray-specific behaviors of relevance to the dynamics of injection systems. One important result is that the presence of a liquid film formed on the wall of the injection unit gives rise to a multi-modal distribution of droplet velocities. A novel method is introduced to examine the space-time behavior of the flow and flame of a swirling injector submitted to axial modulations. A detailed investigation of the process by which convective perturbations couple with the acoustic field allows to examine the time lags that control combustion instability and sort out the respective roles of convection and droplet spray evaporation. High speed tomography relying on SnO2 particles provides major results on the Precessing Vortex Core structure and show its behavior under acoustic forcing. The impact of injector head loss on combustion instabilities is examined using several injection systems with similar levels of swirl. The head loss is shown to play a major role in the coupling between the flame and the upstream plenum. The previous results obtained in a single sector rig are used to guide experiments on the annular combustor. The focus is placed on high amplitude combustion oscillations coupled by a standing azimuthal mode inducing flame blow-off near the pressure nodal line. The deformation of the acoustic distribution is tracked using a novel expansion on azimuthal harmonics allowing the determination of the critical conditions leading to this phenomenon. New results are also presented about the transient dynamics of an injector during ignition and about lean blow out with a proof of concept extension of the LBO limit by nanosecond plasma discharges

The experimental investigation of the combustion dynamics in a full scale industrial gas turbine combustor has been conducted. The successful capture of different combustion observables; including chemiluminescence emissions from C2* and CH* radicals, acoustic pressure oscillations emanating from the combustor, sound pressure level, fuel pressure oscillations before entry to the combustor, differential pressure oscillations across orifice plates for fuel flow measurement has yielded a huge database.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.
Committee Chair: Lieuwen, Tim; Committee Member: Gaeta, Rick; Committee Member: Menon, Suresh; Committee Member: Seitzman, Jerry; Committee Member: Zinn, Ben.

The present thesis investigates the interaction of a shock wave with a cellular flame and the ensuing mechanisms on the dynamics of the subsequent flame deformation. The inter- action is known to disrupt the flame surface through the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability, hence potentially enhancing the local combustion rates. This study aims to clarify the evolution of a flame when perturbed head-on by a shock wave. Two novel series of experiments were conducted in a vertically-oriented Hele-Shaw cell, which could successfully isolate a quasi-bidimensional cellular flame structure at ambient conditions. In the first configuration, the passage of the shock wave arising in the burned products of a deflagration wave was investigated, while both waves propagated in the same outward direction. In the other configuration, the shock wave centrally emerged in the unburned gases and collided with a cellular flame front traveling in the opposite direction. The event was captured using a Z-type Schlieren imaging system to visualize the growth of the flame cells. Shock characterization was determined in the Hele-Shaw apparatus to estimate the strength of the blast wave generated by energy deposition using a high-voltage igniter or by decoupled detonation from a detonation tube. A combustion study was also performed to determine the laminar flame speed in a mixture of hydrogen-air according to different equivalence ratios in the apparatus. The experiments revealed that inherent cellular flame instabilities are well developed in the observation scale of the Hele-Shaw geometry. The shock-flame complex was therefore analyzed experimentally for selected mixtures. As the shock wave traversed the interface separating the burned and unburned gases, the flame became more corrugated. Following the interaction, the flame cusps were stretched and/or flattened. At later times, the wrinkled interface was reversed and developed finer scales. A time scale analysis was performed to identify the contribution of the competing effects of Richtmyer-Meshkov and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities on the flame interface deformation. For the case of a shock wave traversing the flame interface from the unburned to the burned side, the early perturbations were mainly governed by the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. Finally, Rayleigh-Taylor instability resulted from the decaying pressure profile of the blast wave and tended to stabilize the perturbed interface to eventually reverse the cellular structure. Experimental and inert numerical results on the flame cell’s amplitude growth were found to be in good agreement.

This present research effort was directed towards developing reduced order models for the dynamics of laminar flat flames, swirl stabilized turbulent flames, and in evaluating the effects of the variation in fuel composition on flame dynamics. The laminar flat flame study was conducted on instrument grade methane, propane, and ethane flames for four total flow rates from 145 cc/sec to 200 cc/sec, and five equivalence ratios from 0.5 to 0.75. The analysis was done by measuring the frequency resolved velocity perturbations, u', and the OH* chemiluminescence, as a measure of unsteady heat release rate, q'. The experimental data showed the corresponding flame dynamics to be fourth order in nature with a pure time delay. One of the resonance was shown to represent the pulsation of the flame location caused by fluctuation in the flame speed and fluctuating heat losses to the flame stabilizer. The other resonance was correlated to the dynamics of the chemical kinetics involved in the combustion process. The time delay was correlated to the chemical time delay. Upon comparing the results of the experiments with the three fuels, it was concluded that for all equivalence ratios studied, propane flame had a higher dynamic gain than methane flames. Ethane flames exhibited a higher dynamic gain than methane flame in the frequency range of 20-100 Hz. Thus, burning of propane instead of methane increased the likelihood of the occurrence of thermo-acoustic instabilities. The experimental techniques developed during the dynamic studies conducted on laminar flat flames were applied to swirl stabilized turbulent flames. Experiments were performed for QAir = 15 scfm and 20 scfm, F = 0.55, 0.6, 0.65, and S = 0.79 and 1.19. The results of fully premixed experiments showed that the flame behaved as a 8th order low pass filter. The results of the partially premixed experiment exhibited a rich spectra, which maintained its bandwidth over the entire range of frequency studied. Comparison of fully and partially premixed flames in the frequency range of 200-400 Hz, indicated that at overall lean conditions the dynamic gain of the totally premixed flames was almost an order of magnitude lower than that of the partially premixed conditions. Thus, it was concluded that combustors with fully premixed flames have a higher probability of being thermo-acoustically stable than those with partially premixed flames.
Ph. D.

Lean premixed combustors have been designed to lower NOx and other pollutant levels in land based gas turbines. These combustors are often susceptible to thermo-acoustic instabilities, which manifest as pressure and heat release oscillations in the combustor. To be able to predict and control these instabilities, it is required that both the acoustics of the system, and a frequency-resolved response of the combustion process to incoming perturbations be understood. Currently, a system-level approach is being used widely to predict the thermoacoustic instabilities. This approach requires simple, yet accurate models which would describe the behavior of each dynamic block within the loop. The present study is directed toward using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a tool in developing reduced order models for the dynamics of laminar flat flames and swirl stabilized turbulent flames. A finite-volume based approach is being used to simulate reacting flows in both laminar and turbulent combustors. The study has been divided into three parts -- the first part involves the modeling of a self-excited combustor (the acoustics of the combustor are coupled with the unsteady heat release); the second part of the research aims to study the effect of velocity perturbations on the unsteady heat release rate from a burner stabilized laminar flat flame; the third and final part of work involves an extension of the laminar flat flame study to turbulent reacting flows in a swirl stabilized combustor, and study the effects on the turbulent heat release due to the velocity perturbations. A Rijke tube combustor was selected to study self-excited combustion phenomenon. A laminar premixed methane-air flat flame was stabilized on a honeycomb flame-stabilizer. The flame stabilizer was placed at the center of the 5 feet vertical tube. The position of the flame at the center of the tube leads to a thermoacoustic instability of the 2nd acoustic mode. The fundamental thermoacoustic frequency was predicted accurately by the CFD model and the amplitude was reasonably matched (for a flow rate of Q = 120 cc/s and equivalence ratio phi = 1.0). Other characteristics of the pressure power spectrum were captured to a good degree of accuracy. This included the amplitude modulation of the fundamental and the harmonics due to a subsonic pulsating instability. The flat flame study has been being conducted for Q = 200 cc/s and equivalence ratio phi = 0.75. The objective has been to obtain a frequency response function (FRF) of the unsteady heat release rate (output) due to incoming velocity perturbations (input). A range of frequencies (15 Hz - 500 Hz) have been selected for generating the FRF. The aim of this part of the study has been to validate the computational model against the experimental results and propose a physics based interpretation of the flame response. Detailed heat transfer modeling (including radiation heat transfer) and two-step chemistry models have been implemented in the model. The FRF generated has been able to reproduce the experimentally observed phenomena, like the low frequency pulsating instability occurring at 30 Hz. A heat transfer study has been conducted to explain the pulsating instability and a fuel variability study has been performed. Both the heat transfer study and the fuel variability study proved the role of heat transfer in creating the pulsating instability. The final part of the study involves simulation of reacting flow in a turbulent swirl stabilized combustor. The effect of velocity perturbations on the unsteady heat release has been studied by creating an FRF between the unsteady velocity and the unsteady heat release rate. A Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach has been selected. A swirl number of S = 1.19 corresponding to a flow rate of Q = 20 SCFM with an equivalence ratio of phi = 0.75 have been implemented. Reduced reaction chemistry modeling, turbulence-chemistry interaction and heat transfer modeling have been incorporated in the model. The LES of reacting flow has shown vortex-flame interaction occurring inside the combustor. This interaction has been shown to occur at 255 Hz. The FRF obtained between unsteady velocity and unsteady heat release rate shows good comparison with the experimentally obtained FRF.
Ph. D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2014.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-300).
High efficiency, low emissions and stable operation over a wide range of conditions are some of the key requirements of modem-day combustors. To achieve these objectives, lean premixed flames are generally preferred as they achieve efficient and clean combustion. A drawback of lean premixed combustion, however, is that the flames are more prone to dynamics. The unsteady release of sensible heat and flow dilatation in combustion processes create pressure fluctuations which, particularly in premixed flames, can couple with the acoustics of the combustion system. This acoustic coupling creates a feedback loop with the heat release that can lead to severe thermoacoustic instabilities that can damage the combustor. Understanding these dynamics, predicting their onset and proposing passive and active control strategies are critical to large-scale implementation. For the numerical study of such systems, large eddy simulation (LES) techniques with appropriate combustion models and reaction mechanisms are highly appropriate. These approaches balance the computational complexity and predictive accuracy. This work, therefore, aims to explore the applicability of these methods to the study of premixed wake stabilized flames. Specifically, finite rate chemistry LES models that can effectively capture the interaction between different turbulent scales and the combustion fronts have been implemented, and applied for the analysis of premixed turbulent flame dynamics in laboratory-scale combustor configurations. Firstly, the artificial flame thickening approach, along with an appropriate reduced chemistry mechanism, is utilized for modeling turbulence-combustion interactions at small scales. A novel dynamic formulation is proposed that explicitly incorporates the influence of strain on flame wrinkling by solving a transport equation for the latter rather than using local-equilibrium-based algebraic models. Additionally, a multiple-step combustion chemistry mechanism is used for the simulations. Secondly, the presumed-PDF approach, coupled with the flamelet generated manifold (FGM) technique, is also implemented for modeling turbulence-combustion interactions. The proposed formulation explicitly incorporates the influence of strain via the scalar dissipation rate and can result in more accurate predictions especially for highly unsteady flame configurations. Specifically, the dissipation rate is incorporated as an additional coordinate to presume the PDF and strained flamelets are utilized to generate the chemistry databases. These LES solvers have been developed and applied for the analysis of reacting flows in several combustor configurations, i.e. triangular bluff body in a rectangular channel, backward facing step configuration, axi-symmetric bluff body in cylindrical chamber, and cylindrical sudden expansion with swirl, and their performance has been be validated against experimental observations. Subsequently, the impact of the equivalence ratio variation on flame-flow dynamics is studied for the swirl configuration using the experimental PIV data as well as the numerical LES code, following which dynamic mode decomposition of the flow field is performed. It is observed that increasing the equivalence ratio can appreciably influence the dominant flow features in the wake region, including the size and shape of the recirculation zone(s), as well as the flame dynamics. Specifically, varying the heat loading results in altering the dominant flame stabilization mechanism, thereby causing transitions across distinct- flame configurations, while also modifying the inner recirculation zone topology significantly. Additionally, the LES framework has also been applied to gain an insight into the combustion dynamics phenomena for the backward-facing step configuration. Apart from evaluating the influence of equivalence ratio on the combustion process for stable flames, the flame-flow interactions in acoustically forced scenarios are also analyzed using LES and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD). Specifically, numerical simulations are performed corresponding to a selfexcited combustion instability configuration as observed in the experiments, and it is observed that LES is able to suitably capture the flame dynamics. These insights highlight the effect of heat release variation on flame-flow interactions in wall-confined combustor configurations, which can significantly impact combustion stability in acoustically-coupled systems. The fidelity of the solvers in predicting the system response to variation in heat loading and to acoustic forcing suggests that the LES framework can be suitably applied for the analysis of flame dynamics as well as to understand the fundamental mechanisms responsible for combustion instability. KEY WORDS - large eddy simulation, LES, wake stabilized flame, turbulent premixed combustion, combustion modeling, artificially thickened flame model, triangular bluff body, backward facing step combustor, presumed-PDF model, flamelet generated manifold, axi-symmetric bluff body, cylindrical swirl combustor, particle image velocimetry, dynamic mode decomposition, combustion instability, forced response.
by Gaurav Kewlani.
Ph. D.

Increasingly stringent emissions regulations have led combustion system designers to look for more environmentally combustion strategies. For gas turbine combustion, one promising technology is lean premixed combustion, which results in lower flame temperatures and therefore the possibility of significantly reduced nitric oxide emissions. While lean premixed combustion offers reduced environmental impacts, it has been observed to experience increased possibility of the occurrence of combustion instabilities, which may damage hardware and reduce efficiency. Thermoacoustic combustion instabilities occur when oscillations in the combustor acoustics and oscillations in the flame heat release rate form a closed feedback loop, through one of two possible mechanisms. The first is direct coupling which occurs due to the mean mass flow oscillations induced by the acoustic velocity. Secondly, the acoustics may couple with the flame due to acoustic interactions with fuel/air mixing, resulting in an oscillating equivalence ratio. Only velocity coupling was considered in this study. The methodology used in this study is analysis of instabilities through linear systems theory, requiring knowledge of the individual transfer functions making up the closed-loop system. Methods already exist by which combustor acoustics may be found. However, significant gaps still remain in knowledge of the nature of flame dynamics. Prior knowledge in literature about the flame transfer function suggests that the flame behaves as a low-pass filter, with cutoff frequency on the order of hundreds of hertz. Nondimensionalization of the frequency by flame length scales has been observed to result in a convenient scaling for the flame transfer function, suggesting that the flame dynamics may be dominated by spatial effects. This work was proposed in two parts to extend and apply the body of knowledge on flame dynamics. The phase one goal of this study was to further understand this relationship between the flame heat release rate dynamics and the dynamics of the reaction zone size. The second goal of this work was to apply this flame transfer function knowledge to predictions of instability, validated against measurements in an unstable combustor. Both of these goals meet an existing practical need, providing a design tool for prediction of potential thermoacoustic instabilities in a combustor at the design stage.Measurements of the flame transfer function were made in a swirl-stabilized, lean-premixed combustor. The novel portion of these measurements was the inclusion of spatial resolution of the heat release rate dynamics. By using a speaker, a sine dwell excitation to the velocity was introduced over the range of 10-400Hz. Measurements were then made of the input (inlet velocity) and output (heat release rate, or flame size) resulting in the flame transfer function. The spatial dynamics measurement was approached through several measures of the flame size: the volume and offset distance to the center of the heat release. Each was obtained from deconvoluted, phase averaged images of the flame, referenced to the speaker excitation signal. The results of these measurements showed that the spatial dynamics for each of these three measures were virtually identical to the heat release rate dynamics. This suggests a quite important result, namely that the flame heat release rate dynamics are completely determined by the dynamics of the flame structure. Therefore, prediction of flow structure interaction with the flame distribution is crucial to predict the dynamics of the flame. These spatially resolved transfer function measurements were used in conjunction with the linear closed-loop model to make predictions of instability. These predictions were made by applying the Bode stability criterion to the open-loop system transfer function. This criterion states that instabilities may occur at frequencies where the heat release rate and acoustic oscillations occur in phase and the system gain has a value greater than unity. Performing this analysis on the combined system transfer function yielded results that agreed quite well with actual instability measurements made in the combustor. Closed-loop predictions identified two possible modes for instability, both of which were observed experimentally. One mode resulted from an acoustic peak around 160 Hz, and occurred at lean equivalence ratios. A second mode occurred at lower frequencies (100-150 Hz) and was associated with the increase in flame transfer function gain at increasing equivalence ratios. These are some of the first successful predictions of combustion instability based on linear systems theory. When multiple modes were predicted, it was assumed that if non-linear effects were to be considered, the lower frequency mode would become the dominant mode at these operating conditions due to its higher gain margin. Also of note is that in the practical system, high frequency oscillations are observed, but not predicted, associated with harmonics of the low frequency mode due to the linear nature of the predictions. While these non-linear effects are not captured, the linear predictive capability is thought to be most important, as from a practical perspective, instabilities should be avoided altogether. The primary findings of this study have significant applications to modeling and prediction of combustion dynamics. The classic heat release rate flame transfer function was observed to coincide almost exactly with the flame size transfer functions. The time scales observed in these transfer functions correspond to convective length scales in the combustor, suggesting a fluid mechanical basis of the heat release rate response. Additionally, linear systems theory predictions of instability based on the measured flame transfer functions were proved capable of capturing the stability of the actual combustor with a reasonable degree of accuracy. These predictions should have considerable application to design level avoidance of combustion instability in practical systems.
Ph. D.

Les instabilités de combustion induites par le couplage combustion-acoustique se produisent dans de nombreux systèmes industriels et domestiques tels que les chaudières, les turbines à gaz et les moteurs de fusée. Ces instabilités se traduisent par des fluctuations de pression et un dégagement de chaleur qui peuvent provoquer une défaillance mécanique ou des dégâts désastreux dans certains cas extrêmes. Ces phénomènes ont été largement étudiés par le passé, et les mécanismes responsables du couplage ont déjà été identifiés. Cependant, il apparaît que la plupart des systèmes se comportent différemment lors du démarrage à froid ou en régime permanent. Le couplage entre la température des parois et les instabilités de combustion reste encore méconnu et n’a pas été étudié en détail jusqu’à présent. Dans le cadre de ces travaux de thèse, on s’intéresse à ce mécanisme. Ces travaux présentent une étude expérimentale des instabilités de combustion pour une flamme laminaire de pré-mélange stabilisée sur un brûleur à fente. Pour certaines conditions de fonctionnement, le système présente un mode instable autour du mode de Helmholtz du brûleur. Il est démontré que l’instabilité peut être contrôlée, et même supprimée, en changeant uniquement la température de la surface du brûleur. Une analyse de stabilité linéaire peut être mise en œuvre afin d’identifier les paramètres jouant un rôle dans les mécanismes d’instabilité, et il est possible de modéliser analytiquement les phénomènes observés expérimentalement. Des études expérimentales détaillées de différents processus élémentaires impliqués dans le couplage thermo-acoustique ont été menées pour évaluer la sensibilité de ces paramètres à la température de la paroi. Enfin un modèle théorique du couplage entre le transfert de chaleur instationnaire à la paroi et la fluctuation du pied de flamme a été proposé. Par ailleurs, d’autres mesures expérimentales ont permis de comprendre les mécanismes physiques responsables de la dépendance de la réponse de la flamme à la température de paroi
Combustion instabilities, induced by the resonant coupling of acoustics and combustion occur in many practical systems such as domestic boilers, gas turbine and rocket engines. They produce pressure and heat release fluctuations that in some extreme cases can provoke mechanical failure or catastrophic damage. These phenomena have been extensively studied in the past, and the basic driving and coupling mechanisms have already been identified. However, it is well known that most systems behave differently at cold start and in the permanent regime and the coupling between the temperature of the solid material and combustion instabilities still remains unclear. The aim of this thesis is to study this mechanism. This work presents an experimental investigation of combustion instabilities for a laminar premixed flame stabilized on a slot burner with controlled wall temperature. For certain operating conditions, the system exhibits a combustion instability locked on the Helmholtz mode of the burner. It is shown that this instability can be controlled and even suppressed by changing solely the temperature of the burner rim. A linear stability analysis is used to identify the parameters playing a role in the resonant coupling and retrieves the features observed experimentally. Detailed experimental studies of the different elementary processes involved in the thermo-acoustic coupling are used to evaluate the sensitivity of these parameters to the wall temperature. Finally a theoretical model of unsteady heat transfer from the flame root to the burner-rim and detailed experimental measurements permit to establish the physical mechanism for the temperature dependance on the flame response

En las últimas décadas ha avanzado mucho la comprensión científica sobre el proceso de combustión de los chorros diesel de inyección directa gracias al desarrollo de todo tipo de técnicas e instalaciones ópticas. Además, se han desarrollado y mejorado una gran cantidad de modelos de Dinámica de Fluidos Computacional (CFD), los cuales se usan para el desarrollo de motores altamente eficientes y con bajas emisiones. Sin embargo, debido a la complejidad de los procesos físicos y químicos involucrados en este proceso de combustión, así como a las limitaciones significativas de los experimentos, aún hay muchas cuestiones sin responder: ¿Cómo afecta la combustión a la dinámica del chorro? ¿Cómo cuantificar de forma efectiva la cantidad de hollín y la temperatura del mismo en la llama? ¿Cómo afecta el flujo del aire y las inyecciones partidas al desarrollo del chorro y a la formación de hollín en condiciones no quiescente? Para ayudar a resolver las preguntas planteadas, el objetivo de este trabajo se pone en investigar al dinámica del chorro y la formación de hollín de los chorros Diesel de inyección directa en condiciones quiescentes y no quiescentes por medio de diferentes técnicas ópticas. El trabajo se ha dividido en dos bloques principales. El primero está centrado en el estudio de las modificaciones inducidas por la combustión en la dinámica del chorro, así como la caracterización de la formación de hollín en la llama, todo ello en condiciones quiescentes. Dichas condiciones son proporcionadas por una maqueta de flujo continuo a alta presión y temperatura. La expansión radial y axial del chorro reactivo se ha investigado usando n-dodecano, n-heptano y una mezcla binaria de combustibles primarios de referencia (80% n-heptano y 20% iso-octano en masa), basándose en una base de datos existente medida mediante visualización de schlieren. Se ha estudiado tanto el papel de las condiciones de operación como las propiedades del combustible. A continuación se ha desarrollado por primera vez una técnica combinada de extinción-radiación, aplicada a la medida de hollín en llamas diesel. Gracias a esta técnica, tanto la fracción volumétrica de hollín como la temperatura se obtuvieron simultáneamente considerando los efectos de la autoabsorción en la radiación. Todo este trabajo se ha desarrollado dentro del marco de actividades de la Engine Combustion Network (ECN). El segundo bloque corresponde a la caracterización de la dinámica del chorro y de la formación de hollín en condiciones no quiescentes, que ocurren en la cámara de combustión de un motor monocilíndrico de dos tiempos con accesos ópticos. En esta parte, se ha llevado a cabo en primer lugar la visualización del chorro para una inyección única en condiciones no-reactivas y reactivas. Se han aplicado la visualización simultánea de schlieren y de la quimioluminiscencia del radical OH* para obtener la penetración del chorro y la longitud de despegue de la llama, mientras que la visualización de la extinción de ombroscopía difusa (DBI) se ha aplicado para cuantificar la formaciónde hollín. Los resultados se han comparado con los de la base de datos de la Engine Combustion Network antes mencionados, para estudiar los efectos del movimiento del aire inducido por el movimiento del pistón sobre el desarrollo del chorro y del hollín. Finalmente, se han usado diferentes estrategias de inyección partida para estudiar cómo la primera inyección afecta a los procesos de mezcla y a formación de hollín de la segunda, al cambiar el tiempo de separación entre ambos eventos de inyección o la cantidad inyectada en el primer pulso.
In recent decades, the scientific understanding of the combustion process of direct injection diesel spray has progressed a lot, thanks to the development of all kinds of optical facilities and techniques. In addition, a large amount of efficient and accurate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models, which are used for the design of highly efficient, low emission engines has been developed and improved. However, because of the complexity of the physical and chemical process involved in this combustion process, as well as significant experimental limitations and uncertainties, there are still a lot of remaining questions: How does combustion affect spray dynamics? How can in-flame soot amount and soot temperature be quantified effectively? How do the airflow and split-injection affect spray development and soot formation under non-quiescent conditions? To help solve these raised questions, the objective of this work is set to investigate the spray dynamics and soot formation process of direct injection diesel sprays under both quiescent and non-quiescent conditions by means of different optical techniques. The work has been divided into two main blocks. The first one is focused on the study of combustion-induced modifications in spray dynamics, as well as the characterization of in-flame soot formation under quiescent conditions. The quiescent conditions are provided by a kind of high-temperature high-pressure constant flow vessel. The radial and axial reacting spray expansion were investigated using n-dodecane, n-heptane and one binary blend of Primary Reference Fuels (80% n-heptane and 20% iso-octane in mass) based on an existing database from Schlieren imaging technique. Both operating conditions and fuel properties on this combustion-induced expansion were studied. Next, a combined extinction-radiation technique was first developed and applied in diesel spray soot measurement. Thanks to this technique, both the in-flame soot volume fraction and temperature were obtained simultaneously by considering the self-absorption effect on radiation. All this work has been carried out within the framework of activities of the engine combustion network (ECN). The second block corresponds to the characterization of spray dynamics and soot formation under non-quiescent conditions, which occur within the combustion chamber of a single-cylinder two-stroke optical engine. In this part, the spray visualization for single-injection under both non-reacting and reacting operating conditions was conducted first. Schlieren and OH * chemiluminescence were simultaneously applied to obtain the spray tip penetration and flame lift-off length, while the Diffuse Back Illumination (DBI) extinction imaging was applied to quantify the instantaneous soot formation. Results were compared with Engine Combustion Network database mentioned above to study the airflow effects induced by piston movement on spray and soot development. Finally, different split-injection strategies were used to study how the first injection affects the mixing and soot formation processes of the second one, by changing the dwell time between both injection events or the first injection quantity.
En les últimes dècades ha avançat molt la comprensió científica sobre el procés de combustió dels dolls dièsel d'injecció directa gràcies al desenvolupament de tot tipus de tècniques i instal·lacions òptiques. A més, s'han desenvolupat i millorat una gran quantitat de models de Dinàmica de Fluids Computacional (CFD), els quals s'usen per al desenvolupament de motors altament eficients i amb baixes emissions. No obstant açò, a causa de la complexitat dels processos físics i químics involucrats en aquest procés de combustió, així com de les limitacions significatives dels experiments, encara hi ha moltes qüestions sense respondre: Com afecta la combustió a la dinàmica del doll? Com quantificar de forma efectiva la quantitat de sutge i la temperatura del mateix en la flama? Com afecta el flux de l'aire i les injeccions partides al desenvolupament del doll i a la formació de sutge en condicions no quiescents? Per a ajudar a resoldre les preguntes plantejades, l'objectiu d'aquest treball es posa a investigar al dinàmica del doll i la formació de sutge dels dolls Dièsel d'injecció directa en condicions quiescents i no quiescents per mitjançant diferents tècniques òptiques. El treball s'ha dividit en dos blocs principals. El primer està centrat en l'estudi de les modificacions induïdes per la combustió en la dinàmica del doll, així com la caracterització de la formació de sutge en la flama, tot açò en condicions quiescents. Aquestes condicions són proporcionades per una maqueta de flux continu a alta pressió i temperatura. L'expansió radial i axial del doll reactiu s'ha investigat usant n-dodecà, n-heptà i una mescla binària de combustibles primaris de referència (80% n-heptà i 20% iso-octà en massa), basant-se en una base de dades existent mesura mitjançant visualització de schlieren. S'ha estudiat tant el paper de les condicions d'operació com les propietats del combustible. A continuació s'ha desenvolupat per primera vegada una tècnica combinada d'extinció-radiació, aplicada a la mesura de sutge en flames dièsel. Gràcies a aquesta tècnica, tant la fracció volumètrica de sutge com la temperatura es van obtenir simultàniament considerant els efectes de l'autoabsorció en la radiació. Tot aquest treball s'ha desenvolupat dins del marc d'activitats de la Engine Combustion Network (ECN). El segon bloc correspon a la caracterització de la dinàmica del doll i de la formació de sutge en condicions no quiescents, que ocorren en la cambra de combustió d'un motor monocilíndric de dos temps amb accessos òptics. En aquesta part, s'ha dut a terme en primer lloc la visualització del doll per a una injecció única en condicions no-reactives i reactives. S'han aplicat la visualització simultània de schlieren i de la quimioluminescència del radical OH* per a obtenir la penetració del doll i la longitud d'enlairament de la flama, mentre que la visualització de l'extinció d'ombroscopia difusa (DBI) s'ha aplicat per a quantificar la formaciónde sutge. Els resultats s'han comparat amb els de la base de dades de la Engine Combustion Network abans esmentats, per a estudiar els efectes del moviment de l'aire induït pel moviment del pistó sobre el desenvolupament del doll i del sutge. Finalment, s'han usat diferents estratègies d'injecció partida per a estudiar com la primera injecció afecta als processos de mescla i a formació de sutge de la segona, en canviar el temps de separació entre tots dos esdeveniments d'injecció o la quantitat injectada en el primer pols.
Xuan, T. (2017). Optical investigations on Diesel spray dynamics and in-flame soot formation [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/94626
TESIS

Lean, premixed combustion has enjoyed increased application due to the need to reduce pollutant emissions. Unfortunately, operating the flame at lean conditions increases susceptibility to thermoacoustic (TA) instability. Self-excited TA instabilities are a result of the coupling of the unsteady heat release rate of the flame with the acoustics of the combustion chamber. The result is large pressure oscillations that degrade performance and durability of combustion systems. Industry currently has no reliable tool to predict instabilities a priori. CFD simulations of full-scale, turbulent, reacting flows remain unrealizable. The work in this paper is part of a study that focuses on developing compact models of TA instabilities, i.e. acoustics and flame dynamics. Flame dynamics are defined as the response in heat release to acoustic perturbations. Models of flame dynamics can be coupled with models of combustor enclosure acoustics to predict TA instabilities. In addition, algorithms to actively control instabilities can be based on these compact models of flame dynamics and acoustics. The work outlined in this thesis aims at determining the flame dynamics model experimentally. Velocity perturbations are imparted on laminar and turbulent flames via a loudspeaker upstream of the flame. The response of the flame is observed through two measurements. Hydroxyl radical (OH*) chemiluminescence indicates the response in chemical reaction rate. Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS), centered over two water absorption features, allows a dynamic measurement of the product gas temperature. The response in product gas temperature directly relates to the enthalpy fluctuations that couple to the acoustics. Experimental frequency response functions of a laminar, flat-flame burner and a turbulent, swirl-stabilized combustor will be presented as well as empirical low-order models of flame dynamics.
Master of Science

Thermoacoustic instabilities arise and sustain due to the coupling of unsteady heat release from the flame and the acoustic field. One potential driving mechanism for these instabilities arise when velocity fluctuations (u') at the fuel injection location causes perturbations in the local equivalence ratio and is convected to the flame location generating an unsteady heat release (q') at a particular convection time delay, τ. Physically, τ is the time for the fuel to convect from injection to the flame. The n-τ Flame Transfer Function (FTF) is commonly used to model this relationship assuming an infinitesimally thin flame with a fixed τ. In practical systems, complex swirling flows, multiple fuel injections points, and recirculation zones create a distribution of τ, which can vary widely making a statistical description more representative. Furthermore, increased flame lengths and higher frequency instabilities with short acoustic wavelengths challenge the 'thin-flame' approximation. The present study outlines a methodology of using distributed convective fuel time delays and heat release rates in a one-dimensional (1-D) linear stability model based on the transfer matrix approach. CFD analyses, with the Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM) combustion model are performed and probability density functions (PDFs) of the convective time delay and local heat release rates are extracted. These are then used as inputs to the 1-D Thermoacoustic model. Results are compared with the experimental results, and the proposed methodology improves the accuracy of stability predictions of 1-D Thermoacoustic modeling.
Master of Science

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2014.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-216).
Combustion dynamics are critical to the development of high-efficiency, low-emission and fuel-flexible combustion systems used for propulsion and power generation. Predicting the onset of dynamics remains a challenge because of the complex interactions among several multi-scale phenomena, including turbulence, kinetics and acoustics, and their strong dependence on the operating conditions and fuel properties. In this thesis, a series of experiments were conducted in a laboratory-scale combustor, burning lean premixed propane/hydrogen/air mixtures over a range of equivalence ratio, fuel composition and inlet temperature. Dynamic pressure and flame chemiluminescence measurements are used to determine macro-scale characteristics such as the frequency, limit cycle amplitude and dynamic flame shape. High-speed, high-resolution particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to quantify the micro-scale structure of the flow, while planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of OH radical is used to investigate the flame microstructure. Results demonstrate that combustion dynamics in wake-stabilized flames can be characterized using a single non-dimensional parameter that collapses many response measures over a range of operating conditions and fuel composition, including the critical wake length at which dynamics is first observed, the critical phase at which transition among dynamic modes is encountered, and the limit cycle amplitude, emphasizing the role of the physics and chemistry of the flame processes in driving the overall system dynamics and encapsulating the governing mechanisms. The proposed parameter is based on the normalized strained flame consumption speed, which encapsulates the flow-combustion interactions at the flame scale. PIV data reveal significant changes in the recirculation zone structure depending on the equivalence ratio and the fuel composition, demonstrating the impact of chemical kinetics on the flow. These changes are shown to correlate strongly with the stability characteristics, i.e., blow-off and flashback limits as well as the onset of the thermoacoustic instabilities, highlighting a critical role of the recirculation zone in flame stabilization. An expression for the critical phase at which dynamic mode transition occurs is derived based on the linear acoustic energy balance. It is shown that the critical phase is also a function of the same non-dimensional parameter, suggesting that it represents the state within a dynamic mode as well. Results show that the normalized phase correlates with the upper- and lower-boundary of a dynamic mode, thus being a necessary and sufficient condition for dynamics. The results provide a metric for quantifying the instability margins of fuel-flexible combustors operating over a wide range of conditions. Analysis of PIV and OH-LIF data suggests that heat transfer near the flame-holder may play an important role in determining the stability characteristics. The impact of heat transfer on the onset of dynamics is experimentally investigated using different flame-holders. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of using heat-insulating materials as a passive control strategy to prevent or significantly delay the onset of the instabilities.
by Seung Hyuck Hong.
Ph. D.

Modern combustion systems benefit from constant technological advanceswhich aim at reducing the emissions of chemical pollutants and at wideningregimes of stable operation. Further progress in the combustion field requiresa better understanding and modelling of the combustion dynamics. In thesesystems, the combustible is often injected as a liquid polydisperse spray. Experimentaldata are thus required to validate simulation tools in configurationswith flames interacting with controlled structures in multi-phase flows.This thesis aims at studying some of these fundamental interactions in wellcontrolledlaminar flows submitted to upstream modulations. Two experimentalconfigurations are investigated comprising counterflow flames and free inertjets, fed with gaseous or liquid combustibles. The flows may be submittedto upstream velocity modulations to reproduce effects of unsteadiness. Dependingon the pulsation frequency, vortices of controlled sizes are shed fromthe burner lips and convected with the flow, while interacting with the sprayand the flame.In the first part of this thesis, the dynamics of a premixed stretched flameis analysed in a stagnation flow. The study focuses on determining the flowand flame structures under upstream modulations, and principally on studyingthe dynamics of flame/vortex interactions. Different responses of the flameare identified and analysed relative to the size of the vortex ring generated atthe burner outlet. Two propagation modes for the velocity perturbations areidentified, corresponding to a bulk oscillation of the entire reaction zone orto a flame perturbed only at its periphery. This leads to a discussion on thechoice of velocity boundary conditions to conduct 1D simulations of theseconfigurations. Comparisons between simulations and measurements of thevelocity field illustrate these conclusions. Flame transfer functions betweenheat release rate and velocity perturbations imposed at the burner outlet areestablished for different flow conditions. These measurements relying on localand global chemiluminescence of the flame show again a distinct behaviourof the emission originating from the flame region close to the burner axis andthe whole flame. Mechanisms of sound production by partially and perfectlypremixed flames are also identified and analysed relative to flame/vortex interactions.In the second part, the dynamics of a spray convected by a free inert jet or impinginga diffusion flame submitted to velocity modulations is analysed. Theoriginality of this work consists in characterizing the flow and spray dynamicsusing a set of advanced diagnostics. Phase-conditioned images at different instantsin the modulation cycle are used to analyse the interactions between thegaseous phase and the spray. The spatial distribution of combustible vapourand liquid phases is determined using Laser Induced Exciplex Fluorescence(LIEF). Velocities and sizes distribution of droplets from the spray are determinedlocally by Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA) and in a plane by InterferometricParticle Imaging (IPI). Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) andParticle Image Velocimetry (PIV) are also used to determine the response ofgaseous phase. These phase-conditioned analysis highlight some interactionsbetween the gaseous and liquid phases and constitute an interesting databasefor detailed simulation of these two-phase flows.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006.
Yedidia Neumeier, Committee Member ; Jerry Seitzman, Committee Member ; Fotis Sotiropoulos, Committee Member ; Tim Lieuwen, Committee Member ; suresh menon, Committee Chair.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.
Committee Chair: Lieuwen, Tim; Committee Member: Menon, Suresh; Committee Member: Peters, Norbert; Committee Member: Yang, Vigor; Committee Member: Zinn, Benjamin. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-220).
One of the most difficult challenges facing the development of modern gas turbines-for power generation, and propulsion-is the mitigation of dynamic instabilities in the presence of efficiency and emissions constraints. Dynamic instabilities-self-excited, self-sustaining oscillations which link the combustor acoustics to the combustion process-can result in significant levels of thermal and mechanical stress on combustion systems, leading to reduced operational lifetime, potentially dangerous failure modes, and significant deviations from the desired operating conditions. Due to the complexity of the problem, with the relevant time and length scales of the system--from the chemistry to the acoustics-spanning several orders of magnitude, even sophisticated numerical techniques have been severely limited in their ability to make reliable predictions, leaving the task of finding and eliminating modes of instability to a lengthy and expensive trial-and-error process. Lean-premixed combustion, one of the leading technologies for low emission combustors, is particularly susceptible to these types of instabilities. The sealed systems that are necessary to maintain a reaction in a lean mixture do not attenuate acoustics well, which often results in high-amplitude pressure fluctuations. In this thesis, we focus on developing a better predictive framework for the onset of combustion instabilities in a swirl-stabilized, lean-premixed combustor. We correlate the self-excited acoustic behavior with quantifiable system properties that can be generalized across different fuel blends. This work is predicated on the idea that self-excited combustion instability arises from the selective amplification of the noise inherent in a turbulent combustion system, and that the frequency-based response of the flame is a function of the flame geometry. In the first part of the thesis, we focus on the flame geometry, identifying several discrete transitions that take place in the swirl-stabilized flame as we adjust the equivalence ratio. By comparing the transitions across several CH₄/H₂ fuel blends, and using statistical techniques to interrogate the global effect of the small-scale flow-flame interactions, we find that the extinction strain rate-the flow-driven rate of change in flame surface area at which the chemistry is no longer -sufficiently fast to maintain the reaction-is directly linked to the flame transitions. The swirl-stabilized flow features several critical regions with large and unsteady velocity derivatives, particularly, a pair of shear layers that divide the incoming flow of reactants from an inner and an outer recirculation zone. As the extinction strain rate increases with increasing equivalence ratio, the flame transitions through these critical regions, manifesting as discrete changes in the flame geometry. In the second part, we address the correlation between self-excited instability and the forced acoustic response. By modifying the pressure boundary conditions, we decouple the flame from the acoustics over a domain of interest (defined by a range of equivalence ratios that correspond to the onset of dynamic instability in the coupled system). We then apply external acoustic forcing at a single frequency to ascertain the response of the flame to each particular forcing frequency by means of a flame transfer function. This enables us to consider the frequency-by-frequency response of the flame to its own internally generated noise. We show that the onset of instability is well-predicted by the overlap of the natural acoustic frequencies of the combustor (predicted using a non-linear flame response model) with those frequencies for which the phase of the flame transfer function satisfies the well-known Rayleigh criterion, which is a necessary condition for the presence of self-excited combustion instability. By examining both the forced response and the self-excited instability across several different fuel blends, we go on to show that both behaviors correlate well with the flame geometry, which we have already shown to be dictated by the extinction strain rate of the particular fuel blend. We go on to collapse both sets of data on the strained flame consumption speed taken at the limit of the extinction strain rate, and in doing so, present a framework for predicting the operating conditions under which the combustor in the coupled configuration will go unstable based on measurements and correlations from the uncoupled configuration. Furthermore by taking the consumption speed at the extinction limit, we are correlating the geometry and dynamics with a parameter that is solely a function of mixture properties. This provides the basis for a framework for predicting instability from properties that are more readily measured or simulated, and provides and explicit means of converting these results to different fuel mixtures.
by Zachary Alexander LaBry.
Ph. D.

La réduction des émissions de polluants et l'augmentation du rendement des moteurs ont conduit à une large utilisation de régimes de combustion pauvres en carburant dans les foyers de type moteurs aéronautiques et turbines à gaz. Des phénomènes de bruit et d'instabilités de combustion peuvent alors apparaître. Des fluctuations cycliques auto-entretenues de la pression au sein d'un foyer peuvent conduire à une limitation des régimes de fonctionnement ou une usure rapide et indésirable des installations et dans certains cas une destruction du système. L'objectif de ce travail de thèse est d'étudier les mécanismes responsables du bruit de combustion et des instabilités dans un foyer turbulent prémélangé swirlé. L'étude repose sur une analyse du champ de pression au sein du foyer, de la dynamique de la combustion et une caractérisation détaillée des conditions limites en amont, aval et dans les lignes d'alimentation en combustible et en comburant. Le banc expérimental CESAM ("Combustion Étagée Swirlée Acoustiquement Maîtrisée") est utilisé au cours de ce travail. Basée sur des observations expérimentales, une étude théorique de l'acoustique du foyer est tout d'abord réalisée grâce à un modèle à deux cavités couplées qui modélisent le tube de prémélange et la chambre de combustion de ce banc. Les fréquences et les structures spatiales des modes propres du foyer sont examinées, et des comparaisons sont menées avec les résultats expérimentaux. La condition limite au fond du tube de prémélange est mesurée, et utilisée comme entrée dans le modèle. L'effet de cette condition sur la prévision des fréquences des modes propres est examiné. Par la suite, le code de calcul AVSP est utilisé pour valider les résultats obtenus avec le modèle couplé. L'interaction entre ces modes acoustiques et la flamme est mise en évidence en caractérisant la dynamique de l'écoulement réactif. La vélocimétrie par images de particules (PIV) à haute cadence est utilisée. Une première étude est menée sur les champs de vitesse moyens et fluctuants puis on s'intéresse à l'analyse spectrale des champs de vitesse instantanés, rendue possible par la haute cadence du diagnostic. Un post-traitement faisant intervenir une méthode de détection des tourbillons est ensuite mis en oeuvre en utilisant le critère _2. Des structures cohérentes sont convectées le long du front de flamme à la fréquence du second mode instable du foyer. Le chapitre précédent ayant permis de montrer que ce mode acoustique était essentiellement associé au tube de prémélange, le mécanisme de couplage est clairement identifié. Par la suite, un traitement en moyenne de phase est appliqué aux champs de vitesse axiale. Des mouvements de battements des bras de la flamme dans les directions longitudinale et transverse sont mis en évidence aux fréquences des modes instables. L'émission naturelle de la flamme est également mesurée avec une caméra rapide. Une analyse spectrale et un traitement en moyenne phase avec transformée d'Abel sont appliqués aux images pour caractériser les régions de la flamme présentant une forte réponse aux fréquences des modes acoustiques du foyer. Les mécanismes à l'origine du bruit sont analysés en corrélant les mesures optiques et acoustiques. Au cours de cette étude, des fonctions de transfert de flamme FTF sont également caractérisées aux fréquences des modes propres du foyer, liant perturbations amont et réponse de flamme. La vitesse acoustique est reconstruite dans le tube de prémélange à partir des mesures des microphones. La FTF est calculée grâce aux mesures de vitesse par PIV, à l'émission des radicaux OH* et CH* et à l'émission naturelle de la flamme obtenue par caméra rapide. La caractérisation et la modélisation du système composé du tube de prémélange et de la chambre de combustion montrent qu'il est nécessaire de s'intéresser à l'influence des conditions aux limites sur les propriétés de la flamme et la stabilité du brûleur.

Lean, premixed combustion offers a practical approach for reducing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, but increases the risk of lean blowout (LBO) in gas turbines. Active control techniques are therefore sought which can stabilize a lean flame and prevent LBO. The present work has resulted in the development of flame detection, dynamic modeling, blowout margin estimation, and actuation and control techniques. The flame s acoustic emissions were bandpass filtered at select frequencies to detect localized extinction events, which were found to increase in number near LBO. The lean flame was also found to intermittently burst into a transient tornado configuration in which the flame s inner recirculation zone would collapse. The localized extinctions were dynamically linked to the tornado bursts using a linear, first order model. The model was subsequently applied to predict tornado bursts based on optically detected localized extinction events. It was found that both localized extinctions and tornado bursts are by themselves Poisson processes; the exponential distribution of their spacing times could be used to determine blowout probability. Blowout mitigation was achieved by redistributing the fuel flow between the annular swirlers and central preinjection pilot, both of which were premixed. Rule-based and lead-lag control architectures were developed and validated.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.
Committee Chair: Zinn, Ben; Committee Co-Chair: Jagoda, Jeff; Committee Member: Glezer, Ari; Committee Member: Jeter, Sheldon; Committee Member: Neumeier, Yedidia. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Combustion instability plagues the combustion community in a wide range of applications. This un-solved problem is especially prevalent and expensive in aerospace propulsion and ground power generation. The challenges associated with understanding and predicting combustion instability lie in the flame response to the acoustic field. One of the more complicated flame response mechanisms is the velocity coupled flame response, where the flame responds dynamically to the acoustic velocity as well as the vortically induced velocity field excited by the acoustics. This vortically induced, or hydrodynamic, velocity field holds critical importance to the flame response but is computationally expensive to predict, often requiring high fidelity CFD computations. Furthermore, its behavior can be a strong function of the numerous flow parameters that change over the operability map of a combustor. This research focuses on a nominally two dimensional bluff body combustor, which has rich hydrodynamic stability behavior with a manageable number of stability parameters. The work focuses first on experimentally characterizing the dynamical flow and flame behavior. Next, the research shifts focus toward hydrodynamic stability theory, using it to explain the physical phenomena observed in the experimental work. Additionally, the hydrodynamic stability work shows how the use of simple, model analysis can identify the important stability parameters and elucidate their governing physical roles. Finally, the research explores the forced response of the flow and flame while systematically varying the underlying hydrodynamic stability characteristics. In the case of longitudinal combustion instability of highly preheated bluff body combustors, it shows that conditions where an acoustic mode frequency equals the hydrodynamic global mode frequency are not especially dangerous from a combustion instability standpoint, and may actually have a reduced heat release response. This demonstrates the very non-intuitive role that the natural hydrodynamic flow stability plays in the forced heat release response of the flame. For the fluid mechanics community, this work contributes to the detailed understanding of both unforced and forced bluff body combustor dynamics, and shows how each is influenced by the underlying hydrodynamics. In particular, it emphasizes the role of the density-shear layer offset, and shows how its extreme sensitivity leads to complicated flow dynamics. For the flow-combustor community as a whole, the work reviews a pre-existing method to obtain the important flow stability parameters, and demonstrates a novel way to link those parameters to the governing flow physics. For the combustion instability community, this thesis emphasizes the importance of the hydrodynamic stability characteristics of the flow, and concludes by offering a paradigm for consideration of the hydrodynamics in a combustion instability problem.

Finding limit cycles and their stability is one of the central problems of nonlinear thermoacoustics. However, a limit cycle is not the only type of self-excited oscillation in a nonlinear system. Nonlinear systems can have quasi-periodic and chaotic oscillations. This thesis examines the different types of oscillation in a numerical model of a ducted premixed flame, the bifurcations that lead to these oscillations and the influence of external forcing on these oscillations. Criteria for the existence and stability of limit cycles in single mode thermoacoustic systems are derived analytically. These criteria, along with the flame describing function, are used to find the types of bifurcation and minimum triggering amplitudes. The choice of model for the velocity perturbation field around the flame is shown to have a strong influence on the types of bifurcation in the system. Therefore, a reduced order model of the velocity perturbation field in a forced laminar premixed flame is obtained from Direct Numerical Simulation. It is shown that the model currently used in the literature precludes subcritical bifurcations and multi-stability. The self-excited thermoacoustic system is simulated in the time domain with many modes in the acoustics and analysed using methods from nonlinear dynamical systems theory. The transitions to the periodic, quasiperiodic and chaotic oscillations are via sub/supercritical Hopf, Neimark-Sacker and period-doubling bifurcations. Routes to chaos are established in this system. It is shown that the single mode system, which gives the same results as a describing function approach, fails to capture the period-$2$, period-$k$, quasi-periodic and chaotic oscillations or the bifurcations and multi-stability seen in the multi-modal case, and underpredicts the amplitude. Instantaneous flame images reveal that the wrinkles on the flame surface and pinch off of flame pockets are regular for periodic oscillations, while they are irregular and have multiple time and length scales for quasi-periodic and chaotic oscillations. Cusp formation, their destruction by flame propagation normal to itself, and pinch-off and rapid burning of pockets of reactants are shown to be responsible for generating a heat release rate that is a highly nonlinear function of the velocity perturbations. It is also shown that for a given acoustic model of the duct, many discretization modes are required to capture the rich dynamics and nonlinear feedback between heat release and acoustics seen in experiments. The influence of external harmonic forcing on self-excited periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic oscillations are examined. The transition to lock-in, the forcing amplitude required for lock-in and the system response at lock-in are characterized. At certain frequencies, even low-amplitude forcing is sufficient to suppress period-$1$ oscillations to amplitudes that are 90$\%$ lower than that of the unforced state. Therefore, open-loop forcing can be an effective strategy for the suppression of thermoacoustic oscillations. This thesis shows that a ducted premixed flame behaves similarly to low-dimensional chaotic systems and that methods from nonlinear dynamical systems theory are superior to the describing function approach in the frequency domain and time domain analysis currently used in nonlinear thermoacoustics.

Les besoins énergétiques de la population mondiale ne cessent d’augmenter. Les prévisions indiquent par exemple une forte croissance de la demande du secteur du transport aéronautique. La recherche de systèmes toujours plus performants et moins polluants est nécessaire. Des nouveaux concepts pour la combustion ont été mis au point et appliqués aux turbines à gaz. Parmi eux il existe ceux basés sur la combustion en prémélange pauvre ou en prémélange pauvre pré-vaporisé dans le cas où le carburant utilisé est liquide. Les nouveaux systèmes énergétiques basés sur la combustion en régime pauvre sont prometteurs pour satisfaire les futures normes d’émissions polluantes, mais ils sont plus sensibles aux instabilités de combustion qui limitent leur plage de fonctionnement et peuvent détériorer irréversiblement ces systèmes. Dans ce domaine il reste des questions à aborder. En particulier celle du comportement des flammes tourbillonnaires en combustion diphasique soumises à des perturbations acoustiques. La plupart des moteurs aéronautiques utilisent des flammes de ce type, cependant leur dynamique et leurs interactions mutuelles, quand elles subissent les effets d’une perturbation acoustique, sont loin d’être bien comprises. Ce travail aborde ces questions et apporte des éléments de compréhension sur les mécanismes pilotant la réponse de l’écoulement diphasique et de la flamme, ainsi que des éléments de validation des modèles de prédiction des points de fonctionnement instables. TACC-Spray est le banc expérimental utilisé pour ce travail. Il a été conçu et développé au sein du laboratoire CORIA lors de ce doctorat qui s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet ANR FASMIC. Le système d’injection qui équipe ce banc expérimental reçoit trois injecteurs tourbillonnaires alimentés en combustible liquide (ici n-heptane), développés par le laboratoire EM2C. Ils sont montés en lignes dans le banc, celui-ci représentant ainsi un secteur d’une chambre annulaire. Le montage étant complexe et nouveau, un travail de développement de solutions techniques a été fait pour rendre possible l’équipement du TACC-Spray avec des capteurs de pression, température, photomultiplicateur ainsi que des diagnostiques optiques performants (e.g. LDA, PDA, imagerie à haute cadence). Pour cette étude, le système énergétique, composé par l’écoulement diphasique et la flamme, a été soumis à l’impact d’un mode acoustique transverse excité dans la cavité acoustique. La réponse du système a été étudiée en fonction de son positionnement dans le champ acoustique. Trois bassins d’influence du champ acoustique sur le système énergétique ont été choisis, à savoir: (i) le ventre de pression acoustique caractérisé principalement par des fortes fluctuations de pression, (ii) le ventre d’intensité acoustique présentant de forts gradients de pression et vitesse acoustique, (iii) le ventre de vitesse acoustique avec de fortes fluctuations de vitesse où la fluctuation de pression est résiduelle. L’approche de cette étude a consisté à étudier en premier lieu le système de référence en absence de forçage acoustique, les résultats sont recueillis dans la Partie I de ce manuscrit. En deuxième lieu le système énergétique est placé à chacune des positions d’intérêt dans le champ acoustique et la réponse de l’écoulement d’air sans combustion, la réponse de l’écoulement diphasique avec combustion et finalement celle des flammes, sont étudiées systématiquement. Les résultats de l’étude avec forçage acoustique sont rassemblés dans la Partie II du manuscrit
The energy needs of population around the word are continuously increasing. For instance, forecasts indicates an important grow of the request of the aeronautic transportation sector. It is necessary to continue the research efforts to get more performants and less contaminating systems. New concepts for combustion have been developed and introduced to the gas turbine industry. Among these concepts it is found technologies based on lean-premixed combustion or lean-premixed prevaporized combustion when liquid fuels are employed. These novel energetic systems, making use of lean combustion, are promising to meet the future norms about pollutant emissions, but this make them more sensitive to combustion instabilities that limit their operating range and can lead to irreversible damage. In this domain, many questions still need to be considered. In particular that of the behavior of two-phase flow swirling flames subjected to acoustic perturbations. Indeed most of aero-engines operate with this type of flames, but the dynamics and mutual interaction of these flames, as they are submitted to acoustic perturbation, are not yet well understood. This work addresses these issues and gives some understanding elements for the mechanisms driving the response of the flow and of the flame to acoustic perturbations and delivers data to validate models predicting unstable operating points.The experimental bench employed for this work is TACC-Spray. It has been designed and developed in the CORIA laboratory during this PhD thesis which is inscribed in the framework of the ANR FASMIC project. The injections system that equips this bench is composed by three swirled injectors fed with a liquid fuel (here n-heptane), developed by the EM2C laboratory. They are linearly arranged in the bench such that this represents an unwrapped sector of an annular chamber. The setup, being new and complex, needed technical solutions developed during this work and applied then in order to equip TACC-Spray with pressure and temperature sensors, a photomultiplier as well as adequate optic diagnostics (LDA, PDA, high speed imaging systems). In this study, the energetic system, composed by the two-phase swirling flow and the spray flame, has been submitted to the impact of a transverse acoustic mode excited within the acoustic cavity. The system response has been studied as a function of its location in the acoustic field. Three basins of influence of the acoustic field on the energetic system have been chosen, namely: (i) the pressure antinode characterized mainly by strong pressure fluctuations, (ii) the intensity antinode where important acoustic pressure and velocity gradients are present, (iii) the velocity antinode with strong velocity fluctuations where the acoustic pressure is residual. The approach of the study presented here is to investigate in first place the energetic system free of acoustic forcing. The results concerning this first study are presented in the Part I of this manuscript. In second place, the energetic system is placed in each of the location of interest within the acoustic field and the response of the air flow without combustion, that of the two-phase flow with combustion and finally that of the spray flames, are systematically investigated. The results of the study under acoustic forcing are shown in Part II of the manuscript

The persistent thrust for a cleaner, greener environment has prompted air pollution regulations to be enforced with increased stringency by environmental protection bodies all over the world. This has prompted gas turbine manufacturers to move from non-premixed combustion to lean, premixed combustion. These lean premixed combustors operate quite fuel-lean compared to the stochiometric, in order to minimize CO and NOx productions, and are very susceptible to oscillations in any of the upstream flow variables. These oscillations cause the heat release rate of the flame to oscillate, which can engage one or more acoustic modes of the combustor or gas turbine components, and under certain conditions, lead to limit cycle oscillations. This phenomenon, called thermoacoustic instabilities, is characterized by very high pressure oscillations and increased heat fluxes at system walls, and can cause significant problems in the routine operability of these combustors, not to mention the occasional hardware damages that could occur, all of which cumulatively cost several millions of dollars. In a bid towards understanding this flow-flame interaction, this research works studies the heat release response of premixed flames to oscillations in reactant equivalence ratio, reactant velocity and pressure, under conditions where the flame preheat zone is convectively compact to these disturbances, using the G-equation. The heat release response is quantified by means of the flame transfer function and together with combustor acoustics, forms a critical component of the analytical models that can predict combustor dynamics. To this end, low excitation amplitude (linear) and high excitation amplitude (nonlinear) responses of the flame are studied in this work. The linear heat release response of lean, premixed flames are seen to be dominated by responses to velocity and equivalence ratio fluctuations at low frequencies, and to pressure fluctuations at high frequencies which are in the vicinity of typical screech frequencies in gas turbine combustors. The nonlinear response problem is exclusively studied in the case of equivalence ratio coupling. Various nonlinearity mechanisms are identified, amongst which the crossover mechanisms, viz., stoichiometric and flammability crossovers, are seen to be responsible in causing saturation in the overall heat release magnitude of the flame. The response physics remain the same across various preheat temperatures and reactant pressures. Finally, comparisons between the chemiluminescence transfer function obtained experimentally and the heat release transfer functions obtained from the reduced order model (ROM) are performed for lean, CH4/Air swirl-stabilized, axisymmetric V-flames. While the comparison between the phases of the experimental and theoretical transfer functions are encouraging, their magnitudes show disagreement at lower Strouhal number gains show disagreement.

Combustion systems utilizing bluff bodies to stabilize the combustion processes can experience oscillatory heat release due to the alternate shedding of coherent, von Kármán vortices under certain operating conditions. This phenomenon needs to be understood in greater detail, since unsteady burning due to vortex shedding can lead to combustion instabilities and flame extinction in practical combustion systems. The primary objective of this study was to elucidate the influence of combustion process heat release upon the Bénard-von Kármán (BVK) instability in reacting bluff body wakes. For this purpose, spatial and temporal heat release distributions in bluff body-stabilized combustion of liquid Jet-A fuel with high-temperature, vitiated air were characterized over a wide range of operating conditions. Upon comparing the spatial and temporal heat release distributions, the fuel entrainment and subsequent heat release in the near-wake were found to strongly influence the onset and amplitude of the BVK instability. As the amount of heat release in the near-wake decreased, the BVK instability increased in amplitude. This was attributed to the corresponding decrease in the local density gradient across the reacting shear layers, which resulted in less damping of vorticity due to gas expansion. The experimental results were compared to the results of a parallel, linear stability analysis in order to further understand the influence of the combustion processes in the near-wake upon the wake instability characteristics. The results of this analysis support the postulate that oscillatory heat release due to BVK vortex shedding is the result of local absolute instability in the near-wake, which is eliminated only if the temperature rise across the reacting shear layers is sufficiently high. Furthermore, the results of this thesis demonstrate that non-uniform fuelling of the near-wake reaction zone increases the likelihood of absolutely unstable, BVK flame dynamics due to the possibility of near-unity products-to-reactants density ratios locally, especially when the reactants temperature is high.

Des crises vibratoires ont été constatées dans plusieurs centrales thermiques d’EDF opérant avec du fioul lourd, certaines ayant entraîné l’arrêt du foyer. Ce travail traite des instabilités de combustion pouvant se déclencher dans ce type de système où le combustible liquide est injecté avec de la vapeur d’eau et où l’écoulement d’air est mis en rotation. Ces phénomènes vibratoires résultent d’un couplage résonant entre la dynamique de la combustion et l’acoustique du foyer. La réponse acoustique des flammes diphasiques non-prémélangées swirlées reste largement méconnue et est difficilement analysable sur le foyer réel. L’objectif de ce travail est donc d’étudier la stabilité des chaudières EDF à partir de l’analyse de la réponse d’une flamme diphasique non-prémélangée swirlée issue d’un injecteur générique et soumise à des perturbations de la vitesse acoustique. Cette réponse est déterminée sur un dispositif original (DIFAV) équipé d’un swirler et d’un injecteur bi-fluides fonctionnant à la vapeur d’eau et au dodécane. Ce système est constitué des principaux éléments des brûleurs utilisés sur les centrales thermiques EDF à une échelle 1/7000. Le dispositif est conçu pour facilement modifier la géométrie de la tête d’injection, les conditions d’injection de combustible et de vapeur et ainsi contrôler le spray généré. Des visualisations à la sortie d’une buse d’injection montrent l’influence de la topologie de l’écoulement diphasique dans l’injecteur sur la taille des gouttes mesurées dans le spray. Des mesures de taille et de vitesse des gouttes lorsque le rapport des débits de vapeur et de combustible (GLR) est modifié sont réalisées. Ces données comparées à des modèles ont permis d’estimer l’évolution de la taille des gouttes générées par l’injecteur qui équipe les centrales thermiques lorsque le GLR varie. Une analyse modale du foyer DIFAV et d’un modèle simplifié de la chaudière réelle est ensuite menée. Les fréquences propres et les taux d’amortissement du foyer DIFAV sont déterminés expérimentalement en soumettant le système à une modulation acoustique externe. Un modèle acoustique simplifié composé de trois cavités couplées représentatif du brûleur DIFAV est également développé. Des simulations acoustiques réalisées avec COMSOL Multiphysics sur une coupe transverse d’une chaudière générique représentative de la chaudière industrielle permettent d’identifier trois modes à basses fréquences établis entre les plenums et la chambre de combustion qui sont susceptibles d’être instables. La sensibilité de ces modes à la géométrie du foyer et aux conditions limites est étudiée. La réponse de la flamme générique lorsqu’elle est soumise à des modulations acoustiques de l’écoulement d’air en amont du brûleur est ensuite mesurée sur le banc DIFAV pour différents niveaux d’excitation et deux topologies de flamme lorsque les conditions d’injection sont modifiées. Les mécanismes qui pilotent l’évolution du gain de l’une des fonctions de transfert généralisées (FDF) de la flamme sont étudiés à l’aide de visualisations en moyenne de phase de l’écoulement et de mesures des vitesses axiale et azimutale de l’écoulement d’air au cours d’un cycle de modulation. Une forte sensibilité de la phase de la FDF à l’amplitude des perturbations acoustiques est observée. Un adimensionnement par le nombre de Strouhal basé sur la vitesse débitante et la longueur efficace de la flamme est proposé pour transposer ces FDFs sur le brûleur réel. Une analyse de stabilité du foyer DIFAV est réalisée en intégrant les FDF au modèle acoustique afin de déterminer les cycles limites des oscillations lorsque la longueur de la chambre de combustion varie. Ces calculs sont comparés aux fréquences des instabilités auto-entretenues mesurées aux cycles limites dans le foyer DIFAV. [...]
Vibratory crises have been observed in EDF thermal power plants operating with heavy fuel oil. Such instabilities may lead to shutdown and damage the boiler. This work deals with combustion instabilities that can take place in boilers equipped with steam-assisted atomizers and where the airflow is swirled. These vibratory phenomena result from a resonant coupling between the combustion dynamics and the boiler acoustics. Analyses of combustion dynamics of non-premixed swirling spray flames remain rare and are difficult to realize on the real system. The objective of this work is to analyze the stability of EDF boilers using the response of generic non-premixed swirling spray flames submitted to acoustic velocity disturbances. This response is determined on an original device (DIFAV) equipped with a swirling vane and a twin-fluid atomizer operated with steam and dodecane. This burner is equipped with the main elements of those used in the thermal power plant, but has a reduced scale of 1/7000. The influence of the injector geometry and of the operating conditions on the spray generated by the injector can be studied. Spray visualizations at the outlet of the injector reveal the relationship between the topology of the two-phase flow in the injector and the measured droplet size. Measurements of the droplet diameter and velocity as a function of the gas-to-liquid ratio (GLR) have been performed at the outlet of the injector. These data have been compared to models and were used to estimate the evolution of the droplets diameter as a function of the GLR generated by the industrial injector. A modal analysis of the DIFAV combustor is then carried out and a simplified acoustic model made of three coupled cavities is developed. The natural frequencies and damping rates of the DIFAV combustor are determined experimentally when it is submitted to acoustic modulation. Acoustic simulations are performed with COMSOL Multiphysics on a simplified geometrical model of the industrial boiler. Three low frequency modes established between the plenums and the combustion chamber have been identified and may be unstable. Their sensitivity to modifications of the boiler geometry and boundary conditions are studied. Flame responses subjected to acoustic modulations of the airflow rate are then measured on the DIFAV combustor for several amplitudes and two flames topologies obtained at globally lean condition. Phase-conditioned flame visualizations and measurements of swirl number fluctuations during an acoustic forcing cycle are conducted to explain the mechanisms that control the evolution of gain of the Flame Describing Function (FDF). A high sensitivity of the phase of the FDF to the amplitude of the acoustic disturbance is observed. The Strouhal number based on the airflow velocity and the effective length of the flame is used to transpose these FDF on the industrial burner. FDF are integrated in the acoustic model of the DIFAV setup to carry out a stability analysis and predict the limit cycle oscillations as a function of the combustion chamber length. These calculations are compared to frequencies of self-sustained instability measured at the limit cycles in the DIFAV combustor. A reasonable agreement is obtained showing the validity of the stability analysis for the non-premixed two-phase flames investigated based on the knowledge of their FDF. Finally, a stability analysis of the EDF boiler is conducted with the COMSOL Multiphysics model by including the acoustic flame response of the industrial burner in the simulation. This FDF is deducted from the dimensionless FDF measured on the generic burner. The Rayleigh criterion is used to analyze the stability of the combustor as a function of the flame length for different boundary conditions. Indications are given to improve the stability of the EDF boiler

This research work deals with the problem of the flame stabilization in the context of high pressure liquid rocket engines. Flame stabilization in a rocket engine is a critical feature. An instability can lead to important damages of the engine or the destruction of the launcher and the satellite. The engines (Vulcain 2 and Vinci) of the Ariane 5, and the future Ariane 6, use the hydrogen/oxygen propellants. One characteristic of this couple is its high specific impulse. The launcher performance is linked to the ratio of the payload to the total mass of propellants. For volume reasons the propellants are stored at low temperature of the order of a few tens of Kelvin. When injected in the combustion chamber, their combustion releases a huge amount of heat leading to temperature of 3500K. In order to predict the heat transfer between the flame, the solid injector and the cold propellants the Large Eddy Simulation, which allows to capture the unsteady features of the flow, is used in association with a thermal solver for the injector. This approach is validated with a low pressure experiment conducted at Centrale Paris, then a basic 1D configuration allows to understand the phenomena of high pressure flame-wall interaction. Finally a configuration representative of a coaxial rocket engine injector allows to evaluate the structure and the stabilization mechanisms of a cryogenic flame, the heat flux and the temperature of the injector.

La conception de chambres de combustion aéronautiques requiert un compromis entre les différents phénomènes physiques présents, comme les interactions entre la flamme et la turbulence, les pertes thermiques, la dynamique de flamme ou l'évaporation du carburant et son mélange. De nombreux outils numériques existent dans la littérature pour prédire ce genre d'écoulements réactifs turbulents. Les modèles de turbulence instationnaires, par exemple LES (Large Eddy Simulation), sont un excellent compromis pour la prédiction du mélange dans des configurations réalistes. L'approche de chimie tabulée représente un équilibre attrayant entre coût de calcul et précision pour la prédiction de structure de flamme. Dans cette thèse, des modèles de turbulence avancés et de chimie tabulée sont appliqués à des configurations complexes afin d'évaluer leur capacité à prédire la structure de flammes turbulentes. La prédiction de la FDF (Flame Describing Function) par le modèle F-TACLES (Filtered TAbulated Chemistry for Large Eddy Simulations) est comparé à des données expérimentales pour une flamme swirlée, prémélangée et non-adiabatique. La FDF est bien prédite pour une large plage de fréquences et deux niveaux de fluctuations de vitesse. L'origine des différences est analysée. La première application du modèle F-TACLES à un brûleur diphasique est proposée. Le brûleur choisi est la flamme jet diphasique KIAI, récemment étudié au CORIA. Une comparaison détaillée avec l'expérience est faite et montre que F-TACLES est capable de prédire la bonne forme de flamme. Le modèle ZDES (Zonal Detached Eddy Simulation) est étudié dans la configuration TLC, un injecteur aéronautique réaliste. En non-réactif, la ZDES est validée par rapport aux mesures de vitesse expérimentales et comparée à des résultats de LES. En conditions réactives, la prédiction des profils de température dans la chambre de combustion est grandement améliorée en ZDES
The design of aeronautical combustion chambers requires a precise balance between the different physical phenomena involved, such as flame-turbulence interaction, heat losses, flame dynamics or fuel evaporation and mixing. Numerous numerical tools exist in the literature to predict these kinds of turbulent reacting flows. The unsteady turbulence models, for example LES (Large Eddy Simulation), represent an excellent compromise for the prediction of the mixing in realistic configurations. The tabulated chemistry approach is an attractive trade-off between computation cost and accuracy for predicting the structure of flames. In this thesis, advanced turbulence and tabulated chemistry models are applied to complex configurations in order to assess their ability to predict the structure of turbulent flames. The prediction of the FDF (Flame Describing Function) by the F-TACLES (Filtered TAbulated Chemistry for Large Eddy Simulations) model is compared to experimental data for a non-adiabatic premixed swirled flame. The FDF is well predicted for a wide range of frequencies and two velocity fluctuation levels. The origin of the discrepancies is analyzed. The first application of the F-TACLES model in a two-phase burner is proposed. The chosen burner is the KIAI spray jet flame, recently studied at CORIA. A detailed comparison with the experiments is performed and shows that F-TACLES is able to predict the correct flame shape. The ZDES (Zonal Detached Eddy Simulation) model is studied in a realistic aeronautical injector, the TLC configuration. In cold conditions, the ZDES is validated against velocity measurements and compared to LES results. In reacting conditions, the prediction of temperature profiles in the combustion chamber is greatly improved in the ZDES

Les lanceurs ont un impact sur la composition de l'atmosphere, et en particulier sur l'ozone stratospherique. Parmi tous les types de propulsion, les moteurs à propergol solide ont fait l'objet d'une attention particulière car leurs émissions sont responsables d'un appauvrissement significatif d'ozone dans le panache des lanceurs lors des premières heures suivant le lancement. Ce phénomène est principalement dû à la conversion de l'acide chlorhydrique, un composé chimique présent en grandes quantités dans les émissions de ce type de moteur, en chlore actif qui réagit par la suite avec l'ozone dans un cycle catalytique similaire à celui responsable du "trou de la couche d'ozone", cette diminution périodique de l'ozone en Antarctique. Cette conversion se produit dans le panache supersonique, où les hautes températures favorisent une seconde combustion entre certaines espèces chimiques du panache et l'air ambiant. L'objectif de cette étude est d'évaluer la concentration de chlore actif dans le panache d'un moteur à propergol solide en utilisant la technique des Simulations aux Grandes Echelles (SGE). Le gaz est injecté à travers la tuyère d'un moteur et une méthode de couplage entre deux instances du solveur de mécanique des fluides est utilisée pour étendre autant que possible le domaine de calcul derrière la tuyère (jusqu'à l'équivalent de 400 diamètres de sortie de la tuyère). Cette méthodologie est validée par une première SGE sans chimie, en analysant les caractéristiques de l'écoulement supersonique avec co-écoulement obtenu par ce calcul. Ensuite, le chimie mettant en jeu la conversion des espèces chlorées a été étudiée au moyen d'un modèle "hors-ligne" permettant de résoudre une chimie complexe le long de lignes de courant extraites d'un écoulement moyenné dans le temps résultant du calcul précédent (non réactif). Enfin, une SGE multi-espèces est réalisée, incluant un schéma chimique auparavant réduit afin de limiter le coût de calcul. Cette simulation représente une des toutes premières SGE d'un jet supersonique réactif, incluant la tuyère, effectuée sur un domaine de calcul aussi long. En capturant avec précision le mélange du panache avec l'air ambiant ainsi que les interactions entre turbulence et combustion, la technique des simulations aux grandes échelles offre une évaluation des concentrations des espèces chimiques dans le jet d'une precision inédite. Ces résultats peuvent être utilisés pour initialiser des calculs atmosphériques sur de plus larges domaines, afin de modéliser les réactions entre chlore actif et ozone et de quantifier l'appauvrissement en ozone dans le panache
Rockets have an impact on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, and particularly on stratospheric ozone. Among all types of propulsion, Solid-Rocket Motors (SRMs) have given rise to concerns since their emissions are responsible for a severe decrease in ozone concentration in the rocket plume during the first hours after a launch. The main source of ozone depletion is due to the conversion of hydrogen chloride, a chemical compound emitted in large quantities by ammonium perchlorate based propellants, into active chlorine compounds, which then react with ozone in a destructive catalytic cycle, similar to those responsible for the Antartic "Ozone hole". This conversion occurs in the hot, supersonic exhaust plume, as part of a strong second combustion between chemical species of the plume and air. The objective of this study is to evaluate the active chlorine concentration in the far-field plume of a solid-rocket motor using large-eddy simulations (LES). The gas is injected through the entire nozzle of the SRM and a local time-stepping method based on coupling multi-instances of the fluid solver is used to extend the computational domain up to 400 nozzle exit diameters downstream of the nozzle exit. The methodology is validated for a non-reactive case by analyzing the flow characteristics of the resulting supersonic co-flowing under-expanded jet. Then the chemistry of chlorine is studied off-line using a complex chemistry solver applied on trajectories extracted from the LES time-averaged flow-field. Finally, the online chemistry is analyzed by means of the multi-species version of the LES solver using a reduced chemical scheme. To the best of our knowledge, this represents one of the first LES of a reactive supersonic jet, including nozzle geometry, performed over such a long computational domain. By capturing the effect of mixing of the exhaust plume with ambient air and the interactions between turbulence and combustion, LES offers an evaluation of chemical species distribution in the SRM plume with an unprecedented accuracy. These results can be used to initialize atmospheric simulations on larger domains, in order to model the chemical reactions between active chlorine and ozone and to quantify the ozone loss in SRM plumes

Au cours des dernières décennies, les instabilités de combustion ont constitué un important défi pour de nombreux projets industriels, en particulier dans la conception de moteurs-fusées à ergols liquide et de turbines à gaz. L'atténuation de leurs effets nécessite une solide compréhension scientifique de l'interaction complexe entre la dynamique de flamme et les ondes acoustiques qu'elles impliquent. Au cours de cette thèse, plusieurs directions ont été explorées pour fournir une meilleure compréhension de la dynamique des flammes dans les moteurs-fusées cryogéniques, ainsi que des méthodes numériques plus efficaces et robustes pour la prédiction des instabilités thermoacoustiques dans les chambres de combustion à géométries complexes. La première facette de ce travail a consisté en la résolution de modes thermoacoustiques dans les chambres de combustion complexes comportant à injecteurs multiples, une tâche qui nécessite souvent des simplifications pour être abordable en termes de coût de calcul. Ces hypothèses physiques nécessaires ont conduit à la popularité croissante des modèles bas-ordre acoustiques, parmi lesquels ceux utilisant l'expansion de Galerkin ont démontré une efficacité prometteuse tout en conservant une précision satisfaisante. Ceux-ci sont cependant limités à des géométries simples qui n'intègrent pas les caractéristiques complexes des systèmes industriels. Une grande partie de ce travail a donc consisté tout d'abord à identifier clairement les limitations mathématiques de l'expansion classique de Galerkin, puis à concevoir un nouveau type d'expansion modale, appelé expansion sur frame, qui ne souffre pas des mêmes restrictions. En particulier, l'expansion sur frame est capable de représenter avec précision le champ de vitesse acoustique près des parois de la chambre de combustion autres que des murs rigides, une capacité cruciale qui manque à la méthode Galerkin. Dans ce travail, le concept d'expansion modale de surface a également été introduit pour modéliser des frontières topologiquement complexes, comme les plaques multi-perforées rencontrées dans les turbines à gaz. Ces nouvelles méthodes numériques ont été combinées avec le formalisme state-space pour construire des réseaux acoustiques de systèmes complexes. Le modèle obtenu a été implémenté dans le code STORM (State-space Thermoacoustic low-ORder Model), qui permet la modélisation bas-ordre des instabilités thermoacoustiques dans des géométries arbitrairement complexes. Le deuxième ingrédient de la prédiction des instabilités thermoacoustiques est la modélisation de la dynamique de flamme. Ce travail a traité de ce point, dans le cas spécifique d'une flamme-jet cryogénique caractéristique d'un moteur-fusée à ergols liquides. Les phénomènes contrôlant la dynamique de flamme ont été identifiés grâce à des Simulations aux Grandes Échelles (SGE) du banc d'essai expérimental Mascotte, où les deux réactifs (CH4 et O2) sont injectés dans des conditions transcritiques. Une première simulation donne un aperçu détaillé de la dynamique intrinsèque de la flamme. Plusieurs SGE avec modulation harmonique de l'injection de carburant, à différentes fréquences et amplitudes, ont été effectués afin d'évaluer la réponse de la flamme aux oscillations acoustiques et de calculer une Fonction de Transfert de Flamme (FTF). La réponse non-linéaire de la flamme, notamment les interactions entre les oscillations intrinsèques et forcées, a également été étudiée. Enfin, la stabilisation de cette flamme dans la région proche de l'injecteur, qui est d'une importance primordiale sur la dynamique globale de la flamme, a été étudiée grâce à une simulation directe multi-physique, où un problème couplé de transfert de chaleur est résolu au niveau de la lèvre de l'injecteur
Over the last decades, combustion instabilities have been a major concern for a number of industrial projects, especially in the design of Liquid Rocket Engines (LREs) and gas turbines. Mitigating their effects requires a solid scientific understanding of the intricate interplay between flame dynamics and acoustic waves that they involve. During this PhD work, several directions were explored to provide a better comprehension of flame dynamics in cryogenic rocket engines, as well as more efficient and robust numerical methods for the prediction of thermoacoustic instabilities in complex combustors. The first facet of this work consisted in the resolution of unstable thermoacoustic modes in complex multi-injectors combustors, a task that often requires a number of simplifications to be computationally affordable. These necessary physics-based assumptions led to the growing popularity of acoustic Low-Order Models (LOMs), among which Galerkin expansion LOMs have displayed a promising efficiency while retaining a satisfactory accuracy. Those are however limited to simple geometries that do not incorporate the complex features of industrial systems. A major part of this work therefore consisted first in clearly identifying the mathematical limitations of the classical Galerkin expansion, and then in designing a novel type of modal expansion, named a frame expansion, that does not suffer from the same restrictions. In particular, the frame expansion is able to accurately represent the acoustic velocity field, near non-rigid-wall boundaries of the combustor, a crucial ability that the Galerkin method lacks. In this work, the concept of surface modal expansion is also introduced to model topologically complex boundaries, such as multi-perforated liners encountered in gas turbines. These novel numerical methods were combined with the state-space formalism to build acoustic networks of complex systems. The resulting LOM framework was implemented in the code STORM (State-space Thermoacoustic low-ORder Model), which enables the low-order modeling of thermoacoustic instabilities in arbitrarily complex geometries. The second ingredient in the prediction of thermoacoustic instabilities is the flame dynamics modeling. This work dealt with this problem, in the specific case of a cryogenic coaxial jet-flame characteristic of a LRE. Flame dynamics driving phenomena were identified thanks to three-dimensional Large Eddy Simulations (LES) of the Mascotte experimental test rig where both reactants (CH4 and O2) are injected in transcritical conditions. A first simulation provides a detailed insight into the flame intrinsic dynamics. Several LES with harmonic modulation of the fuel inflow at various frequencies and amplitudes were performed in order to evaluate the flame response to acoustic oscillations and compute a Flame Transfer Function (FTF). The flame nonlinear response, including interactions between intrinsic and forced oscillations, were also investigated. Finally, the stabilization of this flame in the near-injector region, which is of primary importance on the overall flame dynamics, was investigated thanks to muulti-physics two-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), where a conjugate heat transfer problem is resolved at the injector lip

This study addresses the influence of elevated pressures, fuel type, fuel flow rate and co-flow air on the flame structure and flickering behaviour of laminar oscillating diffusion flames. Photomultipliers, high speed photography and schlieren, accompanied with digital image processing techniques have been used to study the flame dynamics. Furthermore, the effects of pressure on the flame geometry and two-dimensional soot temperature distribution in a laminar stable diffusion flame have been investigated, utilising narrow band photography and two-colour pyrometry technique in the near infra-red region. This study provides a broad dataset on the diffusion (sooty) flame properties under pressures from atmospheric to 16 bar for three gaseous hydrocarbon fuels (methane, ethylene and propane) in a co-flow burner facility.It has been observed that the flame properties are very sensitive to the fuel type and flow rate at elevated pressures. The cross-sectional area of the stable flame shows an average inverse dependence on pressure to the power of n, where n was found to be 0.8±0.2 for ethylene flame, 0.5±0.1 for methane flame and 0.6±0.1 for propane flame. The height of a flame increases firstly with pressure and then decreases with further increase of pressure. It is observed that the region of stable combustion was markedly reduced as pressure was increased. An ethylene flame flickers with at least three dominant modes, each with corresponding harmonics at elevated pressures. In contrast, methane flames flicker with one dominant frequency and as many as six harmonic modes at elevated pressures. The increase in fuel flow rate was observed to increase the magnitude of oscillation. The flickering frequency, however, remains almost constant at each pressure. The dominant flickering frequency of a methane diffusion flame shows a power-law dependence on chamber pressure.It has been observed that the flame dynamics and stability are also strongly affected by the co-flow air velocity. When the co-flow velocity reached a certain value, the buoyancy driven flame oscillation was completely suppressed. The schlieren imaging has revealed that the co-flow of air is able to push the initiation point of outer toroidal vortices beyond the visible flame to create a very stable flame. The oscillation frequency was observed to increase linearly with the air co-flow rate. The soot temperature results obtained by applying the two-colour method in the near infra-red region shows that in diffusion flames the overall temperatures decrease with increasing pressure. It is shown that the rate of temperature drop is greater for a pressure increase at lower pressures in comparison with higher pressures.

Many industries have entered a new global phase which takes the environment in mind. The gas turbine industry is no exception, where the utilization of green fuels is the future to spare the environment from carbon dioxide and NOx emissions. Hydrogen has been identified as a fuel which can fulfil the global requirements set by governments worldwide. Combustion instabilities are not inevitable during gas turbine operations, especially when using a highly reactive and diffusive fuel as hydrogen. These thermoacoustics instabilities can damage mechanical components and have economic consequences in terms of maintenance and reparation. Understanding these thermoacoustic instabilities in gas turbine burners is of great interest. COMSOL Multiphysics offers a robust acoustic module compared to other available acoustic simulation programs. In this thesis, an Acoustic finite element model was built representing an atmospheric combustion rig (ACR), used to test the burners performance and NOx emissions. Complementary computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed for 100 % hydrogen as fuel by using the Reynolds average Navier-Stokes (RANS) lag EB k - epsilon turbulence model. Necessary data was successfully imported to the Acoustic finite element model. Different techniques of building the mesh were used in COMSOL Multiphysics and NX. Similar results were obtained, proving that both mesh tools work well in acoustic simulations. Two different ways of solving the eigenvalue problem in acoustics were implemented, the classic Helmholtz equation and Linearized Navier-Stokes equations, both in the frequency domain. The Helmholtz equation proved to be efficient and detected multiple modes in the frequency range of interest. Critical modes which lived in the burner and the combustion chamber were identified. Defining a hard and soft wall boundary condition at the inlets and outlet of the atmospheric combustion rig gave similar eigenfrequencies when comparing the two boundary conditions. The soft wall boundary condition was defined with a characteristic impedance, giving a high uncertainty whether the results were trustworthy or not. A boundary condition study revealed that the boundary condition at the outlet was valid for modes living in the burner and combustion chamber. Solving the eigenvalue problem with the Linearized Navier-Stokes equations proved to be computationally demanding compared to the Helmholtz equation. Similar modes shapes were found at higher frequencies, but pressure perturbations were observed in the region where the turbulence was dominant. A prestudy for a stability analysis was established, where the ACR and the flame was represented as a generic model. Implementing a Flame Transfer Function (FTF), more specifically a linear n - tau model, showed that the time delay tau is most sensible for a parametric change and hence needs to be chosen cautiously