混合工质热声发动机热力特性的试验研究

在自行研制的"驻波型热声发动机试验平台"上,对采用He/Ar混合工质的驻波热声发动机系统的热力特性进行了详细的试验研究.试验结果表明:采用混合工质可以有效地提高热声发动机的热力性能,当氦氩配比为4:1时,系统压比较纯质提高50%以上;另外,采用混合工质可以明显地降低系统的起振温度与消振温度,当氦氩配比在30%～50%之间时,起振温度和消振温度平均较纯质降低50℃和40℃左右,尤其是较低的起振温度意味着可直接利用低品位热量作为驱动热源,从而扩宽了热声发动机的适用范围.     

热声发动机起振过程系统温度时序特性

针对热声发动机起振过程中复杂的温度变化,在自行研制的"驻波型热声发动机试验平台"上,开展了在不同的工质类型、充气压力等试验工况下,热声发动机起振过程的轴向温度分布规律和变化特征的试验研究,试验结果表明:对于氮气、氩气而言,其系统温度动态特性规律基本一致,且热声核温度梯度和热声板叠温度梯度存在较明显的差别;而对于氦气,其系统温度动态特性不同于前两类气体,且热声核的温度梯度和热声板叠温度梯度的差别十分微弱,可见,不同的工质类型将直接影响到发动机起振过程系统温度的动态变化特性.     

热声发动机起振、消振过程的动态行为

针对热声发动机中复杂的起振、消振行为,在自行研制的"驻波型热声发动机试验平台"上,开展了工质类型、加热功率、充气压力等参数对热声发动机起振、消振行为的影响规律研究.试验结果表明:当采用纯氦气和90%氦气+10%氩气的混合气体时,系统存在一最佳的充气压力值,使起振温度和消振温度达到最低;而其余工质,其起振温度与消振温度均随着充气压力增加而逐渐提高;与此同时,由于加热功率对板叠热端温度影响较小,故采用板叠热端温度作为行为特性参数更为合理.     

热声发动机系统稳定性分析

热声发动机系统的自激振荡起振过程是在远离平衡态条件下发生的自组织过程,是决定热声发动机能够正常运行的关键过程。本文根据非平衡态热力学,针对起振过程开展热声系统热力学稳定性研究。将Glansdorff-Prigogine稳定性判据引入到热声系统稳定性分析中,借助CFD软件,分析了两种定态的稳定性,两种定态分别对应了温度梯度小于和大于临界温度梯度的情况。验证了非平衡态热力学稳定性分析在热声发动机自激振荡起振现象研究中的可行性。     

驻波热声系统的自激振荡机理

热声发动机的起振过程是一个产生并维持自激振荡的过程, 研究热声自激振荡机理有助于进一步了解热声效应的实质. 根据热声网络理论, 建立了驻波热声发动机的整机网络. 将热声网络比拟成电网络, 利用厄米特式计算了输入热声网络的视在功流, 功流平衡对应自激, 在角频率虚部为零的情况下计算了热声发动机的阈值温度和运行频率. 结果表明, 计算值与实验值符合得较好, 充气压力与阈值温度和运行频率的耦合关系大致相同. 所得结论有助于进一步探究热声效应机理以及热声发动机系统的优化设计.     

太阳能热声发动机热力性能的实验研究

设计搭建了太阳能热声发动机实验系统,它由双轴全自动跟踪菲涅尔透镜聚焦型集热器和小型化驻波热声发动机两大组件构成。分别对充注不同压力N_2、He、Ar三种工质的太阳能热声发动机的起振温度、起振时热声核温度分布、压力振幅进行了实验研究。结果表明,氮气、氦气和氩气在相同充气压力下,He起振温度最高,N_2起振温度最低;N_2在充气压力1.0 MPa时达到最低起振温度394.8℃,且其压力振幅对充气压力变化不敏感;Ar在充气压力1.0 MPa时达到最低起振温度418.2℃,且其压力振幅随着充气压力的升高而逐渐增加。实验结果为优化太阳能热声发动机系统的热力性能提供了实验依据。     

热声发动机的CFD数值模拟

采用计算流体动力学(CFD)方法,对高频驻波热声发动机和热声斯特林发动机实验系统分别进行了二维和三维数值模拟。计算模型具有与实验系统相同的几何结构、尺寸和运行工况。对计算模型的有效性进行了研究,表明实现有限换热条件的板叠实物模型适合驻波热声发动机的模拟,而实现局域热平衡的多孔介质模型适合热声斯特林发动机的模拟。计算结果成功观测到了非线性的自激振荡演化过程,捕捉到了两种发动机的不同非线性现象。计算结果分别给出了两种热声发动机内部的声场分布特性和复杂流场。计算结果与实验结果的对比验证了CFD方法对高频驻波热声发动机和热声斯特林发动机模拟的有效性。     

氦-氩混合工质热声发动机的频率特性

为提高热声发动机的热力性能,采用氦-氩混合工质对一台驻波型热声发动机进行了无负荷工况的试验研究.氦氩配比为0:1,0.2:0.8,0.4:0.6,0.6:0.4,0.8:0.2和1:0 6种情况,充填压力为0.7,0.9,1.1,1.3 MPa和1.5 MPa 5种情况.试验结果表明,随着混合工质中Ar含量的增加,系统谐振频率会从140 Hz降低到44 Hz.同时,加热端温度对谐振频率的影响减小,而大振幅下的二次频成分出现的规律及强度与工质配比关系不大.在氦气中加入20%的氩能够得到最好的系统性能,系统的振幅和压比较纯氦分别能够提升19%和15%.     

带阻性管的环路行波热声发动机性能研究

高效的行波热声发动机要求回热器处在接近行波和高声阻抗的声场。为此,本文拟采用阻性管进行调相,设计了一台单级环路行波热声发动机,分别以He,N2和CO2为工质,对该热声发动机的起振特性和稳态运行工况进行了系统的实验研究。结果表明,安装阻性管后,单级环路行波热声发动机的起振温度可以被降低300℃以上,最低起振温度仅为55C(工质为CO2,平均压力为2.35 MPa)。此外,系统可以在200℃以下的加热温度达到比较可观的压比。可见,阻性管可以作为环路行波热声发动机的一种有效调相方式,本文所提出的热声发动机系统具有利用低品位热源驱动的潜力。     

燃气和电驱动热声发动机的对比研究

热声发动机利用热声效应把热能高效转化为声功,系统中不存在任何机械运动部件,应用前景光明.热声发动机的一个突出优点是直接采用热能驱动,可以提高低温位热能的品位.在原有电驱动热声发动机的基础上,制作了一台燃气驱动行波热声发动机,以氮气为工质,充气压力为1.2 MPa时,获得了1.34的最大压比.对电驱动和燃气驱动两种加热方式作了对比研究,得到了燃气驱动条件下热声发动机的起振状态、加热功率和直流抑制的规律.     

Computational investigations of the coupling between transient flame dynamics and thermo-acoustic instability in a self-excited resonance combustor

Combustion instability due to thermo-acoustic interactions is a critical combustion problem that requires a thorough understanding because of its adverse impact on stable and reliable operation of combustors in high-speed propulsion devices like gas turbines and rockets. This work conducts computational investigations of the coupling between the transient flame dynamics such as the ignition delay and local extinction and the thermo-acoustic instability developed in a self-excited resonance combustor to gain deep insights into the mechanisms of thermo-acoustic instability. A 2D modelling framework that employs different flamelet models (the steady flamelet model and the flamelet/progress variable approach) is developed to enable the examination of the effect of the transient flame dynamics caused by the strong coupling of the turbulent mixing and finite-rate chemical kinetics on the occurrence of thermo-acoustic instability. The models are validated by using the available experimental data for the pressure signal. Parametric studies are performed to examine the effect of the occurrence of the transient flame dynamics, the effect of artificial amplification of the Damköhler number, and the effect of neglecting mixture fraction fluctuations on the predictions of the thermo-acoustic instability. The parametric studies reveal that the occurrence of transient flame dynamics has a strong influence on the onset of the thermo-acoustic instability. Further analysis is then conducted to localise the effect of a particular flame dynamic event, the ignition delay, on the thermo-acoustic instability. The reverse effect of the occurrence of the thermo-acoustic instability on the transient flame dynamics in the combustor is also investigated by examining the temporal evolution of the local flame events in conjunction with the pressure wave propagation. The above observed two-way coupling between the transient flame dynamics (the ignition delay) and the thermo-acoustic instability provides a plausible mechanism of the self-excited and sustained thermo-acoustic instability observed in the combustor despite the fact that the results are obtained from 2D simulations. The same analysis is expected to be extensible to fully 3D simulations.     

On the thermo-acoustic Fant equation

A ‘reduced complexity’ equation is derived to investigate combustion instabilities of a Rijke burner. The equation is nonlinear and furnishes limit cycle solutions for finite amplitude burner modes. It is a generalisation to combustion flows of the Fant equation used to investigate the production of voiced speech by unsteady throttling of flow by the vocal folds [G. Fant, Acoustic Theory of Speech Production. Mouton, The Hague, 1960]. In the thermo-acoustic problem the throttling occurs at the flame holder. The Fant equation governs the unsteady volume flow past the flame holder which, in turn, determines the acoustics of the entire system. The equation includes a fully determinate part that depends on the geometry of the flame holder and the thermo-acoustic system, and terms defined by integrals involving thermo-aerodynamic sources, such as a flame and vortex sound sources. These integrals provide a clear indication of what must be known about the flow to obtain a proper understanding of the dynamics of the thermo-acoustic system. Illustrative numerical results are presented for the linearised equation. This governs the growth rates of the natural acoustic modes, determined by system geometry, boundary conditions and mean temperature distribution, which are excited into instability by unsteady heat release from the flame and damped by large scale vorticity production and radiation losses into the environment. In addition, the equation supplies information about the ‘combustion modes’ excited by the local time-delay feedback dynamics of the flame.     

Oscillating dependence of the etched steel mass on the external magnetic field

The self-oscillating process of steel etching in a weak electrolyte solution (nitric acid) was studied as a function of the external magnetic field. The dominant feature of the process is its enhancement for most values of the external magnetic field from a chosen range. It was shown that the dependence of the etched steel mass on the magnetic field is oscillating and the corroded surface in the magnetic field is two-component.     

行波热声发动机容腔管和反馈管的调相作用研究

带环形圈的热声发动机是一种新型的行波型热声发动机,由于能够在环形圈内回热器附近调制出行波相位,因此具有比驻波发动机更高的效率。环形圈的反馈管和180度弯管分别在系统中起着感和容的作用,在相位的调制过程中它们起着至关重要的作用,尤其是对于感的作用比较强的小型系统,它们的作用更加突出。该文通过计算,分析了小型行波热声系统中感和容对于回热器入口处和回热器中心位置处的压力波动和体积流率相位的调制作用,以及这种调制作用对于效率,压力波动的幅值的影响。     

Exploring a critical diameter for thermo-acoustic instability of downward propagating flames in tubes

Thermo-acoustic oscillations are observed when a flame ignited at open end of a tube propagates towards the closed end due to interaction between unsteady heat release rate fluctuations from flame and acoustic fluctuations. In our past work, it was found that thermo-acoustic instability increases with decreasing diameter from 7.0 cm to 3.0 cm. A recent study in flame propagation in Hele–Shaw cells showed that thermo-acoustic instability is not observed for plate separation less than or equal to 0.4 cm. Thermoacoustic instabilities cannot be observed in very narrow tubes due to excessive damping from the wall. This opens up the possibility of a critical diameter where thermo-acoustic instability would be maximum. In this work we perform flame propagation experiments with diameter of combustion tube in the range 0.5 cm to 3 cm for a fixed length of 70.2 cm. It was found that thermo-acoustic parametric instability begins at lowest laminar burning velocity when the diameter is around 1.0 cm. This diameter is termed as critical diameter. Critical diameter is found to be independent of Lewis number of mixtures. Existence of a critical diameter is thus proved experimentally. Growth rates of primary instability increase with decreasing diameter and show a maximum around the critical diameter and decrease with further decrease in tube diameter. But, growth rates of secondary instability as well as maximum pressure fluctuation amplitude decreases continuously with decreasing diameter. Mechanisms responsible for these observations and existence of a critical diameter are clarified.     

Synchronization of coupled van der pole and Kislov-Dmitriev self-oscillators

The problem of interaction of self-oscillating elements of different origin is considered for a coupled van der Pole oscillator and Kislov-Dmitriev generator. Domains with different types of dynamics in the space of parameters are indicated taking into account the possibility of broadband synchronization of the systems. The case of essentially different control parameters is considered. Chaos stabilization effects and the opposite effect (initiated chaos) are detected in the system under investigation for various values of parameters.     

Investigation on Rijke pipe＇s acoustic characteristics by numerical simulation： modeling the pulsing flow field coupled the inner of pipe with its outer space

Based on the results of fluid dynamics, heat transfer and acoustics, a Computational Fluid Dynamics （CFD） method was utilized to study the acoustic characteristics and self-excited pulsation mechanism inside a Rijke pipe. To avoid settling the irrational boundary conditions of the finite-amplitude standing wave in the Rijke thermo-acoustic system, the simulation modeling in the flow field, which coupled the inner of pipe with its outer space, was carried out to replace the traditional way in form of internal flow field numerical investigations. A hypothesis for heat source in energy equation including the relationship on unsteady heat of air around heat source, oscillation pressure and oscillation velocity was presented. To reflect the essence of Rijke pipe, simulation on self-excited oscillation was conducted by means of its own pulsation of pressure, velocity and temperature. This method can make the convergence process steady and effectively avoid divergence. The physical phenomenon of the self-excited Rijke pipe was analyzed. Moreover, the mechanisms on the Rijke pipe＇s self-excited oscillation were explained. Based on this method, comparative researches on the acoustic characteristic of the Rijke pipe with different size and different shape of nozzle were performed. The simulation results agreed with the experimental data satisfactorily. The results show that this numerical simulation can be used to study the sound pressure of nozzle for the engineering application of Rijke pipes.     

Nonlinear/chaotic behaviour in thermo-acoustic instability

This paper is concerned with the dynamic system nonlinear behaviour encountered in classical thermo-acoustic instability. The Poincaré map is adopted to analyse the stability of a simple non-autonomous system considering a harmonic oscillation behaviour for the combustion environment. The bifurcation diagram of a one-mode model is obtained where the analysis reveals a variety of chaotic behaviours for some select ranges of the bifurcation parameter. The bifurcation parameter and the corresponding period of a two-mode dynamic model are calculated using both analytical and numerical methods. The results computed by different methods are in good agreement. In addition, the dependence of the bifurcation parameter and the period on all the relevant coefficients in the model is investigated in depth.     

Simulation of vocal fold impact pressures with a self-oscillating finite-element model

Vocal fold impact pressures were studied using a self-oscillating finite-element model capable of simulating vocal fold vibration and airflow. The calculated airflow pressure is applied on the vocal fold as the driving force. The airflow region is then adjusted according to the calculated vocal fold displacement. The interaction between airflow and the vocal folds produces a self-oscillating solution. Lung pressures between 0.2 and 2.5 kPa were used to drive this self-oscillating model. The spatial distribution of the impact pressure was studied. Studies revealed that the tissue collision during phonation produces a very large impact pressure which correlates with the lung pressure and glottal width. Larger lung pressure and a narrower glottal width increase the impact pressure. The impact pressure was found to be roughly the square root of lung pressure. In the inferior-superior direction, the maximum impact pressure is related to the narrowest glottis. In the anterior-posteriorfirection, the greatest impact pressure appears at the midpoint of the vocal fold. The match between our numerical simulations and clinical observations suggests that this self-oscillating finite-element model might be valuable for predicting mechanical trauma of the vocal folds.     

The mechanism of instabilities in an optical cavity

It is shown that instabilities in a ring optical cavity emerge from a non-linear wave mixing process. Several self-oscillating limits are analyzed, and a new type of oscillation having a period comparable to the medium lifetime is predicted. A mechanism for period doubling is also presented.