An analytical study of the flame dynamics of a transversely forced asymmetric two-dimensional Bunsen flame

Combustion instabilities in annular combustors are of great interest because of their industrial relevance. Azimuthal acoustic modes, which involve transverse acoustic forcing to flames, have become a key process related to annular combustor instabilities. Transverse mean flow may be a factor that affects azimuthal oscillations. This paper provides an analytical model for a transversely forced two-dimensional Bunsen flame under transverse mean flow. The model is established using a low-amplitude perturbation assumption applied to a G-equation formulation. Forced flame displacement and flame transfer functions (FTFs) are calculated. The results are verified based on numerical solutions of the G-equation. Effects of frequency, transverse mean flow velocity and vertical mean flow velocity on the FTFs are discussed. The symmetric flame without transverse mean flow has a vanishing response to transverse acoustic forcing, while asymmetric flames, which are formed with transverse mean flow, have a bandpass response to transverse forcing. The response at very low and high forcing frequencies is small, with higher transfer function gains only in a certain frequency range. This bandpass response, which is inherently linked to the asymmetry of the flame, is an important factor to account for when considering the flame dynamics related to transverse acoustic effects.     

Autoignition delay modulation by high-frequency thermoacoustic oscillations in reheat flames

This paper investigates the sensitivity of the autoignition delay in reheat flames to acoustic pulsations associated with high-frequency transverse thermoacoustic oscillations. A reduced order model for the response of purely autoignition-stabilised flames to acoustic disturbances is compared with experimental observations. The experiments identified periodic flame motion associated with high-amplitude transverse limit-cycle oscillations in an atmospheric pressure reheat combustor. This flame motion was assumed to be the result of a superposition of two flame-acoustic coupling mechanisms: autoignition delay modulation by the oscillating acoustic field and displacement and deformation of the flame by the acoustic velocity. The reduced order model coupled to reaction kinetics calculations reveals that a significant portion of the observed flame motion can be attributed to autoignition delay modulation. The ignition position responds instantaneously to the acoustic pressure at the time of ignition, as observed experimentally. The model also provides insight into the importance of the history of acoustic disturbances experienced by the fuel-air mixture prior to ignition. Due to the high-frequency nature of the instability, a fluid particle can experience multiple oscillation cycles before ignition. The ignition delay responds in-phase with the net-acoustic perturbation experienced by a fluid particle between injection and ignition. These findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms of the flame motion observed in experiments and provide useful insight into the importance of autoignition delay modulation as a driving mechanism of high-frequency thermoacoustic instabilities in reheat flames.     

Acoustic near-field characteristics of a conical,premixed flame

The occurrence of self-excited pressure oscillations routinely plagues the development of combustion systems. These oscillations are often driven by interactions between the flame and acoustic perturbations. This study was performed to characterize the structure of the acoustic field in the near field of the flame and the manner in which it is influenced by oscillation frequency, combustor geometry, flame length and temperature ratio. The results of these calculations indicate that the acoustic velocity has primarily one- and two-dimensional features near the flame tip and base, respectively. The magnitude of the radial velocity components increases with temperature ratio across the flame, while their axial extent increases with frequency. However, the acoustic pressure has primarily one-dimensional characteristics. They also show that the acoustic field structure exhibits only moderate dependencies upon area expansion and flame temperature ratio for values typical of practical systems. Finally, they show that the local characteristics of the acoustic field, as well as the overall plane-wave reflection coefficient, exhibit a decreasing dependence upon the flame length as the area expansion ratio increases.     

Combustion dynamics of inverted conical flames

An inverted conical flame anchored on a central bluff-body in an unconfined burner configuration features a distinctive acoustic response. This configuration typifies more complex situations in which the thermo-acoustic instability is driven by the interaction of a flame with a convective vorticity mode. The axisymmetric geometry investigated in this article features a shear region between the reactive jet and the surrounding atmosphere. It exhibits self-sustained oscillations for certain operating conditions involving a powerful flame collapse phenomenon with sudden annihilation of flame surface area. This is caused by a strong interaction between the flame and vortices created in the outer jet shear layer, a process which determines the amplitude of heat release fluctuation and its time delay with respect to incident velocity perturbations. This process also generates an acoustic field that excites the burner and synchronizes the vortex shedding mechanism. The transfer functions between the velocity signal at the burner outlet and heat release are obtained experimentally for a set of flow velocities fluctuations levels. It is found that heat release fluctuations are a strong function of the incoming velocity perturbation amplitude and that the time delay between these two quantities is mainly determined by the convection of the large scale vortices formed in the jet shear layer. A model is formulated, which suitably describes the observed instabilities.     

Calculation of turbulence effects on acoustic remote-sensing system

Summary A mathematical tool for the calculation of the effects of turbulence on acoustic remote-sensing systems is described. The systems taken into account are sodar, which operates in air, and underwater acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP). Included in the modelling are echo spectrum broadening and the contribution of turbulence to the scattering cross-section. A method for the measurement of the transverse velocity with a single beam is also suggested.     

Flame-acoustic response measurements in a high-pressure, 42-injector,cryogenic rocket thrust chamber

This work presents measurements of acoustically driven flame dynamics in a 42-element, cryogenic oxygen-hydrogen rocket thrust chamber under supercritical injection conditions. The experiment shows self-excited combustion instabilities for certain operating conditions, and this work describes the nature of the flame dynamics driving the acoustic field, as far as it can be ascertained from state-of-the-art optical measurements. Optical access has been realized in the combustion chamber with both fibre-optical probes and a viewing window. The probes collect point-like measurements of filtered OH* radiation. Their signals were used to calculate the gain and phase of intensity oscillations with respect to acoustic pressure for both stable and unstable operating conditions. Through the window, synchronized high-speed imaging of the flame in filtered OH* and blue radiation wavelengths was collected. The 2D flame response was related to the local acoustic pressure to investigate the distributed intensity and phase relationships. The flame response from OH* measurements is in agreement with the theory of Rayleigh. For stable conditions the oscillations of combustion and pressure were out of phase, whereas for an excited chamber 1T mode the oscillations were closely in phase. The integrated Rayleigh index from blue imaging was not consistent with the OH* results. The reason lies in the depth of field captured by this type of imaging, and must be used in a complementary fashion together with OH* imaging. The flame response values and 2D visualization presented in this work are expected to be of value for the validation of numerical modelling of combustion instabilities.     

The use of ultrasonic standing waves to enhance optical particle sizing equipment

Fluid dynamics modelling augmented with routines to simulate acoustic forces on aerosol particles has been used to investigate the potential of combining ultrasonic standing wave fields with optical particle analysis equipment. Simulations of particle dynamics in airstreams incorporating acoustic forces predict that particles in the 1-10 microns diameter range may be effectively focused to the velocity nodes of the standing wave field. Particles move to the velocity nodes within tens of milliseconds for acoustic frequencies of 10-100 kHz and at an acoustic energy density of 100 Jm-3. Larger particles are predicted to move to the velocity antinodes within similar times; however, there is a crossover region at approximately 15-20 microns particle diameter where longer times are predicted due to the competing forces driving particles to the vibration node and antinode. With sufficient transverse flow velocities the models predict that disturbances due to acoustic streaming can be overcome and a useful degree of focusing achieved for the aerosol particles. Results from a model demonstrating sampling and acoustic focusing of 3-9 microns aerosol particles to a 200 microns wide analysis area are presented.     

Mechanism of combustion dynamics in a backward-facing step stabilized premixed flame

Combustion dynamics leading to thermoacoustic instability in a rearward-facing step stabilized premixed flame is experimentally examined with the objective of investigating the fluid dynamic mechanism that drives heat release rate fluctuations, and how it couples with the acoustic field. The field is probed visually, using linear photodiode arrays that capture the spatiotemporal distribution of CH* and OH*; an equivalence ratio monitor; and a number of pressure sensors. Results show resonance between the acoustic quarter wave mode of the combustion tunnel and a fluid dynamic mode of the wake. Under unstable conditions, the flame is convoluted around a large vortex that extends several step heights downstream. During a typical cycle, while the velocity is decreasing, the vortex grows, and the flame extends downstream around its outer edge. As the velocity reaches its minimum, becoming mostly negative, the vortex reaches its maximum size, and the flame collides with the upper wall; its leading edge folds, trapping reactants pockets, and its trailing edge propagates far upstream of the step. In the next phase, while the velocity is increasing, the heat release grows rapidly as trapped reactant’ pockets are consumed by flames converging towards their centers, and the upstream flame is dislodged back downstream. The heat release rate reaches its maximum halfway into the velocity rise period, leading the maximum velocity by about 90°. In this quarter-wave mode, the pressure leads the velocity by 90° as well, that is, it is in phase with the heat release rate. Numerical modeling results support this mechanism. Equivalence ratio contribution to the instability mechanism is shown to be minor, i.e., heat release dynamics are governed by the cyclical formation of the wake vortex and its interaction with the flame.     

The response of turbulent premixed flames to normal acoustic excitation

To model the thermo-acoustic excitation of flames in practical combustion systems, it is necessary to know how a turbulent flame front responds to an incident acoustic wave. This will depend partly on the way in which the burning velocity responds to the wave. In this investigation, the response of CH₄/air and CH₄/H₂/air mixtures has been observed in a novel flame stabilisation configuration, in which the premixture of fuel and air is made to decelerate under controlled conditions in a wide-angle diffuser. Control is provided by an annular wall-jet of air and by turbulence generators at the inlet. Ignition from the outlet of the diffuser allows an approximately flat flame to propagate downwards and stabilise at a height that depends on the turbulent burning velocity. When the flow is excited acoustically, the ensemble-averaged height oscillates. The fluctuations in flow velocity and flame height are monitored by phase-locked particle image velocimetry and OH-planar laser induced fluorescence, respectively. The flame stabilised against a lower incident velocity as the acoustic amplitude increased. In addition, at the lowest frequency of 52 Hz, the fluctuations in turbulent burning velocity (as represented by the displacement speed) were out-of-phase with the acoustic velocity. Thus, the rate of displacement of the flame front relative to the flow slowed as the flow accelerated, and so the flame movement was bigger than it would have been if the burning velocity had not responded to the acoustic fluctuation. With an increase in frequency to 119 Hz, the relative flame movement became even larger, although the phase-difference was reduced, so the effect on burning velocity was less dramatic. The addition of hydrogen to the methane, so as to maintain the laminar burning velocity at a lower equivalence ratio, suppressed the response at low amplitude, but at a higher amplitude, the effect was reversed.     

A method for the transverse modulation of reactive flows with application to combustion instability

A method allowing the transverse excitation of non-reactive or reactive flows is described. The method relies on a characteristic wave modulation applied on the lateral sides of the computational domain. It is shown that this procedure can be used to induce a transverse sloshing motion in the region of interest. Two two-dimensional geometries are studied: in the first, the flow features one or two wakes embedded in a high-speed stream; the second configuration involves a premixed reactive jet flame. The excited flow structure calculated in this last case is found to be similar to that observed in an experiment carried out previously. As the simulations are performed in two dimensions, they cannot describe many of the processes taking place in a turbulent flow. They are, however, valuable when the flow is dominated by a large-scale organized motion induced by a transverse acoustic modulation. The present calculations indicate that the method in combination with a large eddy simulation flow solver could be used to study combustion response to transverse acoustic perturbations. With additional developments this might be used to study liquid propellant rocket motor instabilities coupled by transverse acoustic modes in the high-frequency range.     

Enhanced thermal conductance at a copper-liquid helium interface in the presence of acoustic streaming

In a conventional Kapitza resistance experiment involving heat transfer across a copper surface into liquid helium, an acoustic streaming velocity field (at 10 MHz) was directed transverse to the surface normal. Ultrasound had no observable effect on the heat transfer to the superfluid phase (He-II), but in the normal fluid phase (He-I) the thermal conductance increased linearly with acoustic velocity amplitude, reaching a value 2.5 times the zero sound conductance for a sound velocity amplitude of 0.8 cm s^?1.     

Ethanol turbulent spray flame response to gas velocity modulation

A numerical investigation of the interaction between a spray flame and an acoustic forcing of the velocity field is presented in this paper. In combustion systems, a thermoacoustic instability is the result of a process of coupling between oscillations in heat released and acoustic waves. When liquid fuels are used, the atomisation and the evaporation process also undergo the effects of such instabilities, and the computational fluid dynamics of these complex phenomena becomes a challenging task. In this paper, an acoustic perturbation is applied to the mass flow of the gas phase at the inlet and its effect on the evaporating fuel spray and on the flame front is investigated with unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes numerical simulations. Two flames are simulated: a partially premixed ethanol/air spray flame and a premixed pre-vaporised ethanol/air flame, with and without acoustic forcing. The frequencies used to perturb the flames are 200 and 2500 Hz, which are representative for two different regimes. Those regimes are classified based on the Strouhal number St = (D/U)f_f: at 200 Hz, St = 0.07, and at 2500 Hz, St = 0.8. The exposure of the flame to a 200 Hz signal results in a stretching of the flame which causes gas field fluctuations, a delay of the evaporation and an increase of the reaction rate. The coupling between the flame and the flow excitation is such that the flame breaks up periodically. At 2500 Hz, the evaporation rate increases but the response of the gas field is weak and the flame is more stable. The presence of droplets does not play a crucial role at 2500 Hz, as shown by a comparison of the discrete flame function in the case of spray and pre-vaporised flame. At low Strouhal number, the forced response of the pre-vaporised flame is much higher compared to that of the spray flame.     

Triple flame: Inherent asymmetries and pentasectional character

A two-dimensional triple-flame numerical model of a laminar combustion process reflects flame asymmetric structural features that other analytical models do not generate. It reveals the pentasectional character of the triple flame, composed of the central pure diffusion-flame branch and the fuel-rich and fuel-lean branches, each of which is divided into two sections: a near-stoichiometric section and a previously unreported near-flammability-limits section with combined diffusion and premixed character. Results include propagation velocity, fuel and oxidiser mass fractions, temperature and reaction rates. Realistic stoichiometric ratios and reaction orders match experimental planar flame characteristics. Constant density, a one-step reaction, and a mixture fraction gradient at the inlet as the simulation parameter are imposed. The upstream equivalence ratio or the upstream reactant mass fractions are linear or hyperbolic functions of the transverse coordinate. The use here of experimental kinetics data differs from previous analytical works and results in flame asymmetry and different flammability limits. Upstream mixture composition gradient affects propagation velocity, flame curvature, diffusion flame reaction rate, and flammability limits. Flammability limits extend beyond those of a planar flame due to transverse heat and mass diffusion causing the pentasectional character.     

Dynamic behavior of a freely-propagating turbulent premixed flame under global stretch-rate oscillations

Dynamic features of a freely propagating turbulent premixed flame under global stretch rate oscillations were investigated by utilizing a jet-type low-swirl burner equipped with a high-speed valve on the swirl jet line. The bulk flow velocity, equivalence ratio and the nominal mean swirl number were 5 m/s, 0.80 and 1.23, respectively. Seven velocity forcing amplitudes, from 0.09 to 0.55, were examined with a single forcing frequency of 50 Hz. Three kinds of optical measurements, OH-PLIF, OH^* chemiluminescence and PIV, were conducted. All the data were measured or post-processed in a phase-locked manner to obtain phase-resolved information. The global transverse stretch rate showed in-phase oscillations centering around 60 (1/s). The oscillation amplitude of the stretch rate grew with the increment of the forcing amplitude. The turbulent flame structure in the core flow region varied largely in axial direction in response to the flowfield oscillations. The flame brush thickness and the flame surface area oscillated with a phase shift to the stretch rate oscillations. These two properties showed a maximum and minimum values in the increasing and decreasing stretch periods, respectively, for all the forcing amplitudes. Despite large variations in flame brush thickness at different phase angles, the normalized profiles collapse onto a consistent curve. This suggests that the self-similarity sustains in this dynamic flame. The global OH^* fluctuation response (i.e. response of global heat-release rate fluctuation) showed a linear dependency to the forcing velocity oscillation amplitudes. The flame surface area fluctuation response showed a linear tendency as well with a slope similar to that of the global OH^* fluctuation. This indicated that the flame surface area variations play a critical role in the global flame response.     

Experimental evaluation of DC electric field effect on the thermoacoustic behaviour of flat premixed flames

One promising approach to eliminate thermoacoustic instabilities in combustion appliances is the use of adaptive control of the flame/burner acoustic transfer function (TF). Application of a DC electric field (EF) as a spatially distributed, easily and quickly adjustable and low-energy method to affect the flame behaviour may be considered as a possible actuation method to control the flame TF. Experimental evaluation of such a possibility is the main goal of the present study. The effect of a DC EF on the acoustic TF of premixed flat burner-surface stabilized flames is studied systematically as a function of the following parameters: flow velocity, equivalence ratio, applied voltage and burner geometry. It is established that the response of the flame TF on the DC EF can be characterized as a TF shift towards higher frequencies. The mechanism of TF alteration is related to the decrease of the flame stand-off distance and the related increase of the burner deck surface temperature. From a practical point of view, the efficiency of the EF control of the flat flame TF is restricted to a relatively narrow frequency range around the position of the TF resonance peak. To get insight into the physics of the EF–flame interaction, the method of [1] to measure the EF effect on the adiabatic flame speed is improved and the measurement range is extended. The new measurements allow a revision of previous results and allow an explanation for the ambiguity in the old measurements.     

Fluid dynamics phenomena induced by power ultrasounds

Propagation of power ultrasound (from 20 to 800 kHz) through a liquid inside a cylindrical reactor initiates acoustic cavitation and also fluid dynamics phenomena such as free surface deformation, convection, acoustic streaming, etc. Mathematical modelling is performed as a new approach to predict where active bubbles are and how intense cavitation is. A calculation based on fluid dynamics equations is undertaken using computational fluid dynamics code; this is of great interest because such code provides not only the pressure field but also velocity and temperature fields. The link between the acoustic pressure and the cavitation field is clearly established. Moreover, the pressure profile near a free surface allows one to predict the shape of the acoustic fountain. The influence of the acoustic fountain on the wave propagation is shown to be important. The convective flow inside a reactor is numerically obtained and agrees well with particle image velocity measurements. Non-linearities arising from the dissipation of the acoustic wave are computed and lead to the calculation of the acoustic streaming. The superimposed velocity field (convective flow and acoustic streaming) succeeds in simulating the bubble behaviour at 500 kHz, for instance.     

Soliton generation via continuous stokes acoustic self-scattering of hypersonic waves in a paramagnetic crystal

A new mechanism is proposed for continuous frequency down-conversion of acoustic waves propagating in a paramagnetic crystal at a low temperature in an applied magnetic field. A transverse hypersonic pulse generating a carrier-free longitudinal strain pulse via nonlinear effects is scattered by the generated pulse. This leads to a Stokes shift in the transverse hypersonic wave proportional to its intensity, and both pulses continue to propagate in the form of a mode-locked soliton. As the transverse-pulse frequency is Stokes shifted, its spectrum becomes narrower. This process can be effectively implemented only if the linear group velocity of the transverse hypersonic pulse equals the phase velocity of the longitudinal strain wave. These velocities are renormalized by spin-phonon coupling and can be made equal by adjusting the magnitude of the applied magnetic field. The transverse structure of the soliton depends on the sign of the group velocity dispersion of the transverse component. When the dispersion is positive, planar solitons can develop whose transverse component has a topological defect of dark vortex type and longitudinal component has a hole. In the opposite case, the formation of two-component acoustic “bullets” or vortices localized in all directions is possible.     

高焓横向射流尾迹区掺混燃烧的数值特性

尾迹区作为横向射流流场的重要结构受到广泛关注,其掺混和燃烧特性对近壁面区域的流场特性有重要影响.文章在对仿真充分验证的基础上,采用Reynolds平均模拟方法对Ma=8飞行条件下高焓横向射流尾迹区中的掺混和燃烧特性进行了数值研究.探究了冷热流场尾迹区中的氢气掺混特性,冷态流场尾迹区中的激波结构对氢气分布产生一定影响,热态流场尾迹区中存在多种氢气掺混路径.V形回流区中的高浓度氢气对燃烧产生了一定的阻碍作用.定量测量了尾迹区中的火焰结构,尾迹区火焰的顶点位置随高度增加向下游线性移动,受射流主流影响,尾迹区火焰的展向宽度在距离壁面一定高度后开始增大.对冷热流场中的主要参数进行了对比,燃烧消耗了氢气使温度升高,但是尾迹区中的流动速度没有明显增加,燃烧放出的热量没有完全转化为流体的动能.      

PDF mixing time scales for premixed combustion in the laminar flame limit

A new mixing time scale for PDF calculations of premixed combustion in the laminar flame limit is introduced. It is based on the characteristics of the “random walk” diffusion process and accurately captures scalar micro-mixing such that physical features of the premixed flames are preserved. The speed of a freely-propagating laminar flame can be captured accurately. Extreme stochastic events may, however, lead to flame acceleration, but flame stability can be recovered with the introduction of a conditioning variable that relaxes towards an Eulerian reference field. With conditioning the predicted flame speed is quite insensitive towards the exact value of the only modelling parameter. This modelling parameter then allows to control the minor scalar fluctuations and deviations from a flamelet structure which is thought to be one of the key features of conditioning methods.     

Impact of turbulence on flame brush development of acoustically excited rod-stabilized flames

Coherent structures, such as those arising from hydrodynamic instabilities or excited by thermoacoustic oscillations, can significantly impact flame structure and, consequently, the nature of heat release. The focus of this work is to study how coherent oscillations of varying amplitudes can impact the growth of the flame brush in a bluff-body stabilized flame and how this impact is influenced by the free stream turbulence intensity of the flow approaching the bluff body. We do this by providing external acoustic excitation at the natural frequency of vortex shedding to simulate a highly-coupled thermoacoustic instability, and we vary the in-flow turbulence intensity using perforated plates upstream of the flame. We use high-speed stereoscopic particle image velocimetry to obtain the three-component velocity field and we use the Mie-scattering images to quantify the behavior of the flame edge. Our results show that in the low-turbulence conditions, presence of high-amplitude acoustic excitation can cause the flame brush to exhibit a step-function growth, indicating that the presence of strong vortical structures close to the flame can suppress flame brush growth. This impact is strongly dependent on the in-flow turbulence intensity and the flame brush development in conditions with higher levels of in-flow turbulence are minimally impacted by increasing amplitudes of acoustic excitation. These findings suggest that the sensitivity of the flow and flame to high-amplitude coherent oscillations is a strong function of the in-flow turbulence intensity.