Direct comparison of self-excited instabilities in mesoscale multinozzle flames and conventional large-scale swirl-stabilized flames

The present experimental investigation demonstrates important trends and offers physical insights into self-excited combustion instabilities in mesoscale multinozzle flames composed of sixty small injectors. Here we focus on the response of a prototypical micromixer-type injector assembly, fabricated using an additive manufacturing technique, in comparison with the behavior of conventional large-scale swirl-stabilized flames. Our results highlight that the development of self-excited instabilities in unconventional mesoscale flames is fundamentally different from that in large-scale swirl flames, in terms of the onset of instabilities, nonlinear modal dynamics, and amplitude/frequency of limit cycle oscillations under the same operating conditions. These differences are attributable to the alteration in local flow/flame structures and the resulting flame-to-flame/flame-wall interaction mechanisms. An integrated analysis of large datasets reveals that the two interacting swirl-stabilized flames tend to couple strongly with a low-frequency L1 mode at about 220 Hz, whereas the sixty-injector small-scale flames are capable of triggering multiple higher-frequency instabilities at ～ 310, ～ 470, and ～ 600 Hz. That is, the use of the micromixer-type injector assembly in a lean-premixed system causes the occurrence of combustion instabilities to shift toward a higher equivalence ratio. However, due to the absence of a large recirculation zone near the primary reaction region, the combustion system equipped with the small-scale multinozzle injectors was found to suffer from lean blowoff phenomena at low equivalence ratio.     

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.     

Characteristics of self-excited spinning azimuthal modes in an annular combustor with turbulent premixed bluff-body flames

In this paper we investigate self-excited azimuthal modes in an annular combustor with turbulent premixed bluff-body stabilised flames. Previous studies have shown that both swirl and equivalence ratio influence modal dynamics, i.e. the time-varying nature of the modes. However, self-excited azimuthal modes have not yet been investigated in turbulent flames without bulk swirl, which do not generate any preferential flow in either azimuthal direction, and may therefore lead to different behaviour. Joint probability density functions of the instability amplitudes at various flowrates and equivalence ratios showed a strong bi-modal response favouring both ACW and CW spinning states not previously observed. Operating conditions leading to a bi-modal response provide a unique opportunity to investigate whether the structure of the global fluctuating heat release rate of self-excited spinning modes in both directions exhibit similar dynamics and structure. This was investigated using high-speed OH* chemiluminescence images of the annular combustor and a new rotational averaging method was applied which decomposes the spinning components of the global fluctuating heat release rate. The new rotational averaging, which differs from standard phase-averaging, produces spatial averages in a frame of reference moving with the spinning wave. The results show that the structure of the fluctuating heat release rate for spinning modes is highly asymmetric as characterised by large, crescent shaped regions of high OH* intensity, located on the far side of each flame, relative to the direction of the azimuthally propagating pressure wave. In comparison with interacting swirling flames, these results indicate that the previously observed radial asymmetry of OH* fluctuations may be introduced through advection by local swirl.     

An experimental study into the effect of injector pressure loss on self-sustained combustion instabilities in a swirled spray burner

Combustion instabilities depend on a variety of parameters and operating conditions. It is known, especially in the field of liquid rocket propulsion, that the pressure loss of an injector has an effect on its dynamics and on the coupling between the combustion chamber and the fuel manifold. However, its influence is not well documented in the technical literature dealing with gas turbine combustion dynamics. Effects of changes in this key design parameter are investigated in the present article by testing different swirlers at constant thermal power on a broad range of injection velocities in a well controlled laboratory scale single injector swirled combustor using liquid fuel. The objective is to study the impact of injection pressure losses on the occurrence and level of combustion instabilities by making use of a set of injectors having nearly the same outlet velocity profiles, the same swirl number and that establish flames that are essentially identical in shape. It is found that combustion oscillations appear on a wider range of operating conditions for injectors with the highest pressure loss, but that the pressure fluctuations caused by thermoacoustic oscillations are greatest when the injector head loss is low. Four types of instabilities coupled by two modes may be distinguished: the first group features a lower frequency, arises when the injector pressure loss is low and corresponds to a weakly coupled chamber-plenum mode. The second group appears in the form of a constant amplitude limit cycle, or as bursts at a slightly higher frequency and is coupled by a chamber mode. Spontaneous switching between these two types of instabilities is also observed in a narrow domain.     

Symmetry breaking modelling for azimuthal combustion dynamics

Annular combustors can exhibit azimuthal thermoacoustic instabilities, which can rotate as a spinning wave at the speed of sound in the azimuthal direction, oscillate as a standing wave with pressure nodes fixed in space, or be a linear combination of these. These oscillations happen if a positive feedback loop between acoustics and the response of the flames to the acoustics in the annulus occurs. This paper discusses how two different explicit symmetry breaking mechanisms affect the dynamics of these waves. We first show how small differences between the flame responses lead to one strong topological change in the dynamical system phase space, making the system prefer orientation angles at two azimuthal locations, one opposite of the other in the annulus, as found in the experiments. This symmetry breaking is modelled by directly perturbing the flame responses around the annulus with some scatter, to represent the effect of manufacturing tolerances of the burners. We then consider recent experimental evidence that the heat release rate of the flames depends on the spinning direction (clockwise or anticlockwise) when the system is spinning. In particular we model one experiment in which the flame response is found to be stronger when the wave rotates in the anticlockwise direction. We show that the statistics of the resulting model are qualitatively very similar to the experimental results showing a preference for spinning states in the anticlockwise direction.     

Experimental investigation of combustion instabilities of a mesoscale multinozzle array in a lean-premixed combustor

Self-excited combustion instabilities in a mesoscale multinozzle array, also referred to as a micromixer-type injector, have been experimentally investigated in a lean-premixed tunable combustor operating with preheated methane and air. The injector assembly consists of sixty identical swirl injectors of 6.5 mm inner diameter, which are evenly distributed across the combustor dump plane. Their flow paths are divided into two groups – inner and outer stages – to form radially stratified reactant stoichiometry for the control of self-excited instabilities. OH PLIF measurements of stable flames reveal that the presence of radial staging has a remarkable influence on stabilization mechanisms, reactant jet penetration/merging, and interactions between adjacent flame fronts. In an inner enrichment case, two outer (leaner) streams merge into a single jet structure, whereas the inner (richer) reactant jets penetrate far downstream without noticeable interactions between neighboring flames. The constructed stability map in the 〈?_i, ?_o〉 domain indicates that strong self-excited instabilities occur under even split and outer enrichment conditions at relatively high global equivalence ratios. This is attributed to large-scale flame surface deformation in the streamwise direction, as manifested by vigorous detachment/attachment movements. The use of the inner fuel staging method was found, however, to limit the growth of large-amplitude heat release rate fluctuations, because the center flames are securely anchored during the whole period of oscillation, giving rise to a moderate lateral motion. We demonstrate that the collective motion of sixty flames – rather than the individual local flame dynamics – play a central role in the development of limit cycle oscillations. This suggests that the distribution pattern of the injector array, in combination with the radial fuel staging scheme, is the key to the control of the instabilities.     

Numerical visualization of vortical structures in a lean premixed swirl combustor using LES

Abstract  

Large eddy simulation was performed to visualize the three-dimensional vortical structures interacting with a turbulent premixed in a lean premixed swirl combustor with varied equivalence ratio. It was found that the fluctuation of unsteady heat release due to the deformation of flame surface was significantly decreased as the equivalence ratio increased because of the change in interaction between inner vortical structures and flames. This phenomenon was another evidence of the amplification mechanism in the combustion instabilities due to the strong flame–vortex interactions under lean premixed conditions.     

Three-dimensional numerical simulations of cellular jet diffusion flames

Recent experimental investigations have demonstrated that the appearance of particular cellular states in circular non-premixed jet flames significantly depends on a number of parameters, including the initial mixture strength, reactant Lewis numbers, and proximity to the extinction limit (Damköhler number). For CO₂-diluted H₂/O₂ jet diffusion flames, these studies have shown that a variety of different cellular patterns or states can form. For given fuel and oxidizer compositions, several preferred states were found to co-exist, and the particular state realized was determined by the initial conditions. To elucidate the dynamics of cellular instabilities, circular non-premixed jet flames are modeled with a combination of three-dimensional numerical simulation and linear stability analysis (LSA). In both formulations, chemistry is described by a single-step, finite-rate reaction, and different reactant Lewis numbers and molecular weights are specified. The three-dimensional numerical simulations show that different cellular flames can be obtained close to extinction and that different states co-exist for the same parameter values. Similar to the experiments, the behavior of the cell structures is sensitive to (numerical) noise. During the transient blow-off process, the flame undergoes transitions to structures with different number of cells, while the flame edge close to the nozzle oscillates in the streamwise direction. For conditions similar to the experiments discussed, the LSA results reveal various cellular instabilities, typically with azimuthal wavenumber m = 1–6. Consistent with previous theoretical work, the propensity for the cellular instabilities is shown to increase with decreasing reactant Lewis number and Damköhler number.     

Impact of co- and counter-swirl on flow recirculation and liftoff of non-premixed oxy-flames above coaxial injectors

Controlling the flame shape and its liftoff height is one of the main issues for oxy-flames to limit heat transfer to the solid components of the injector. An extensive experimental study is carried out to analyze the effects of co- and counter-swirl on the flow and flame patterns of non-premixed oxy-flames stabilized above a coaxial injector when both the inner fuel and the annular oxidizer streams are swirled. A swirl level greater than 0.6 in the annular oxidizer stream is shown to yield compact oxy-flames with a strong central recirculation zone that are attached to the rim of central fuel tube in absence of inner swirl. It is shown that counter-swirl in the fuel tube weakens this recirculation zone leading to more elongated flames, while co-swirl enhances it with more compact flames. These results obtained for high annular swirl levels contrast with previous observations made on gas turbine injectors operated at lower annular swirl levels in which central recirculation of the flow is mainly achieved with counter-rotating swirlers. Imparting a high inner swirl to the central fuel stream leads to lifted flames due to the partial blockage of the flow at the injector outlet by the central recirculation zone that causes high strain rates in the wake of the injector rim. This partial flow blockage is more influenced by the level of the inner swirl than its rotation direction. A global swirl number is then introduced to analyze the structure of the flow far from the burner outlet where swirl dissipation takes place when the jets mix. A model is derived for the global swirl number which well reproduces the evolution of the mass flow rate of recirculating gases measured in non-reacting conditions and the flame liftoff height when the inner and outer swirl levels and the momentum flux ratio between the two streams are varied.     

Experiments and low-order modelling of intermittent transitions between clockwise and anticlockwise spinning thermoacoustic modes in annular combustors

Annular combustion chambers of gas turbines and aircraft engines are subject to unstable azimuthal thermoacoustic modes leading to high amplitude acoustic waves propagating in the azimuthal direction. For certain operating conditions, the propagating direction of the wave switches randomly. The strong turbulent noise prevailing in gas turbine combustors is a source of random excitation for the thermoacoustic modes and can be the cause of these switching events. A low-order model is proposed to describe qualitatively this property of the dynamics of thermoacoustic azimuthal modes. This model is based on the acoustic wave equation with a destabilizing thermoacoustic source term to account for the flame’s response and a stochastic term to account for the turbulent combustion noise. Slow-flow averaging is applied to describe the modal dynamics on times scales that are slower than the acoustic pulsation. Under certain conditions, the model reduces formally to a Fokker-Planck equation describing a stochastic diffusion process in a potential landscape with two symmetric wells: One well corresponds to a mode propagating in the clockwise direction, the other well corresponds to a mode propagating in the anticlockwise direction. When the level of turbulent noise is sufficient, the stochastic force makes the mode jump from one well to the other at random times, reproducing the phenomenon of direction switching. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory scale annular combustor featuring 12 hydrogen-methan flames. System identification techniques were used to fit the model on the experimental data, allowing to extract the potential shape and the intensity of the stochastic excitation. The statistical predictions obtained from the Fokker–Planck equation on the mode’s behaviour and the direction switching time are in good agreement with the experiments.     

Influence of radiation losses on the stability of premixed flames on a porous-plug burner

Analysis of the planar premixed flames on a porous plug was performed numerically for finite activation energy within the diffusive-thermal model. The paper is focused on the influence of radiation heat loses on the flame standoff distance and its linear stability. We show that the presence of volumetric heat losses limits the range of the mass flow range as well as it can promote the flame instabilities of different kinds, both oscillatory and cellular. The oscillatory instability, which for freely propagating flames can be usually observed for the Lewis number larger than one, in the porous-plug case occurs also for flames with unity and lower than unity Lewis number. For flames with Le < 1 both cellular and oscillatory instabilities can be observed simultaneously in a certain range of the mass flow rate.     

Parametric instabilities in single-walled carbon nanotubes

Parametric instabilities induced by the coupling excitation between the high frequency quantum Langmuir waves and the low frequency quantum ion-acoustic waves in single-walled carbon nanotubes are studied with a quantum Zakharov model. By linearizing the quantum hydrodynamic equations, we get the dispersion relations for the high frequency quantum Langmuir wave and the low frequency quantum ion-acoustic wave. Using two-time scale method, we obtain the quantum Zaharov model in the cylindrical coordinates. Decay instability and four-wave instability are discussed in detail. It is shown that the carbon nanotube＇s radius, the equilibrium discrete azimuthal quantum number, the perturbed discrete azimuthal quantum number, and the quantum parameter all play a crucial role in the instabilities.     

On the existence of steady-state gaseous microgravity spherical diffusion flames in the presence of radiation heat loss

Whether steady-state gaseous microgravity spherical diffusion exist in the presence of radiation heat loss is an important fundamental question and has important implications for spacecraft fire safety. In this work, experiments aboard the International Space Station and a transient numerical model are used to investigate the existence of steady-state microgravity spherical diffusion flames. Gaseous spherical diffusion flames stabilized on a porous spherical burner are employed in normal (i.e., fuel flowing into an ambient oxidizer) and inverse (i.e., oxidizer flowing into an ambient fuel) flame configurations. The fuel is ethylene and the oxidizer oxygen, both diluted with nitrogen. The flow rate of the reactant gas from the burner is held constant. It is found that steady-state gaseous microgravity spherical diffusion flames can exist in the presence of radiation heat loss, provided that the steady-state flame size is less than the flame size for radiative extinction, and the flame develops fast enough that radiation heat loss does not drop the flame temperature below the critical temperature for radiative extinction (1130 K). A simple model is provided that allows for the identification of initial conditions that can lead to steady-state spherical diffusion flames. In the spherical, infinite domain configuration, the characteristic time for the diffusion-controlled system to effectively reach steady-state is found to be on the order of 100,000 s. Despite a narrow range of attainable conditions, flames that exhibit steady-state behavior are observed aboard the ISS for up to 870 s, even with the constraint of a finite boundary. Steady-state flames are simulated using the numerical model for over 100,000 s.     

Structuring of a plasma shell expanding into a magnetized plasma atsub-Alfvenic speed

The structuring of plasma shells expanding into a magnetized plasma at velocities less than the Alfven speed is considered. The structuring phenomenon is studied with hybrid simulations. The hybrid simulations are conducted for two characteristic parameter sets: one set representative of magnetized ion experiments and one set representative of unmagnetized ion experiment. A complementary theoretical study of structuring instabilities using nonlocal, two fluid theory is discussed. Under the conditions representative of the laser-target experiments, the simulation observed structuring with azimuthal wavelengths similar to those observed in the experiment. Fluid theory, on the other hand, predicts that the most rapidly growing azimuthal modes are much shorter than observations, a result consistent with previous theoretical analyses     

Suppression of self-excited thermoacoustic instabilities by convective-acoustic interference

In this paper we demonstrate direct suppression of self-excited thermoacoustic instabilities over a range of operating conditions using targeted convective-acoustic interference. Premixed hydrogen enriched methane-air flames were confined in a cylindrical pipe resulting in self-excited instabilities that corresponded to the quarter wave mode of the pipe. To suppress the instability, the phenomenon of lock-in (synchronisation) between the acoustic mode and vortex shedding from a set of cylinders placed upstream was used to produce destructive interference and suppress the self-excited modes. This was done by varying the location of the cylinders to control the convective time-delay between the convective and acoustic modes so that their combined effect on the flame response was tuned to suppress the global fluctuation of the heat release rate. This leads to a reduction in the limit-cycle amplitude and stable operation without a significant change to the flame structure. Measurements were taken over a wide range of equivalence ratios to demonstrate that the method is capable of stabilising the system for all conditions. Using a methodology which relies on time-delays related to hydrodynamic instability, rather than flame-related parameters, enables its application to fuel-flexible systems, often designed to operate within a wide range of power outputs.     

Structure and stability of annular sheared channel flows: effects of confinement,curvature and inertial forces – waves

The structure and stability of the flows in an annular channel sheared by a rotating lid are investigated experimentally, theoretically and numerically. The channel has a square section, and a small curvature parameter: the ratio Γ of the inter-radii to the mean radius is 9.5%. The sidewalls and the bottom of the channel are integral and can rotate independently of the lid, permitting pure shear, co-rotation and counter-rotation cases. The basic flows obtained at small shear are characterized. In the absence of co-rotation, the centrifugal force linked with the curvature of the system plays an important role, whereas, when co-rotation is fast, the Coriolis force dominates. These basic flows undergo some instabilities when the shear is increased. These instabilities lead to supercritical traveling waves in the pure shear and co-rotation cases, but to weak turbulence in the counter-rotation case. The Reynolds number for the onset of instabilities, constructed with the velocity difference between the lid and bottom at mid-radius, and the height of the channel, increases from 1000 in the counter-rotation case to 1260 in the pure shear case and higher and higher values when co-rotation increases, i.e., when the Coriolis effect increases. The relevance of uni-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau models to describe the dynamics of the waves is studied. The domain of validity of these models turns out to be quite narrow.     

Nonlinear interactions of azimuthal surface waves in a magnetoactive plasma waveguide

Several possible three-wave and four-wave interactions, namely decay and modulational instabilities of a specific type of surface waves-azimuthal sufaces waves (ASW)-in a magnetoactive plasma waveguide are considered. The studied ASW propagate in the azimuthal direction at the cylindrical waveguide wall-plasma interface.     

Analysis of a Disc-Loaded Circular Waveguide for Interaction Impedance of a Gyrotron Amplifier

A rigorous electromagnetic analysis of a circular waveguide loaded with axially periodic annular discs was developed in the fast-wave regime, considering finite axial disc thickness and taking into account the effect of higher order space harmonics in the disc-free region and higher order modal harmonics in the disc-occupied region of the structure. The quality of the disc-loaded circular waveguide was evaluated with respect to its azimuthal interaction impedance that has relevance to the gain of a gyrotron millimeter-wave amplifier (gyro-traveling-wave tube) in which such a loaded waveguide finds application as a wideband interaction structure. The results of electromagnetic analysis of the structure with respect to both the dispersion and azimuthal interaction impedance characteristics were validated against the commercially available code: high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). The analysis predicts that the value of the interaction impedance at a given frequency decreases with the increase of the disc hole radius and disc periodicity. The change of the axial disc thickness does not significantly change the value of the interaction impedance though it shifts the frequency range over which appreciable interaction impedance is obtained. Out of the three disc parameters, namely the disc hole radius, thickness and periodicity, the lattermost is most effective in controlling the value of the azimuthal interaction impedance. However, the passband of frequencies and the center frequency of the passband both decrease with the increase of the disc periodicity. Moreover, the disc periodicity that provides large azimuthal interaction impedance would in general be different from that giving the desired dispersion shape for wideband interaction in a gyro-TWT, suggesting a trade-off in the value of the disc periodicity to be chosen.