Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-rj9fg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-20T16:18:25.982Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Intermittency route to thermoacoustic instability in turbulent combustors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2014

Vineeth Nair ,
Gireeshkumaran Thampi  and
R. I. Sujith
Vineeth Nair*
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
Gireeshkumaran Thampi
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
R. I. Sujith
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The dynamic transition from combustion noise to combustion instability was investigated experimentally in two laboratory-scale turbulent combustors (namely, swirl-stabilized and bluff-body-stabilized backward-facing-step combustors) by systematically varying the flow Reynolds number. We observe that the onset of combustion-driven oscillations is always presaged by intermittent bursts of high-amplitude periodic oscillations that appear in a near-random fashion amidst regions of aperiodic low-amplitude fluctuations. These excursions to periodic oscillations last longer in time as operating conditions approach instability and finally the system transitions completely into periodic oscillations. A continuous measure to quantify this bifurcation in dynamics can be obtained by defining an order parameter as the probability of the signal amplitude exceeding a predefined threshold. A hysteresis zone was observed in the bluff-body-stabilized configuration that was absent in the swirl-stabilized configuration. The recurrence properties of the dynamics of intermittent burst oscillations were quantified using recurrence plots and the distribution of the aperiodic phases was examined. From the statistics of these aperiodic phases, robust early-warning signals of an impending combustion instability may be obtained.

JFM classification

Turbulent Flows: Intermittency Reacting Flows: Turbulent reacting flows
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 756 , 10 October 2014 , pp. 470 - 487
Copyright
© 2014 Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Arndt, C. M., Steinberg, A. M., Boxx, I. G., Meier, W., Aigner, M. & Carter, C. D.2010 Flow-field and flame dynamics of a gas turbine model combustor during transition between thermo-acoustically stable and unstable states. Proceedings of the ASME Turbo Expo, vol. 2A, Paper GT2010-22830, pp. 677–687.Google Scholar
Candel, S. 2002 Combustion dynamics and control: progress and challenges. Proc. Combust. Inst. 29, 1–28.Google Scholar
Chakravarthy, S. R., Shreenivasan, O. J., Boehm, B., Dreizler, A. & Janicka, J. 2007a Experimental characterization of onset of acoustic instability in a nonpremixed half-dump combustor. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 122, 120–127.Google Scholar
Chakravarthy, S. R., Sivakumar, R. & Shreenivasan, O. J. 2007b Vortex-acoustic lock-on in bluff-body and backward-facing step combustors. Sadhana 32, 145–154.Google Scholar
Clavin, P., Kim, J. S. & Williams, F. A. 1994 Turbulence-induced noise effects on high-frequency combustion instabilities. Combust. Sci. Technol. 96, 61–84.Google Scholar
Culick, F. E. C.2006 Unsteady motions in combustion chambers for propulsion systems. AGARDograph RTO-AG-AVT-039.Google Scholar
Gotoda, H., Amano, M., Miyano, T., Ikawa, T., Maki, K. & Tachibana, S. 2012 Characterization of complexities in combustion instability in a lean premixed gas-turbine model combustor. Chaos 22 (4), 043128.Google Scholar
Gotoda, H., Nikimoto, H., Miyano, T. & Tachibana, S. 2011 Dynamic properties of combustion instability in a lean premixed gas-turbine combustor. Chaos 21, 013124.Google Scholar
Haken, H. 1985 Laser Light Dynamics, Light, vol. 2. North-Holland.Google Scholar
Hong, J. G., Oh, K. C., Lee, U. D. & Shin, H. D. 2008 Generation of low-frequency alternative flame behaviors in a lean premixed combustor. Energy & Fuels 22 (5), 3016–3021.Google Scholar
Kabiraj, L., Saurabh, A., Wahi, P. & Sujith, R. I. 2012 Route to chaos for combustion instability in ducted laminar premixed flames. Chaos 22, 023129.Google Scholar
Kabiraj, L. & Sujith, R. I. 2012 Nonlinear self-excited thermoacoustic oscillations: intermittency and flame blowout. J. Fluid Mech. 713, 376–397.Google Scholar
Kabiraj, L., Sujith, R. I. & Wahi, P. 2012a Bifurcations of self-excited ducted laminar premixed flames. Trans. ASME: J. Engng Gas Turbines Power 134, 031502.Google Scholar
Kabiraj, L., Sujith, R. I. & Wahi, P. 2012b Investigating the dynamics of combustion-driven oscillations leading to lean blowout. Fluid Dyn. Res. 44, 031408.Google Scholar
Komarek, T. & Polifke, W. 2010 Impact of swirl fluctuations on the flame response of a perfectly premixed swirl burner. Trans. ASME: J. Engng Gas Turbines Power 132, 061503.Google Scholar
Lieuwen, T. C. 2002 Experimental investigation of limit-cycle oscillations in an unstable gas turbine combustor. J. Propul. Power 18, 61–67.Google Scholar
Lieuwen, T. 2005 Online combustor stability margin assessment using dynamic pressure data. Trans. ASME: J. Engng Gas Turbines Power 127 (3), 478–482.Google Scholar
Lieuwen, T., Neumeier, Y. & Zinn, B. T. 1998 The role of unmixedness and chemical kinetics in driving combustion instabilities in lean premixed combustors. Combust. Sci. Technol. 135 (1–6), 193–211.Google Scholar
Marwan, N., Romano, M. C., Thiel, M. & Kurths, J. 2007 Recurrence plots for the analysis of complex systems. Phys. Rep. 438, 237–329.Google Scholar
Marwan, N., Wessel, N., Meyerfeldt, U., Schirdewan, A. & Kurths, J. 2002 Recurrence-plot-based measures of complexity and their application to heart-rate-variability data. Phys. Rev. E 66, 026702.Google Scholar
McManus, K. R., Poinsot, T. & Candel, S. M. 1993 A review of active control of combustion instabilities. Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 16, 1–29.Google Scholar
Nair, V. & Sujith, R. I. 2013 Identifying homoclinic orbits in the dynamics of intermittent signals through recurrence quantification. Chaos 23, 033136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nair, V. & Sujith, R. I.2014. A reduced-order model for the onset of combustion instability: physical mechanisms for intermittency and precursors. In Proceedings of the 35th International Symposium on Combustion, 3–8 August, San Francisco, CA. Proc. Combust. Inst. 35, doi: 10.1016/j.proci.2014.07.007.Google Scholar
Nair, V., Thampi, G., Karuppusamy, S., Gopalan, S. & Sujith, R. I. 2013 Loss of chaos in combustion noise as a precursor of impending combustion instability. Int. J. Spray Comb. Dyn. 5, 273–290.Google Scholar
Strahle, W. C. 1978 Combustion noise. Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 4, 157–176.Google Scholar
Wilke, C. R. 1950 A viscosity equation for gas mixtures. J. Chem. Phys. 18, 517–519.Google Scholar
Zinn, B. T. & Lieuwen, T. C. 2005 Combustion instabilities: basic concepts. In Combustion Instabilities in Gas Turbine Engines: Operational Experience, Fundamental Mechanisms, and Modeling (ed. Lieuwen, T. C. & Yang, V.), Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, vol. 210, p. chap. 1. AIAA.Google Scholar