Characterization of the reactive flow field dynamics in a gas turbine injector using high frequency PIV

The present work details the analysis of the aerodynamics of an experimental swirl stabilized burner representative of gas turbine combustors. This analysis is carried out using High Frequency PIV (HFPIV) measurements in a reactive situation. While this information is usually available at a rather low rate, temporally resolved PIV measurements are necessary to better understand highly turbulent swirled flows, which are unsteady by nature. Thanks to recent technical improvements, a PIV system working at 12 kHz has been developed to study this experimental combustor flow field. Statistical quantities of the burner are first obtained and analyzed, and the measurement quality is checked, then a temporal analysis of the velocity field is carried out, indicating that large coherent structures periodically appear in the combustion chamber. The frequency of these structures is very close to the quarter wave mode of the chamber, giving a possible explanation for combustion instability coupling

Exploration of combustion instability triggering using Large Eddy Simulation of a multiple injector Liquid Rocket Engine

This article explores the possibility of analyzing combustion instabilities in liq- uid rocket engines by making use of Large Eddy Simulations (LES). Calculations are carried out for a complete small-scale rocket engine, including the injection manifold thrust chamber and nozzle outlet. The engine comprises 42 coaxial injectors feeding the combustion chamber with gaseous hydrogen and liquid oxy- gen and it operates at supercritical pressures with a maximum thermal power of 80 MW. The objective of the study is to predict the occurrence of transverse high-frequency combustion instabilities by comparing two operating points fea- turing different levels of acoustic activity. The LES compares favorably with the experiment for the stable load point and exhibits a nonlinearly unstable trans- verse mode for the experimentally unstable operating condition. A detailed analysis of the instability retrieves the experimental data in terms of spectral features. It is also found that modifications of the flame structures and of the global combustion region configuration have similarities with those observed in recent model scale experiments. It is shown that the overall acoustic activity mainly results from the combination of one transverse and one radial mode of the chamber, which are also strongly coupled with the oxidizer injectors

Study of flame response to transverse acoustic modes from the LES of a 42-injector rocket engine

The Large-Eddy Simulation of a reduced-scale rocket engine operated by DLR has been conducted. This configuration features 42 coaxial injectors fed with liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen. For a given set of injection conditions the combustor exhibits strong transverse thermo-acoustic oscillations that are retrieved by the numerical simulation. The spatial structure of the two main modes observed in the LES is investigated through 3D Fourier analysis during the limit cycle. They are respectively associated with the first transverse and first radial resonant acoustic modes of the combustion chamber. The contributions of each individual flame to the unsteady heat release rate and the Rayleigh index are reconstructed for each mode. These contributions are in both cases low in the vicinity of velocity anti-nodes and high near pressure anti-nodes. Moreover it is noticed that these pressure fluctuations lead to large velocity oscillations in the hydrogen stream. From these observations, a driving mechanism for the flame response is proposed and values for the gain and phase of the associated flame transfer function are evaluated from the LES

Acoustically Induced Flashback in a Staged Swirl-Stabilized Combustor

This paper describes a joint experimental and numerical investigation of the inter- action between thermoacoustics and flashback mechanisms in a swirled turbulent burner. An academic air/propane combustor terminated by a choked nozzle is operated up to 2.5 bars. Experiments show that the flame can stabilize either within the combustion chamber or flashback inside the injection duct, intermittently or permanently. The present study focuses on the mechanisms leading to flashback: this phenomenon can occur naturally, depending on the swirl level which can be adjusted in the experiment by introducing axial flow through the upstream inlet. It can also be triggered by acoustic waves, either through acoustic forc- ing or self-excited thermoacoustic instability. Flashback is difficult to study experimentally, but it can be investigated numerically using LES: in a first configuration, the outlet of the chamber is treated as a non-reflecting surface through which harmonic waves can be intro- duced. In this case, a 20 kPa acoustic forcing is sufficient to trigger permanent flashback after a few cycles. When the LES computational domain includes the choked nozzle used experimentally, no forcing is needed for flashback to occur. Self-excited oscillations reach high levels rapidly, leading to flame flashback, as observed experimentally. These results also suggest a simple method to avoid flashback by using fuel staging, which is then tested successfully in both LES and experiments

Experiments on Collapsing Cylindrical Flames

International audienceThis article is concerned with the effect of curvature on laminar flame dynamics. This topic is of fundamental interest and it has practical implications in turbulent combustion. It is shown that highly curved premixed flames may be obtained by operating a standard axisymmetric burner in a specific pulsed mode. Collapsing cylindrical flames are observed by submitting the burner to suitably tuned plane pulsations of the flow velocity. The cylindrical flame pattern collapses in an essentially radial motion. In these circumstances the flame cylinder separates unburned inner gases from the burned outer flow. The temporal evolution of the flame may be monitored using schlieren images while the inner flow velocity is determined from particle image velocimetry (PIV). It is shown that these data yield the stretched laminar burning velocity up to very small radii. Models of the stretched laminar burning velocity as a function of curvature are compared to experimental data and Markstein lengths are deduced. These experiments indicate how laminar flames respond to large curvature values. The data gathered may be used to guide modeling efforts in the area of turbulent combustion

A Method for the Transverse Modulation of Reactive Flows with Application to Combustion Instability

International audienceA 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

Theoretical and Experimental Determinations of the Transfer Function of a Laminar Premixed Flame

International audienceThe dynamical behavior of laminar premixed flames is investigated in this article. The flame response to incident perturbations is characterized with a transfer function relating the flow velocity modulations and the heat release fluctuations. This function is obtained using the assumptions introduced in previous studies by Fleifil et al., but the model is extended to account for any flame angle (i.e., any operating condition). The modeling shows that phenomena can be described using a single control parameter taking the form of a reduced frequency w*

Acoustique et dynamique de flamme dans un foyer turbulent prémélangé swirlé (application à l'étude du bruit de combustion dans les chambres de turbines à gaz.)

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 is widely used to limit pollutant emissions and improve efficiency. However in this situation combustion instabilities and associated noise may occur. The growth of self-sustained pressure fluctuations within the combustor may limit the operating conditions and eventually damage the installation. The objective of this work is to study the mechanisms induced in combustion noise and instabilities in a turbulent premixed swirled burner. The study is based on a detailed analysis of the pressure field of the combustor, the flame dynamics and a characterization of the upstream and downstream acoustic boundary conditions and in the air and fuel feeding lines. Based upon experimental investigations, a theoretical study of the burner acoustics is carried out using a low-order model with two coupled cavities. The eigenfrequencies and spatial distribution of the pressure field are obtained, allowing comparisons with experimental results. The impact of the inlet acoustic impedance on the prediction of the eigenmodes is examined through the use of the measured impedance in the model. Thereafter calculations with the AVSP Helmholtz code are carried out to confirm the results obtained with the loworder model. The interactions between the burner acoustic modes and the flame are investigated and the reacting flow dynamics is characterized, using High Speed Particle Image Velocimetry HSPIV at 15 kHz. A first analysis concerns the mean and fluctuating velocity fields and a spectral analysis of the collection of instantaneous velocity fields is carried out. Then a method based on the _2 criterion is used to detect vortices, showing that coherent structures are convected through the flame front at the frequency of the second unstable combustor mode. It is shown in the previous chapter that this mode is essentially associated with the premixer acoustics, allowing a clear coupling scenario between the acoustics and the flame. A phase locked averaging method is applied to the axial velocity fields. Flapping motions of the flame branches are highlighted in longitudinal and transverse directions at the unstable modes frequencies. The natural light emission from the flame is also measured using a fast camera. Spectral analysis and phase locked averaging with Abel transform are applied to images in order to determine the flame regions where a strong response is visible at the acoustic modes. Mechanisms underlying combustion noise are analyzed by correlating the optical and acoustic measurements. Flame transfer functions FTF are also characterized between upstream disturbances and the flame response at the combustor eigenfrequencies. Acoustic velocity is reconstructed in the premixer using microphones measurements. The FTF is calculated using PIV velocity fields, OH* or CH* intensities and flame natural light emissions measurements. Measurements and modeling show that boundary conditions play a crucial role in the burner stability. The acoustic impedance at the premixer inlet can be modified using an impedance control system (ICS). Thus, the pressure field and flame dynamics are characterized for different boundary conditions imposed by the ICS. The acoustic boundary conditions in the feeding lines are characterized using an Impedance Measurement Device (IMD) equipped with microphones and mounted within the supplies.CHATENAY MALABRY-Ecole centrale (920192301) / SudocSudocFranceF

Concerning the Location of the Schlieren Limit in Premixed Flames

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