C. Mirat

Direct Assessment of the Acoustic Scattering Matrix of a Turbulent Swirl Combustor by Combining System Identification, Large Eddy Simulation and Analytical Approaches

This study assesses and compares two alternative approaches to determine the acoustic scattering matrix of a premixed turbulent swirl combustor: (1) The acoustic scattering matrix coefficients are obtained directly from a compressible large eddy simulation (LES). Specifically, the incoming and outgoing characteristic waves f and g extracted from the LES are used to determine the respective transmission and reflection coefficients via System Identification (SI) techniques. (2) The flame transfer function (FTF) is identi- fied from LES time series data of upstream velocity and heat release rate. The transfer matrix of the reactive combustor is then derived by combining the FTF with the Rankine–Hugoniot (RH) relations across a compact heat source and a transfer matrix of the cold combustor, which is deduced from a linear network model. Linear algebraic transformation of the transfer matrix consequently yields the combustor scattering matrix. In a cross-comparison study that includes comprehensive experimental data, it is shown that both approaches successfully predict the scattering matrix of the reactive tur- bulent swirl combustor

Effects of a Diverging Cup on Swirl Number, Flow Pattern and Topology of Premixed Flames

Impact of the diverging cup angle of a swirling injector on the flow pattern and stabiliza- tion of technically premixed flames is investigated both theoretically and experimentally with the help of OH* chemiluminescence, OH laser-induced fluorescence and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. Recirculation enhancement with a lower position of the internal recirculation zone (IRZ) and a flame leading edge protruding further upstream in the swirled flow are observed as the injector nozzle cup angle is increased. A theoretical analysis is carried out to examine whether this could be explained by changes of the swirl level as the diffuser cup angle is varied. It is shown that pressure effects need in this case to be taken into account in the swirl number definition and expressions for changes of the swirl level through a diffuser are derived. It is demonstrated that changes of the swirl level including or not the pressure contribution to the axial momentum flux are not at the origin of the changes observed of the flow and flame patterns in the experi- ments. The swirl number without the pressure term, designated as pressure-less swirl, is then determined experimentally with laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) measurements at the injector outlet for a set of diffusers with increasing quarl angles under nonreacting conditions and the values found corroborate the predictions. It is finally shown that the decline of axial velocity and the rise of adverse axial pressure gradient, both due to the cross section area change through the diffuser cup, are the dominant effects that control the leading edge position of the IRZ of the swirled flow. This is used to develop a model for the displacement of the recirculation bubble as the quarl angle varies that shows very good agreement with experiments. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4041518]