Proceedings of the 7th International and 45th National Conference on Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power (FMFP)
December 10-12, 2018, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India
Parametric study of intrinsic thermoacoustic feedback driven instability in a
partially premixed combustor
Manmohan Vishwakarma
PhD student,
Advanced Combustion and Acoustic Laboratory
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Email: mohanv@iitk.ac.in
Abstract
A parametric study is performed to understand the char-
acteristics of intrinsic thermoacoustic (ITA) feedback
driven instability in a partially premixed, swirl stabilized
turbulent combustor. ITA driven instability occurs in
combustors, where significant acoustic losses are present.
The presence of turbine blades in aero engines, effectively
reduces the exit area of the combustor. This is represented
by using a removable nozzle at the end of our combustor.
In the absence of nozzle, conventional acoustic-driven
instability is observed. On the other hand, when the
nozzle is partially closed (12% of the combustor cross
section area), significant acoustic losses occur, leading to
the formation of ITA driven instability. In this paper, a
wide range of parameters such as length of the combus-
tor, location of fuel injection are varied to explore and
understand the variation of frequency and mode shapes
associated with acoustic and ITA driven instabilities.
Keywords: Combustion instability; Intrinsic thermoa-
coustic feedback
I. INTRODUCTION
Combustion instability is a major problem, which
may lead to gradual degradation or sudden failure in
aero and land based gas turbine engines. Combustion
instability arises due to the coupling between acoustic
and heat release rate perturbations. Instability is man-
ifested as oscillations in pressure, rate of heat release
and flow rate. Unsteady combustion is an efficient source
of acoustic waves. These generated waves are reflected
from the boundaries of combustion chamber and give
rise to unsteady flow field around the flame. The flame
then responds with unsteady heat release rate, either by
locally altering the equivalence ratio or through hydrody-
namic instabilities. The dominant frequency of the above
described instability is a strong function of the acoustic
length (in general the axial length) of the combustor and
is hence, termed as acoustic-driven instability.
1
FMFP2018 - PAPER NO. (354)
Sathesh Mariappan
Associate Professor
Advanced Combustion and Acoustic Laboratory
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Email: sathesh@iitk.ac.in
Recently in a numerical study [2], it was shown
that, flame can be an intrinsically unstable element and
instability can occur, even when the boundaries of the
combustion chamber are anechoic [1, 2]. The feedback
loop (termed as intrinsic thermoacoustic (ITA) feedback)
is established between the unsteady heat release rate of
the flame and velocity fluctuations, which is causing it.
Unlike acoustic-driven instability, the dominant frequency
is a weak function of combustor length and almost solely
depends on flame transfer function [2]. Several numerical
(example [1, 2]) analysis were performed to understand
the characteristic features of ITA loop. Few experimental
investigations (example [4]) show the occurrence of ITA
driven instability in a range of combustor configurations,
implying its practical relevance.
In a gas turbine engine, combustor is followed by
turbine blades. This causes a reduction in the exit area
of the combustor. The exit acoustic reflection coefficient
is altered. In order to represent this scenario, we perform
experiments in the combustion chamber, containing a
removable nozzle (figure 1), whose exit area can be
varied. In our earlier investigation [4], we observed a
reduction in exit area was accompanied by a drop in
acoustic reflection coefficient and hence the conventional
acoustic-driven instability was damped. However, the
instability through intrinsic thermoacoustic feedback loop
began to appear. The present work is an extension of the
above, where the characteristics of ITA driven instability
is explored in a wider parameter space.
II. METHODOLOGY
A. Experimental details
Experiments are performed in a swirl-stabilized turbu-
lent partially premixed combustor (figure 1). It consists of
a settling chamber, mixing tube, burner and combustion
chamber with three extension ducts. Disturbances present
in air feed lines are damped in the settling chamber.
Fuel is injected into the mixing tube circumferentially
Figure 1: Schematic of the experimental setup, show-
ing the major components.
at four locations through a hole of 1 mm diameter at an
axial location, which is varied between 40 and 80 mm
upstream of the swirler. The burner consists of a swirler
of diameter 42 mm with 12 vanes at a vane angle of 30
degrees with swirler thickness of 10 mm. The face of
the swirler is flush mounted with the entrance plane of
the combustion chamber. The length of the combustion
chamber is 300 mm. Extension ducts are attached to the
combustion chamber to achieve a total length of up to
1 m. In this paper, experiments are performed at three
lengths (1 m, 0.8 m and 0.7 m). Liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) having composition of 40% C3 H8 and 60% C4 H10
by volume is used as fuel. Fuel mixes with air in the
mixing tube. A spark plug is used to ignite the incoming
mixture. Air and LPG flow rates are measured using
rotameters calibrated with an uncertainty of 2 percent
with full scale.
Three piezoelectric pressure transducers (PCB
piezotronics, model 103B02) are fixed at 1) 60 mm
upstream of the swirler (in the mixing tube) (p1 ), 2)
0.45 m (p2 ) downstream of the swirler and 3) 0.95, 0.85
and 0.65 m (p3 ) downstream of the swirler for 1, 0.8
and 0.7 m length respectively. Transducers are mounted
on the combustor wall using a specially made stainless
steel port. Unsteady pressure fluctuations are measured
at a sampling rate of 1024 Hz for 4 s. A semi-infinite
tube (6 m long) is connected to the pressure transducer
mounted to prevent the occurrence of acoustic resonance
within the mount. Two 16 bit analog to digital converter
(NI-9215) having a resolution and input voltage range
of 0.305 mV and ± 10 V is used to collect data from
transducer. A K-type thermocouple, located at 0.45 m
downstream of the swirler is used to monitor the steady
state temperature. The reduction in the exit area is
achieved by placing a compact (10 mm axial length)
removable nozzle. In the present study, the nozzle
valve is partially closed, such that the area ratio (AR
= exit area/cross section of combustor) is kept at 0.12.
The results are compared in the absence of the nozzle
(AR = 1).
2
Figure 2: (a) Variation of the exit reflection coefficient
Rp with area ratio (AR). (b) AR corresponding to Rp
at different airflow rate.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Experiments are performed in the following condi-
tions. Inlet air supply temperature is measured as 305
K. Air flow rate (Va ) is varied between 600-1700 slpm
(standard litres per minute) in steps of 100 slpm, while
fuel flow rate (Vf ) is altered in the range 10-32 slpm,
stepping at 2 slpm. Air and fuel are supplied at a
pressure of 4 and 2.5 bar respectively. Their flow rates
are increased simultaneously and the equivalence ratio
lie between 0.45-0.55. Results are presented for three
total lengths of the combustor (l = 1, 0.8, 0.7 m)
and two locations of fuel injection measured from the
face of the swirler (lmix = 40, 80 mm) at two area
ratios 1 and 0.12. The choice of AR=0.12 is as follows.
Since the nozzle is compact compared to the total length
(l) of the combustor, analytical expression for acoustic
reflection coefficient [3] can be adapted to obtain the
exit reflection coefficient Rp for various AR. The final
expression and the related derivation are reported else-
where. Figure 2a represents the variation of Rp with
AR for various air flow rates. For AR=1, Rp = −1
indicating acoustically open end. As AR is reduced, flow
in the nozzle accelerates and approaches sonic condition.
The corresponding Rp tends to +1, representing acousti-
cally closed exit. In the intermediate region, Rp passes
through zero (anechoic boundary): the exact location of
AR increases with air flow rate. Figure 2b shows the
Figure 3: Time series and power spectral density of
pressure fluctuations at p2 for (a) Vf =10 slpm & Va
= 600 slpm, (b)Vf = 18 slpm & Va =1000 slpm and
(c) Vf =32 slpm & Va =1700 slpm. Figure 4: Variaton of frequency with airflow rate for
various combinations of l, lmix , AR.
variation of AR at which Rp = 0, with air flow rate.
instability). As air flow rate increases, the steady state
This critical AR lies between 0.08-0.14 for regime, where
temperature downstream of the flame increases, which
instability is observed (1000-1700 slpm). We choose to
leads to an increase in the frequency. In the case of
fix AR = 0.12, so that exit is close to anechoic and
AR = 0.12 (figure 4b, d), we observe that the frequency
ITA driven instability is expected to occur for the flow
is lower compared to AR = 1. Figure 4b (lmix = 80mm)
rates encountered. Figure 3 shows the time series data for
shows that the dominant frequency is a weak function
pressure fluctuations, measured at p2 for Va = 600, 1000
of the length l, while the dependence is strong with
and 1700 slpm at AR = 1, l = 1 m. First and second
the location of fuel injection lmix (compare figure 4b
columns correspond to the raw signals measured during
& d). Hence for AR = 0.12, the mechanism should
the entire duration (4 s) and showing a zoomed-in view
involve a feedback loop containing the distance (lmix )
of the oscillations respectively. Power spectral density
between the location of fuel injection and flame (flame
(PSD), extracted from the signal using Welch method in
is observed to be anchored to the swirler). With the
MATLAB is shown in the third column. At the lowest
use of network models, it was shown in our previous
air flow rate, the signal represents combustion noise and
investigation [4] that ITA feedback loop is responsible for
a shallow peak is observed at 130 Hz. As the air flow
the occurrence of instability. The loop is formed between
rate is increased, PSD becomes sharper at definite peaks
velocity fluctuations in the air flow at the location of
indicating a transition to combustion instability. In the
fuel injection and the flame heat release rate. Velocity
present experiment, we observe instability in the range
fluctuations causes local equivalence ratio fluctuations at
1000-1700 slpm of air flow rate. The results are discussed
fuel injection location. These fluctuations are transported
only in the instability regime. In the subsequent sections,
with the local convective flow velocity and perturbs the
the variation of frequency and mode shape is analyzed
heat release rate. The associated time lag is approximately
for the parameters, Va , l, lmix and AR.
the time taken by the flow to convect the distance lmix .
A. Variation of frequency with Va , l, lmix and AR The frequency of the ITA mode is inversely proportional
For AR = 1, figure 4a, c shows the variation of to the time lag in the flame transfer function. Therefore
frequency with air flow rate for the three lengths l, at for a given lmix , the frequency of ITA mode increases
different lmix . As l is decreased from 1 m to 0.7 m, the with air flow rate (figure 4b & d). For the mechanism
dominant frequency is observed to increase. On the other described above, the mean equivalence ratio does not
hand, the dominant frequency remains fairly constant with play a role. Hence, we expect equivalence ratio variations
lmix (compare figure 4a & c). This behavior indicates (0.45-0.55) has no or little effects on the ITA frequency
that the mechanism of instability strongly depends on observed in the experiments. By decreasing lmix from
the feedback loop associated with l. Along with the fact 80 to 40 mm, it is expected that the dominant frequency
that Rp = −1 for AR = 1, the instability can be should increase. However, a decrease is observed between
attributed to the combustor acoustic field (acoustic-driven figure 4b & d. This indicates that the time lag is no longer

3
related or restricted to the mechanism associated with
equivalence ratio fluctuations. More definite conclusion
in this regard can be made with the measurement of flame
transfer function. A second important difference observed
between figure 4b & d is that the instability at lmix = 40
mm, shows a dependence on the length of the combustor
(l). The frequency associated with l = 1 m is consistently
lower than for l = 0.8, 0.7 m. It is possible that there
is a feedback due to acoustic-driven instability playing a
role for the instability at l = 1 m. Further investigations
are required in order to make definite conclusions.
B. Variation of mode shape with Va , l, lmix and AR
Figure 5 shows the variation of phase difference
between pressure fluctuations measured near the exit of Figure 5: Phase difference between p3 and p1 for
the combustor (p3 ) and fuel injection location (p1 ) at the various combinations of l, lmix , AR.
dominant frequency. This phase difference is obtained
two end conditions (AR = 1 & 0.12). Unsteady pressure
through the complex Fourier
transform of the time series
measurements made at three locations are used for the
signal at p1 = < p̂1 expiωt and p3 = < p̂3 expiωt √. ˆ analysis. Reducing the exit area increases acoustic losses
symbol indicates complex Fourier transform, i = −1
and results in changing the mechanism of instability. For
and ω is the circular frequency. For both the exit area
AR = 1, acoustic-driven instability is dominant and the
ratios, we observe the phase difference to be negative
frequency is a strong function of the total length of the
and decreasing with airflow rate. This can be explained
combustor. On the other hand, ITA feedback loop drives
as follows: For AR = 1, theoretical value of |Rp | = 1,
instability for AR = 0.12. The dominant frequency is
indicating no loss of acoustic energy at the exit. However,
almost solely dependent on the time lag associated with
in reality losses do exist. Hence a perfect standing wave
the flame transfer function. The time lag is dictated by
pattern does not occur. Since acoustic energy leaves the
the location of the fuel injection. Furthermore, the phase
system, one expects a right running wave component in
difference between pressure fluctuations near the exit of
the mode shape. Inside the combustor, the presence of
the combustor and fuel location indicates the presence of
flame and area jump at the swirler does not contribute
right running wave component in the mode shape. The
to phase shift in pressure fluctuations. Hence, a negative
phase difference is consistently lower for AR = 0.12 (in
value of phase difference between p3 and p1 indeed
comparison to AR = 1), indicating more contribution of
indicate the presence of the right running wave. As the
the right running wave, arising due to increased acoustic
air flow rate is increased, more acoustic energy is lost
losses.
through the mean flow, indicating more contribution from R EFERENCES
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