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This paper investigates how targeted interference between two well characterized sources of hydrodynamic disturbances can modify the response of premixed bluff body stabilised H 2 / CH 4 flames with and without swirl. We introduce modulations into the Flame Transfer Function (FTF) through hydrodynamic interference between the shedding of vortices/wakes from different shaped bodies upstream of the flame and the vortex roll-up at the flame base caused by acoustic forcing. By placing a set of small diameter cylinders, a streamlined body, or a swirler upstream of the bluff body and varying the distance from the dump plane, the gain and phase of the FTFs could be modulated at targeted frequencies providing a method to suppress thermoacoustic instabilities. We further investigate the flame response which shows that modulations in the fluctuating global heat release rate are caused by linear superposition along the flame front. At frequencies leading to destructive interference, large-scale wrinkling of the flame front occurs which increases the flame surface area but is offset by the simultaneous pinch-off of the flame tip which decreases flame surface area. Their combined effect reduces the amplitude of the fluctuating global heat release rate. At frequencies of constructive interference, large-scale wrinkling of the flame occurs before the flame tip pinches off, leading to an overall increase in the flame surface and amplitude of the fluctuating global heat release rate.

Azimuthal forcing has been applied to flames in a laboratory scale annular combustor in order to accurately control the azimuthal mode of excitation. A new forcing configuration permitted not only the pressure amplitude, but also the spin ratio and mode orientation to be accurately controlled, in order to generate standing modes and for the first time strong spinning modes in both a clockwise (CW) and anti-clockwise (ACW) direction. The phase averaged heat release dynamics of these modes was compared and a number of differences observed depending on the direction of pressure wave propagation, demonstrating characteristic ACW and CW heat release patterns. A new spin compensating averaging method was then introduced to analyse the flame dynamics, and it was shown that through the application of this method the dynamics of standing wave oscillations could be decomposed to recover the characteristic ACW and CW heat release responses. The global heat release response was also assessed during strongly spinning modes, and the magnitude of the response was shown to depend strongly on the direction of propagation, demonstrating the importance of the local swirl direction on the global heat release response, with important implications for the modelling of such flows. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Combustion Institute. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The present study experimentally investigates the effects of different circumferential damper configurations on the instabilities in an annular combustor. The combustor consists of multiple bluff body swirl stabilized flames. It is operated with an ethylene-air premixture at a power of 66 kW. Combinations of Helmholtz resonators are used as dampers circumferentially arranged around the combustion chamber. The tests are performed at operating conditions where the combustor is self-excited and characterized by a strong standing mode and periodic mode switching. For each test, the dynamic pressure is measured at different locations and overhead imaging of OH* of the entire combustor is conducted simultaneously at a high sampling frequency. The measurements are then used to compare the pressure fluctuations of the different cases in order to find the best positioning of the dampers. The azimuthal modes in the chamber are determined and the phase shift between OH* and pressure is analysed. Based on the Rayleigh criterion, these investigations allow us to find out if the dampers only remove energy from the pressure oscillations, or if they also influence the instability margins of the combustor and the flame dynamics. Finally, the results are compared with the theoretical findings in literature and observed discrepancies are discussed.

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. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Combustion Institute. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The Flame Transfer Function (FTF) and flame dynamics of a single, highly swirled, closely confined, premixed flame is studied over a wide range of operating conditions at a fixed perturbation level at the dump plane. The equivalence ratio and bulk velocity are varied in order to examine the important ratio of flame height to velocity in scaling the flame response function. The enclosure geometry is kept constant, and therefore due to the close confinement and varying flame height, strong flame-wall interactions are present for some operating conditions. The effect of these interactions on the FTF due to changes in the “relative” or “effective confinement” of the flame can therefore be studied. When the equivalence ratio is sufficiently high, and therefore the effective confinement sufficiently small, modulations, or dips, in the gain and phase of the FTF are observed, due to interference of the perturbations created at the swirler and at the dump plane. Due to the small length scales and relatively high velocities in the current configuration, the dip is at a high frequency and spans a wide range of frequencies compared to similar studies which have previously identified similar phenomena. It is also observed that when the equivalence ratio was decreased, increasing the effective confinement, a critical point is reached where the modulations are suppressed. This is linked to a temporal shift in the heat release rate at the downstream location where the flame impinges on the combustion chamber walls during the oscillation cycle. The shift causes a decrease in the expected level of interference, demonstrating that the effective confinement is an important parameter to consider for the nature of the FTF response. Additionally, a Distributed Time Lag (DTL) model with two distinct time lags, capturing the swirler perturbations and the perturbations at the inlet, is successfully applied to the FTFs. The model provides a simple way to accurately capture the two dominant time scales in the problem without the need of prior knowledge of the cause of the perturbations, and a simple expression to recreate the complex valued FTF. In addition the model also provides insight into the time scales of the problem, demonstrating in the current work that time scales recovered from the DTL analysis are offset from simple Strouhal number scaling, due to the effects of increasing effective confinement.

In the current study azimuthal forcing of an annular combustor with swirling flames has been performed to present for the first time the Heat Release Rate (HRR) response to all possible pressure fields of the first azimuthal mode up to a finite amplitude limit. The response is first quantified through the conventional Flame Describing Function (FDF) framework, showing a difference in response which depends on whether the acoustic field rotates anti-clockwise or clockwise, albeit with some scatter. Additionally and somewhat surprisingly, a finite HRR response is observed for flames exactly in the pressure node. An Azimuthal FDF is introduced, based on the decomposition of the spatial HRR response through Bloch theory, to better highlight the difference in HRR response to the anti-clockwise and clockwise components of the acoustic field and reduce scatter. A clear difference in response is observed, with a significantly higher response to the anti-clockwise forcing component compared to the clockwise component, independent of the prescribed pressure mode. The difference is attributed to the systematic symmetry breaking introduced by using an annular enclosure of finite curvature and width with swirling flames. It is argued that the finite curvature and width of the geometry and the swirl need to be both present to observe this effect. The difference in response results in a difference between the nature angle of the HRR mode and that of the acoustic field, explaining the relatively large HRR response observed for flames in the pressure node. The Azimuthal FDF describe all of these phenomena well, and is therefore considered more suitable than the conventional FDF to characterise the response in an annular combustor. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Combustion Institute. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)