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High-speed laser diagnostics for the study of flame dynamics in a lean premixed gas turbine model combustor

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Abstract

A series of measurements was taken on two technically premixed, swirl-stabilized methane-air flames (at overall equivalence ratios of ϕ = 0.73 and 0.83) in an optically accessible gas turbine model combustor. The primary diagnostics used were combined planar laser-induced fluorescence of the OH radical and stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) with simultaneous repetition rates of 10 kHz and a measurement duration of 0.8 s. Also measured were acoustic pulsations and OH chemiluminescence. Analysis revealed strong local periodicity in the thermoacoustically self-excited (or ‘noisy’) flame (ϕ = 0.73) in the regions of the flow corresponding to the inner shear layer and the jet-inflow. This periodicity appears to be the result of a helical precessing vortex core (PVC) present in that region of the combustor. The PVC has a precession frequency double (at 570 Hz) that of the thermo-acoustic pulsation (at 288 Hz). A comparison of the various data sets and analysis techniques applied to each flame suggests a strong coupling between the PVC and the thermo-acoustic pulsation in the noisy flame. Measurements of the stable (‘quiet’) flame (ϕ = 0.83) revealed a global fluctuation in both velocity and heat-release around 364 Hz, but no clear evidence of a PVC.

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Acknowledgments

C. Carter acknowledges support of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Windows on Europe Program. Figure 1a is reproduced with permission from Springer-Verlag—from Sustained multi-kHz flamefront and 3-component velocity-field measurements, by I. Boxx, M. Stöhr, C. Carter and W. Meier. Appl Phys B (2009) 95: 23–29. and from Elsevier Science—from Temporally resolved planar measurements of transient phenomena in a partially pre-mixed swirl flame in a gas turbine model combustor, by I. Boxx, M. Stöhr, C. Carter and W. Meier. Combustion and Flame, 157 (2009), 1,510–1,525. Figure 1b is reproduced with permission from Elsevier Science—from Detailed characterization of the dynamics of thermo-acoustic pulsations in a lean premixed swirl flame, by W. Meier, P. Weigand, X. R. Duan, R. Giezendanner-Thoben. Combustion and Flame 150 (2007) 2–26.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Verbrennungstechnik, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR), Stuttgart, Germany

    Isaac Boxx, Christoph M. Arndt & Wolfgang Meier

  2. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)/RZAS, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH, USA

    Campbell D. Carter

Authors
  1. Isaac Boxx
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  2. Christoph M. Arndt
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  3. Campbell D. Carter
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  4. Wolfgang Meier
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Correspondence to Isaac Boxx.

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Boxx, I., Arndt, C.M., Carter, C.D. et al. High-speed laser diagnostics for the study of flame dynamics in a lean premixed gas turbine model combustor. Exp Fluids 52, 555–567 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-010-1022-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-010-1022-x

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