Determination of Thermoacoustic Response in a Demonstrator Gas Turbine Engine

This paper describes an analytical and experimental investigation to obtain the thermoacoustic response of a demonstrator gas turbine engine combustor. The combustor acoustic response for two different fuel injector design configurations was measured. It was found that the combustor maximum peak to peak pressure fluctuations were 0.6 psi to 2 psi for configuration A and B respectively. Based on the measured acoustic response, another experimental investigation was conducted to identify the design features in configuration B that caused the increase in the acoustic response. The data showed that by changing the fuel injector swirler’s vane to inner passage discharge area ratio, the engine acoustic response could be lowered to an acceptable level. A simplified analytical model based on the lumped-parameter approach was then developed to investigate the effect of geometrical changes upon the engine response. The analytical model predicted the fuel injector/swirlers acoustic response as a function of the swirlers inner passage discharge area ratio and frequency. The predictions were consistent with the experimental observations, in particular, it was predicted that as the area ratio was increased, the system reactance was decreased and as a result the system changed from a damping to an amplifying system.