A Test-Based Methodology for A Priori Selection of Gain/Phase Relationships in Proportional, Phase-Shifting Control of Combustion Instabilities

Feedback control system design, for general single-in-single-out (SISO) applications, requires accurate knowledge of the loop transfer function. Active combustion control design is usually implemented using such SISO architectures, but is quite challenging because the thermoacoustic response results from a relatively unknown, self-excited system and nonlinear processes that must be understood before learning the gain/phase relationship of the system precisely at the instability frequency. However, recent experiments have shown that it is possible to obtain accurate measurements of the relevant loop transfer (frequency response) functions at frequencies adjacent to the instability frequency. Using a simple tube combustor, operating with a premixed, gaseous, burner-stabilized flame, the loop frequency response measurements have been used to develop a methodology that leads to ‘test-based predictions’ of the absolute phase settings and ‘best’ gain settings for a proportional, phase-shifting controller commanding an acoustic actuator in the combustor. The contributions of this methodology are twofold. First, it means that a manual search for the required phase setting of the controller is no longer necessary. In fact, this technique allows the absolute value of controller phase to be determined without running the controller. To the authors’ knowledge, this has not been previously reported in the literature. In addition, the ‘best’ gain setting of the controller, based on this new design approach, can be defined as one that eliminates or reduces the limit cycle amplitude as much as possible within the constraint of avoiding generation of any controller-induced instabilities. (This refers to the generation of ‘new’ peaks in the controlled acoustic pressure spectrum.) It is shown that this tradeoff in limit cycle suppression and avoidance of controller-induced instabilities is a manifestation of the well-known tradeoff in the sensitivity/complementary sensitivity function for feedback control solutions. The focus of this article is limited to the presentation of the design method and does not discuss the detailed nonlinear phenomena that must be understood to determine the optimal gain/phase settings at the limit cycle frequency for a real (versus theoretical) combustor system. A companion paper describes how the proposed design method can be used to generate an AI controller that maintains stabilizing control for a range of changing operating conditions.