Numerical Simulation of the Acoustic Pressure Field in an Annular Combustion Chamber With Helmholtz Resonators

Author(s):  
S. M. Camporeale ◽  
A. Forte ◽  
B. Fortunato ◽  
M. Mastrovito ◽  
A. Ferrante

In modern gas turbines in which lean premixed flames are used to obtain low NOx emissions, large pressure oscillations may arise inside the combustor due to thermoacoustic combustion instability at frequencies corresponding to the natural acoustic frequency of the system. Such pressure fluctuations, that may cause structural damages, need to be damped in order to avoid a reduction of the operational range of the gas turbine. In this work Helmholtz resonators connected to the external envelope of the combustion chamber are examined as passive systems for damping the low frequency acoustic pressure in the case of an annular combustor. The acoustical behavior of the combustor has been first investigated by means of the Finite Element method, obtaining its acoustic eigenmodes and eigenfrequencies in order to tune the Helmholtz resonators on the frequency to be damped. In order to characterize the resonator, preliminary tests have been carried out on a simplified system composed of a Helmholtz resonator applied at the end of an impedance tube. Then the eigenmodes of the system obtained by connecting one or more resonators to the annular chamber and the damping effects obtained by varying the geometry, the number and the position of the resonators are analyzed. It appears that the peak of acoustic pressure characterizing the combustion chamber splits into two peaks of lower magnitude when the Helmholtz resonators are applied and the peak frequencies are correlated to the overall volume of resonant cavities, whilst lower effects are obtained by varying the position and the number of resonator units.

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (14) ◽  
pp. 1950138
Author(s):  
Myong-Jin Kim

Numerical simulations of the sound transmission loss (STL) of a double-panel structure (DPS) with sonic crystal (SC) comprised of distributed local resonators are presented. The Local Resonant Sonic Crystal (LRSC) consists of “C”-shaped Helmholtz resonator columns with different resonant frequencies. The finite element method is used to calculate the STL of such a DPS. First, the STLs of LRSC in free space and the DPS with LRSC are calculated and compared. It is shown that the sound insulations of the local resonators inserted in the double panel are higher than that in free space for the same size of the SCs and the same number of columns. Next, STL of the DPS in which the SC composed of three columns of local resonators having the same outer and inner diameters but different slot widths are calculated, and a reasonable arrangement order is determined. Finally, the soundproofing performances of DPS with distributed LRSC are compared with the case of insertion of general cylindrical SC for SC embedded in glass wool and not. The results show that the sound insulation of the DPS can be significantly improved in the low frequency range while reducing the total mass without increasing the thickness.


Author(s):  
Andreas Lantz ◽  
Robert Collin ◽  
Marcus Aldén ◽  
Annika Lindholm ◽  
Jenny Larfeldt ◽  
...  

The effect of hydrogen enrichment to natural gas flames was experimentally investigated at atmospheric pressure conditions using flame chemiluminescence imaging, planar laser-induced fluorescence of hydroxyl radicals (OH PLIF), and dynamic pressure monitoring. The experiments were performed using a third generation dry low emission (DLE) burner used in both SGT-700 and SGT-800 industrial gas turbines from Siemens. The burner was mounted in an atmospheric combustion test rig at Siemens with optical access in the flame region. Four different hydrogen enriched natural gas flames were investigated; 0 vol. %, 30 vol. %, 60 vol. %, and 80 vol. % of hydrogen. The results from flame chemiluminescence imaging and OH PLIF show that the size and shape of the flame was clearly affected by hydrogen addition. The flame becomes shorter and narrower when the amount of hydrogen is increased. For the 60 vol. % and 80 vol. % hydrogen flames the flame has moved upstream and the central recirculation zone that anchors the flame has moved upstream the burner exit. Furthermore, the position of the flame front fluctuated more for the full premixed flame with only natural gas as fuel than for the hydrogen enriched flames. Measurements of pressure drop over the burner show an increase with increased hydrogen in the natural gas despite same air flow thus confirming the observation that the flame front moves upstream toward the burner exit and thereby increasing the blockage of the exit. Dynamic pressure measurements in the combustion chamber wall confirms that small amounts of hydrogen in natural gas changes the amplitude of the dynamic pressure fluctuations and initially dampens the axial mode but at higher levels of hydrogen an enhancement of a transversal mode in the combustion chamber at higher frequencies could occur.


Author(s):  
Annalisa Forte ◽  
Sergio Camporeale ◽  
Bernardo Fortunato ◽  
Francesca Di Bisceglie ◽  
Marco Mastrovito

Premixed combustion is the commonly adopted technique to reduce NOx emissions from gas turbine combustion chambers, but it has been proved to be susceptible to thermo-acoustic instabilities, known as humming. These self-excited oscillations can reduce the efficiency of the turbine and generate structural damage to the combustion chamber. One of the proposed suppression methods lies in the application of Helmholtz resonators to the combustion chambers. This passive technique is advantageous in carrying out appreciable oscillation damping with modest costs and long life, but it is effective only in a restricted range of frequency, close to resonator eigenfrequency. Therefore, in order to design effective resonators, it is necessary to know the eigenfrequencies of the annular combustion chamber, because combustion instabilities arise in correspondence of these frequencies. Acoustic analysis of combustion chamber and its connected components may be carried out by means of Finite Element Method, but it requires a considerable computational effort due to the complex geometry of the complete system, which needs to be meshed by a refined grid. A combined numerical and experimental technique allows the authors to increase computational efficiency by adopting coarser and more regular meshes. First acoustic behavior of annular combustion chamber has been studied by means of numerical simulations and, therefore, the influence of the burners has been taken into account by substituting burner geometries by experimentally measured acoustic impedances. Then some Helmholtz resonators, tuned to one eigenfrequency of the combustion chamber, have been designed and manufactured. Their acoustic impedances have been experimentally measured and applied as boundary conditions into FE simulations of the annular chamber. In this way the acoustic pressure field inside the damper-equipped combustion chamber has been analyzed. Numerical simulations of the annular chamber, with burner and damper impedances applied, show that Helmholtz resonators are effective in oscillation suppression in correspondence of their resonance frequency, but may produce the splitting of the acoustic pressure peak of the chamber into two new peaks, whose frequencies lie on either side of the original common eigenfrequency. The amplitudes of these two new pressure peaks appear lower than the amplitude of the baseline one. The proposed technique can be used as an effective design tool: acoustic analysis of annular combustion chamber, with burner impedance applied, produces accurate indications about its acoustic behavior and allows the design of new passive suppression systems and the evaluation of their performances.


Author(s):  
José G. Aguilar ◽  
Matthew P. Juniper

In gas turbines, thermoacoustic oscillations grow if moments of high fluctuating heat release rate coincide with moments of high acoustic pressure. The phase between the heat release rate and the acoustic pressure depends strongly on the flame behaviour (specifically the time delay) and on the acoustic period. This makes the growth rate of thermoacoustic oscillations exceedingly sensitive to small changes in the acoustic boundary conditions, geometry changes, and the flame time delay. In this paper, adjoint-based sensitivity analysis is applied to a thermoacoustic network model of an annular combustor. This reveals how each eigenvalue is affected by every parameter of the system. This information is combined with an optimization algorithm in order to stabilize all thermoacoustic modes of the combustor by making only small changes to the geometry. The final configuration has a larger plenum area, a smaller premix duct area and a larger combustion chamber volume. All changes are less than 6% of the original values. The technique is readily scalable to more complex models and geometries and the inclusion of further constraints, such that the combustion chamber itself should not change. This demonstrates why adjoint-based sensitivity analysis and optimization could become an indispensible tool for the design of thermoacoustically-stable combustors.


Author(s):  
Valter Bellucci ◽  
Christian Oliver Paschereit ◽  
Peter Flohr ◽  
Fulvio Magni

In modern gas turbines operating with premix combustion flames, the suppression of pressure pulsations is an important task related to the quality of the combustion process and to the structural integrity of engines. High pressure pulsations may occur when the resonance frequencies of the system are excited by heat release fluctuations independent of the acoustic field (“loudspeaker” behavior of the flame). Heat release fluctuations are also generated by acoustic fluctuations in the premixed stream. The feedback mechanism inherent in such processes (“amplifier” behavior of the flame) may lead to combustion instabilities, the amplitude of pulsations being limited only by nonlinearities. In this work, the application of Helmholtz resonators for damping low-frequency pulsations in gas turbine combustion chambers is discussed. We present a nonlinear model for predicting the acoustic response of resonators including the effect of purging air. Atmospheric experiments are used to validate the model, which is employed to design a resonator arrangement for damping low-frequency pulsations in an ALSTOM GT11N2 gas turbine. The predicted damper impedances are used as the boundary condition in the three-dimensional analysis of the combustion chamber. The suggested arrangement leads to a significant extension of the low-pulsation operating regime of the engine.


Author(s):  
Weiwei Wu ◽  
Yiheng Guan

In this work, modified designs of Helmholtz resonators with extended deflected neck are proposed, numerically evaluated and optimized aiming to achieve a better transmission loss performance over a broader frequency range. For this, 10 Helmholtz resonators with different extended neck configurations (e.g. the angle between extended neck and the y-axis) in the presence of a grazing flow are assessed. Comparison is then made between the proposed resonators and the conventional one, i.e. in the absence of an extended neck (i.e. Design A). For this, a two-dimensional linearized Navier Stokes equations-based model of a duct with the modified Helmholtz resonator implemented was developed in frequency domain. The model was first validated by comparing its numerical predictions with the experimental results available in the literature and the theoretical results. The model was then applied to evaluate the noise damping performance of the Helmholtz resonator with (1) an extended neck on the upstream side (Design B); (2) on the downstream side (Design C), (3) both upstream and downstream sides (Design D), (4) the angle between the extended neck and the y-axis, i.e. (a) 0°, (b) 30°, and (c) 45°, (d) 48.321°. In addition, the effects of the grazing flow Mach number (Ma) were evaluated. It was found that the transmission loss peaks of the Helmholtz resonator with the extended neck was maximized at Ma = 0.03 than at the other Mach numbers. Conventional resonator, i.e. Design A was observed to be associated with a lower transmission loss performance at a lower resonant frequency than those as observed on Designs B–D. Moreover, the optimum design of the proposed resonators with the extended neck is shown to be able to shift the resonant frequency by approximately 90 Hz, and maximum transmission loss could be increased by 28–30 dB. In addition, the resonators with extended necks are found to be associated with two or three transmission loss peaks, indicating that these designs have a broader effective frequency range. Finally, the neck deflection angles of 30° and 45° are shown to be involved with better transmission loss peaks than that with a deflection angle of 0°. In summary, the present study sheds light on maximizing the resonator’s noise damping performances by applying and optimizing an extended neck.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 8678
Author(s):  
Byunghui Kim ◽  
Seokho Kim ◽  
Yejin Park ◽  
Marinus Mieremet ◽  
Heungguen Yang ◽  
...  

With the rapid increase in automobiles, the importance of reducing low-frequency noise is being emphasized for a comfortable urban environment. Helmholtz resonators are widely used to attenuate low-frequency noise over a narrow range. In this study, a slit-type soundproof panel is designed to achieve low-frequency noise attenuation in the range of 500 Hz to 1000 Hz with the characteristics of a Helmholtz resonator and the ability to pass air through the slits on the panel surface for reducing wind load. The basic dimension of the soundproof panel is determined using the classical formula and numerical analysis using a commercial program, COMSOL Multiphysics, for transmission loss prediction. From the numerical study, it is identified that the transmission loss performance is improved compared to the basic design according to the shape change and configuration method of the Helmholtz resonator. Although the correlation according to the shape change and configuration method cannot be derived, it is confirmed that it can be used as an effective method for deriving a soundproof panel design that satisfies the basic performance.


Author(s):  
B. Schweizer

We analyse the spectrum of the Laplace operator in a complex geometry, representing a small Helmholtz resonator. The domain is obtained from a bounded set Ω ⊂ R n by removing a small obstacle Σ ε ⊂ Ω of size ε >0. The set Σ ε essentially separates an interior domain Ω ε inn (the resonator volume) from an exterior domain Ω ε out , but the two domains are connected by a thin channel. For an appropriate choice of the geometry, we identify the spectrum of the Laplace operator: it coincides with the spectrum of the Laplace operator on Ω , but contains an additional eigenvalue μ ε − 1 . We prove that this eigenvalue has the behaviour μ ε ≈ V ε L ε / A ε , where V ε is the volume of the resonator, L ε is the length of the channel and A ε is the area of the cross section of the channel. This justifies the well-known frequency formula ω HR = c 0 A / ( L V ) for Helmholtz resonators, where c 0 is the speed of sound.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Bellucci ◽  
P. Flohr ◽  
C. O. Paschereit ◽  
F. Magni

In this work, the application of Helmholtz resonators for damping low-frequency pulsations in gas turbine combustion chambers is discussed. We present a nonlinear model for predicting the acoustic response of resonators including the effect of purging air. Atmospheric experiments are used to validate the model, which is employed to design a resonator arrangement for damping low-frequency pulsations in an ALSTOM GT11N2 gas turbine. The predicted damper impedances are used as the boundary condition in the three-dimensional analysis of the combustion chamber. The suggested arrangement leads to a significant extension of the low-pulsation operating regime of the engine.


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengli Lu ◽  
Weichen Pan ◽  
Yiheng Guan

As a typical noise-attenuating device, Helmholtz resonators are widely implemented in aero-engines and gas turbines to decrease the transmission of acoustic noise. However, an asymmetric Helmholtz resonator could be designed and implemented due to the limited space available in the engines. To examine and optimize the noise-attenuating performances of the asymmetric resonator, comparison studies are performed. For this, a two-dimensional frequency-domain model of a cylindrical duct with a grazing flow is developed. An asymmetric Helmholtz resonator is attached as a side branch. The model containing the linearized Navier–Stokes equations is validated first by comparing the predicted results with the experimental ones available in the literature. Further validation is conducted by comparing the results of an asymmetric resonator with the analytical ones available in the literature. The effects of (1) neck offset distance from the center of the resonator cavity denoted by [Formula: see text] and (2) the grazing flow Mach number [Formula: see text] are evaluated. It is shown that as the grazing flow Mach number is increased, the resonant frequencies and the maximum transmission losses are dramatically varied for a given [Formula: see text]. As [Formula: see text] is increased from 0 to 0.5 and [Formula: see text], the resonant frequencies and the maximum transmission losses are increased. However, when [Formula: see text] is lower than 0.07, i.e. [Formula: see text], the transmission loss performances are almost unchanged with [Formula: see text] increased. The optimum design of the asymmetric resonator is shown to give rise to the resonant frequency being shifted by 10% and 2–5 dB more transmission loss at higher Mach number. Finally, visualization of vortex shedding formed at the neck of the asymmetric resonator confirms that acoustical energy is transformed into kinetic energy and absorbed by the surrounding air. This study opens up a numerical design approach to optimize an asymmetric resonator.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document