scholarly journals Numerical Investigation of Combustion Instabilities in a Rocket Combustion Chamber with Supercritical Injection Using a Hybrid RANS/LES Method

Author(s):  
Ansgar Lechtenberg ◽  
Peter M. Gerlinger
Author(s):  
Giovanni Campa ◽  
Sergio Mario Camporeale

A three-dimensional finite element code is used for the eigenvalue analysis of the thermoacoustic combustion instabilities modeled through the Helmholtz equation. A full annular combustion chamber, equipped with several burners, is examined. Spatial distributions for the heat release intensity and for the time delay are used for the linear flame model. Burners, connecting the plenum and the chamber, are modeled by means of the transfer matrix method. The influence of the parameters characterizing the burners and the flame on the stability levels of each mode of the system is investigated. The obtained results show the influence of the 3D distribution of the flame on the modes. Additionally, the results show what types of modes are most likely to yield humming in an annular combustion chamber. The proposed methodology is intended to be a practical tool for the interpretation of the thermoacoustic phenomenon (in terms of modes, frequencies, and stability maps) both in the design stage and in the check stage of gas turbine combustion chambers.


Author(s):  
Christian Kraus ◽  
Laurent Selle ◽  
Thierry Poinsot ◽  
Christoph M. Arndt ◽  
Henning Bockhorn

The current work focuses on the large eddy simulation (LES) of combustion instability in a laboratory-scale swirl burner. Air and fuel are injected at ambient conditions. Heat conduction from the combustion chamber to the plenums results in a preheating of the air and fuel flows above ambient conditions. The paper compares two computations: In the first computation, the temperature of the injected reactants is 300 K (equivalent to the experiment) and the combustor walls are treated as adiabatic. The frequency of the unstable mode (≈ 635 Hz) deviates significantly from the measured frequency (≈ 750 Hz). In the second computation, the preheating effect observed in the experiment and the heat losses at the combustion chamber walls are taken into account. The frequency (≈ 725 Hz) of the unstable mode agrees well with the experiment. These results illustrate the importance of accounting for heat transfer/losses when applying LES for the prediction of combustion instabilities. Uncertainties caused by unsuitable modeling strategies when using computational fluid dynamics for the prediction of combustion instabilities can lead to an improper design of passive control methods (such as Helmholtz resonators) as these are often only effective in a limited frequency range.


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