Amplitude-Dependent Damping and Driving Rates of High-Frequency Thermoacoustic Oscillations in a Lab-Scale Lean-Premixed Gas Turbine Combustor

This paper presents numerical investigations of the amplitude-dependent stability behavior of thermoacoustic oscillations at screech level frequencies in a lean-premixed, swirl-stabilized, lab-scale gas turbine combustor. A hybrid Computational Fluid Dynamics / Computational AeroAcoustics (CFD / CAA) approach is applied to individually compute thermoacoustic damping and driving rates for various acoustic amplitude levels at the combustors' first transversal (T1) eigenfrequency. Forced CFD simulations with the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations mimic the real combustor's rotating T1 eigenmode. An increase of the forcing amplitude over time allows observation of the amplitude-dependent flow field and flame evolution. In accordance with measured OH*-chemiluminescence images, a pulsation amplitude-dependent flame contraction is reproduced in the CFD simulations. At several amplitude levels, period-averaged flow fields are then denoted as reference states, which serve as inputs for the CAA part. There, eigenfrequency simulations with linearized flow equations are performed with the Finite Element Method (FEM). The outcomes are damping and driving rates as a response to the amplitude-dependency of the mean flow field. It is found that driving due to flame-acoustics interactions governs a weak amplitude-dependency, which agrees with experimentally based studies at the authors' institute. This disqualifies the perception of heat release saturation as the root-cause for limit-cycle oscillations in this high-frequency thermoacoustic system. Instead, significantly increased dissipation due to the interaction of acoustically induced vorticity perturbations with the mean flow is identified, which may explain the formation of a limit-cycle.

Amplitude-Dependent Damping and Driving Rates of High-Frequency Thermoacoustic Oscillations in a Lab-Scale Lean-Premixed Gas Turbine Combustor

This paper presents the numerical investigations of amplitude-dependent stability behavior of thermoacoustic oscillations at screech level frequencies in a lean-premixed, atmospheric, swirl-stabilized, lab-scale gas turbine combustor. A hybrid Computational Fluid Dynamics / Computational AeroAcoustics (CFD / CAA) approach is applied to individually compute thermoacoustic damping and driving rates for various acoustic amplitude levels at the combustors’ first transversal (T1) eigenfrequency. Harmonically forced CFD simulations with the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations mimic the real combustor’s rotating T1 eigenmode. A slow and monotonous increase of the forcing amplitude over time allows observation of the amplitude-dependent flow field and flame evolution. In accordance with measured OH*-chemiluminescence images, a pulsation amplitude-dependent flame contraction is reproduced in the CFD simulations, where acoustically induced backflow at the combustion chamber inlet is identified as the root-cause of this phenomenon. At several amplitude levels, period-averaged flow fields are then denoted as reference states, which serve as inputs for the CAA part. There, eigenfrequency simulations with linearized flow equations are performed with the Finite Element Method (FEM). The outcomes are damping and driving rates as a response to the amplitude dependency of the mean flow field, which combined give the net thermoacoustic growth rate. It is found that driving due to flame-acoustics interactions only governs a weak amplitude dependency, which agrees with prior, experimentally based studies at the authors’ institute. This disqualifies the perception of heat release saturation as the root-cause for limit-cycle oscillations — at least in this high-frequency thermoacoustic system. Instead, significantly increased dissipation due to the interaction of acoustically induced vorticity perturbations with the mean flow is identified, which may explain the formation of a limit-cycle.

Bending moment distribution estimation of an actual steel building structure by microstrain measurement under small earthquakes

Most structural health monitoring systems estimate the overall behavior by measuring the acceleration response, which cannot directly measure the stress or damage state of individual structural members. An alternative approach is to use strain measurements; however, methods for analyzing and utilizing strain data for actual steel buildings have not been established. In this study, highly precise semiconductor strain gauges were applied to an actual building. The accelerations and strains measured during earthquake loading were used to calculate the ratio of the bending moment at the beam or column sections to the displacement at the top of the building, which was defined as the “local stiffness.” This physical index represents the stiffness of structural elements near the measurement location and can be easily predicted through simple static frame analysis. The measured local stiffness was comparable to the analytical local stiffness values for the beams but was larger than that for the columns. This indicates that nonstructural members may exhibit a certain degree of restoring force and that the measured local stiffness may be strongly affected by nonstructural elements that are not considered during the structural design stage. Conversely, the measured local stiffness can be used to estimate the behavior of nonstructural components. The measured dominant frequency and local stiffness of the beams and columns showed a dependency on amplitude, but opposite trends were observed for the beams and columns. This indicates that the amplitude dependency of the dominant frequency is not due to the behavior of the beams and columns but to other reasons such as nonstructural components or changes in mass.

Frequency-Adaptable Tuned Mass Damper Using Metal Cushions

A frequency-adaptable tuned mass damper (FATMD) using metal cushions as tuneable stiffness components is presented. The dynamic properties of the cushions with respect to stiffness and damping are investigated experimentally in this context. The natural frequency of the experimental FATMD is found to be dependent on the precompression of the metal cushions, which behave like nonlinear springs, yielding an adjustable frequency range from 67 to 826 Hz. As the precompression is increased, the stiffness increases while the damping characteristics decrease, the effect of which was quantified using a viscous mass damper model as a first approximation. Measurements have been carried out under five different excitation amplitudes to investigate the amplitude dependency of the resonance frequency. The FATMD was largely unaffected by changes in input amplitude. It was concluded that metal cushions show great potential for use in FATMDs, surpassing the utility of elastomers, especially with respect to their temperature stability.

Digital Processing of Seismic Data from Open-Pit Mining Blasts

This article describes an approach of mathematical processing of signals (seismograms) from five blasthole charges from experimental blasting, each 3 m deep, with equal explosive weight (1 kg), and equidistant (3 m) from one other. The seismic explosive waves were measured at a 13 to 25 m distance. This article provides spectral analysis, wavelet analysis, and fractal analysis results. It defines the dependence of dominant frequency and amplitude on the distance to the blast center. According to the experimental data, the dominant frequency is calculated as y = 1.0262x0.2622 and the amplitude dependency as y = 18.139x−2.276. Furthermore, the analysis shows that 80% of the entire signal is concentrated in half the area of frequency range, i.e., the low frequency zone is of the most interest. This research defines the dependence of distance on the energy value of signal wavelet analysis. It is demonstrated that, according to the experimental data, the 12th frequency range is closely correlated with the distance values. This article gives the definitions of entropy, correlation dimension, and predictability time. This experiment shows that entropy and correlation dimension decrease but predictability time increases when the distance to the blast center increases. This article also describes the method for determining optimal drilling and blasting parameters, and concludes with the possibility of applying the analytical results to predicting and enhancing drilling and blasting operations.

Effects of shape of the neck of classical acoustical resonators on the sound absorption quality for large amplitudes: Experimental results

This article presents some experimental results on Helmholtz resonators for large sound amplitudes with two general geometries of their necks: the resonators with classical (cylindrical) and quadratic nonlinear necks. Obtained results for large amplitudes show accelerated amplitude dependency of resonant frequencies of the resonators with modified shape of the neck compared to classical ones. This nonlinear response can be used as a passive controller system with nonlinear restoring forcing function for having broadband frequency absorption.

Identification of vibration properties of a midrise wooden building using subspace identification method

Recent years, the mid- and high-rise wooden building using cross-laminated timber (CLT) is on the increase in the world. In the regions highly subjected to seismic events, it is important to know the basic property of the vibration of the building to design the building to be safety enough against the seismic load; however, there is enough such data of full scale wooden buildings. In this paper, the natural period, the damping ratio, and the mode shape of a full-scale five-story wooden building are evaluated using subspace identification method. The results show that the damping ratios of higher modes tend to be lower than that of the first mode, and the natural period and the damping ratio show amplitude dependency even in the range of low amplitude.