Multifractal characteristics of combustor dynamics close to lean blowout

2015 ◽  
Vol 784 ◽  
pp. 30-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishnu R. Unni ◽  
R. I. Sujith

In classical literature, blowout is described as loss of static stability of the combustion system whereas thermoacoustic instability is seen as loss of dynamic stability of the system. At blowout, the system transitions from a stable reacting state to a non-reacting state, indicating loss of static stability of the reaction. However, this simple description of stability margin is inadequate since recent studies have shown that combustors exhibit complex nonlinear behaviour prior to blowout. Recently, it was shown that combustion noise that characterizes the regime of stable operation is itself dynamically complex and exhibits multifractal characteristics. Researchers have already described the transition from combustion noise to combustion instability as a loss of multifractality. In this work, we provide a multifractal description for lean blowout in combustors with turbulent flow and thus introduce a unified framework within which both thermoacoustic instability and blowout can be described. Further, we introduce a method for predicting blowout based on the multifractal description of blowout.

Author(s):  
Jiu-Peng Chen ◽  
Hong-Jun San ◽  
Xing Wu ◽  
Bin-Zhou Xiong

Quadruped bionic robot has a strong adaptability to the environment, compared with wheeled and tracked robots, it has superior motion performance, and has a wide range of application prospects in rescue and disaster relief, ground mine clearance, mountain transportation, so it has become a research hotspot all over the world. Leg structure is an important embodiment of the superior performance of quadruped robot, and it is also the key and difficult point of design. This article proposes a novel quadruped robot with waist structure, which can complete a variety of gait forms. Based on the theory of linkage mechanism, a novel leg structure is designed with anti-parallelogram mechanism, which improves the strength and stiffness of the robot. Using D-H description method, the kinematics analysis of this quadruped robot single leg is carried out. On this basis, in order to ensure the foot contact with the ground and achieve zero impact, polynomial programming is used to plan the foot trajectory of swing phase and support phase. Based on the static stability margin, the optimal static gait of the quadruped robot is planned. A co-simulation study has been carried out to investigate further the validity and effectiveness of the quadruped robot on gait. The simulation results clearly show the robot can walk steadily and its input and output meet the expected requirements. The solid prototype platform is built, and the trajectory planning experiment of single leg is carried out, and the foot trajectory of single leg is obtained by using laser tracker. The gait planning algorithm is applied to the whole robot, and the results show that the robot can walk according to the scheduled gait, which proves the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


Author(s):  
Jochen R. Kalb ◽  
Thomas Sattelmayer

The technological objective of this work is the development of a lean-premixed burner for natural gas. Sub-ppm NOx emissions can be accomplished by shifting the lean blowout limit (LBO) to slightly lower adiabatic flame temperatures than the LBO of current standard burners. This can be achieved with a novel burner concept utilizing periodic flue gas recirculation: Hot flue gas is admixed to the injected premixed fresh mixture with a mass flow rate of comparable magnitude, in order to achieve self-ignition. The subsequent combustion of the diluted mixture again delivers flue gas. A fraction of the combustion products is then admixed to the next stream of fresh mixture. This process pattern is to be continued in a cyclically closed topology, in order to achieve stable combustion of e.g. natural gas in a temperature regime of very low NOx production. The principal ignition behavior and NOx production characteristics of one sequence of the periodic process was modeled by an idealized adiabatic system with instantaneous admixture of partially or completely burnt flue gas to one stream of fresh reactants. With the CHEMKIN-II package a reactor network consisting of one perfectly stirred reactor (PSR, providing ignition in the first place) and two plug flow reactors (PFR) has been used. The effect of varying burnout and the influence of the fraction of admixed flue gas have been evaluated. The simulations have been conducted with the reaction mechanism of Miller and Bowman and the GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism. The results show that the high radical content of partially combusted products leads to a massive decrease of the time required for the formation of the radical pool. As a consequence, self-ignition times of 1 ms are achieved even at adiabatic flame temperatures of 1600 K and less, if the flue gas content is about 50%–60% of the reacting flow after mixing is complete. Interestingly, the effect of radicals on ignition is strong, outweighs the temperature deficiency and thus allows stable operation at very low NOx emissions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 572 ◽  
pp. 636-639
Author(s):  
Xi Chen ◽  
Gang Wang

This paper deals with the walking stability analysis of a multi-legged crablike robot over slope using normalized energy stability margin (NESM) method in order to develop a common stabilization description method and achieve robust locomotion for the robot over rough terrains. The robot is simplified with its static stability being described by NESM. The mathematical model of static stability margin is built so as to carry out the simulation of walking stability over slope for the crablike robot that walks in double tetrapod gait. As a consequence, the relationship between stability margin and the height of the robots centroid, as well as its inclination relative to the ground is calculated by the stability criterion. The success and performance of the stability criterion proposed is verified through MATLAB simulation and real-world experiments using multi-legged crablike robot.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Induja Pavithran ◽  
Vishnu R. Unni ◽  
Abhishek Saha ◽  
Alan J. Varghese ◽  
R. I. Sujith ◽  
...  

Abstract The complex interaction between the turbulent flow, combustion and the acoustic field in gas turbine engines often results in thermoacoustic instability that produces ruinously high-amplitude pressure oscillations. These self-sustained periodic oscillations may result in a sudden failure of engine components and associated electronics, and increased thermal and vibra-tional loads. Estimating the amplitude of the limit cycle oscillations (LCO) that are expected during thermoacoustic instability helps in devising strategies to mitigate and to limit the possible damages due to thermoacoustic instability. We propose two methodologies to estimate the amplitude using only the pressure measurements acquired during stable operation. First, we use the universal scaling relation of the amplitude of the dominant mode of oscillations with the Hurst exponent to predict the amplitude of the LCO. We also present a methodology to estimate the amplitudes of different modes of oscillations separately using ‘spectral measures’ which quantify the sharpening of peaks in the amplitude spectrum. The scaling relation enables us to predict the peak amplitude at thermoacoustic instability, given the data during the safe operating condition. The accuracy of prediction is tested for both methods, using the data acquired from a laboratory-scale turbulent combustor. The estimates are in good agreement with the actual amplitudes.


2004 ◽  
Vol 128 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen R. Kalb ◽  
Thomas Sattelmayer

The technological objective of this work is the development of a lean-premixed burner for natural gas. Sub-ppm NOx emissions can be accomplished by shifting the lean blowout limit (LBO) to slightly lower adiabatic flame temperatures than the LBO of current standard burners. This can be achieved with a novel burner concept utilizing spatially periodic recirculation of combustion products: Hot combustion products are admixed to the injected premixed fresh mixture with a mass flow rate of comparable magnitude, in order to achieve self-ignition. The subsequent combustion of the diluted mixture again delivers products. A fraction of these combustion products is then admixed to the next stream of fresh mixture. This process pattern is to be continued in a cyclically closed topology, in order to achieve stable combustion of, for example, natural gas in a temperature regime of very low NOx production. The principal ignition behavior and NOx production characteristics of one sequence of the periodic process was modeled by an idealized adiabatic system with instantaneous admixture of partially or completely burnt combustion products to one stream of fresh reactants. With the CHEMKIN-II package, a reactor network consisting of one perfectly stirred reactor (PSR, providing ignition in the first place) and two plug flow reactors (PFR) has been used. The effect of varying burnout and the influence of the fraction of admixed flue gas has been evaluated. The simulations have been conducted with the reaction mechanism of Miller and Bowman and the GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism. The results show that the high radical content of partially combusted products leads to a massive decrease of the time required for the formation of the radical pool. As a consequence, self-ignition times of 1 ms are achieved even at adiabatic flame temperatures of 1600 K and less, if the flue gas content is about 50–60% of the reacting flow after mixing is complete. Interestingly, the effect of radicals on ignition is strong, outweighs the temperature deficiency and thus allows stable operation at very low NOx emissions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gopakumar Ramachandran ◽  
Ankit Kumar Dutta ◽  
Harish Durairaj ◽  
Swetaprovo Chaudhuri

Abstract Premixed or partially premixed swirling flames are widely used in gas turbine applications because of their compactness, high ignition efficiency, low NOx emissions and flame stability. A typical annular combustor consists of about twenty swirling flames, which interact (directly or indirectly) with their immediate neighbors even during stable operation. These interactions significantly alter the flow and flame topologies thereby bringing in some discrepancies between the single nozzle (SN) and multinozzle (MN), ignition, emission, pattern factor and flame transfer function (FTF) characteristics. For example, in MN configurations, application of a model based on SN FTF data could lead to erroneous conclusions. Due to the complexities involved in this problem in terms of size, thermal power, cost, optical accessibility etc., a limited amount of experimental studies has been reported, that too on scaled down models with reduced number of nozzles. Here, we present a detailed experimental study on the behavior of three interacting swirl premixed flames, arranged in-line in an optically accessible hollow cuboid test section, which closely resembles a three-cup sector of an annular gas turbine combustor with very large radius. Multiple configurations with various combinations of swirl levels between the adjacent nozzles and the associated flame and flow topologies have been studied. Spatio-temporal information of the heat release rate obtained from OH* chemiluminescence imaging is used along with the acoustic pressure signatures to compute the Rayleigh index (RI) so as to identify the regions within the flame that pumps energy into the self-excited thermoacoustic instability modes. It is found that the structure of the flame–flame interaction regions plays a dominant role in the resulting thermoacoustic instability. To resolve the flow and reactive species distributions in the interacting flames, two-dimensional (2D), three component stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) and planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of hydroxyl radical is applied to all the test conditions. Significant differences in the flow structures among the different configurations were observed. Simultaneous OH-PLIF and SPIV techniques were also utilized to track the flame front, from which the curvature and stretch rates were computed. Flame surface density (FSD) which is defined as the mean surface area of the reaction zone per unit volume, is also computed for all the test cases. These measurements and analyses elucidate the structure of the interaction regions, their unique characteristics, and possible role in thermoacoustic instability.


Author(s):  
Arijit Bhattacharya ◽  
Bikash Gupta ◽  
Satyajit Hansda ◽  
Zohadul Haque ◽  
Ashish Kumar ◽  
...  

Abstract Strict emission norms in the last few decades have paved the path for adaptation of new low NoX emission alternatives to power generation and aircraft propulsion. Lean combustion is a very promising and practicable technology for reducing NOX reduction and also have very high fuel efficiency. However, lean combustion technology suffers from inherent combustion instabilities that are manifested under different conditions, most importantly, thermoacoustic instability and lean blowout. Lean blowout occurs when a gas turbine combustor operating close to lean limit, for lowest NoX emission, faces abrupt changes in fuel homogeneity, quality or flow rate. While many work have been done in thermo-acoustic instability and flame propagation in annular combustors, studies in lean blowout in annular combustors are very limited. The lean limit of combustors are not fixed and is dependent on fuel characteristics and operating condition including environmental effects. So accurate online prediction of lean limit is very important to keep the combustors operating safely near lean limit. Recent works have demonstrated that single burner combustors leave out a significant amounts of physics including interaction of flames from different burners prior to blowout. In this work, a stepped down swirl and bluff body stabilized annular combustor in CB configuration (having chamber and burner), is used as experimental test rig having 4 number of identical burners. Video and heat release data are taken at different conditions as lean blowout is approached. Frequent attachment and reattachment of the flames prior to lift off was seen. As lean blowout is approached, inherent subtle differences in the different burners get amplified when flame becomes sufficiently weak and flame symmetry is broken. As air fuel mixture is made gradually leaner, one by one the flames from different burners elongates although remains partially attached to burner. Further lowering the equivalence ratio results in lift off and merging of the flame fronts of different burners. Three pixel averaged color ratios are extracted from still camera RGB images as flame stability indicators which are, red by blue, red by green and blue by green. The parameters show marked change at the point of lift off as well as at the lean blowout point.


Author(s):  
Gopakumar Ramachandran ◽  
Ankit Kumar Dutta ◽  
Harish Durairaj ◽  
Swetaprovo Chaudhuri

Abstract Premixed or partially premixed swirling flames are widely used in gas turbine applications because of their compactness, high ignition efficiency, low NOx emissions and flame stability. A typical annular combustor consists of about eighteen to twenty-two swirling flames which interact (directly or indirectly) with their immediate neighbors even during stable operation. These interactions significantly alter the flow and flame topologies thereby bringing in some discrepancies between the single nozzle (SN) and multi nozzle (MN), ignition, emission, pattern factor and Flame Transfer Functions (FTF) characteristics. For example, in MN configurations, application of a model based on SN FTF data could lead to erroneous conclusions. Due to the complexities involved in this problem in terms of size, thermal power, cost, optical accessibility etc., a limited amount of experimental studies has been reported, that too on scaled down models with reduced number of nozzles. Here, we present a detailed experimental study on the behavior of three interacting swirl premixed flames, arranged in-line in an optically accessible hollow cuboid test section, which closely resembles a three-cup sector of an annular gas turbine combustor with very large radius. Multiple configurations with various combinations of swirl levels between the adjacent nozzles and the associated flame and flow topologies have been studied. Spatio-temporal information of the heat release rate obtained from OH* chemiluminescence imaging was used along with the acoustic pressure signatures to compute the Rayleigh index so as to identify the regions within the flame that pumps energy into the self-excited thermoacoustic instability modes. It was found that the structure of the flame-flame interaction regions plays a dominant role in the resulting thermoacoustic instability. To resolve the flow and reactive species field distributions in the interacting flames, two-dimensional, three component Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (SPIV) and Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) of hydroxyl radical was applied to all the test conditions. Significant differences in the flow structures among the different configurations were observed. Simultaneous OH-PLIF and SPIV techniques were also utilized to track the flame front, from which the curvature and stretch rates were computed. Flame surface density which is defined as the mean surface area of the reaction zone per unit volume is also computed for all the test cases. These measurements and analyses elucidate the structure of the interaction regions, their unique characteristics and possible role in thermoacoustic instability.


Author(s):  
Yiming Zhong ◽  
WuLi Chu ◽  
HaoGuang Zhang

Abstract Compared to the traditional casing treatment, the self-recirculating casing treatment (SCT) can improve or not decrease the compressor efficiency while achieving the stall margin improvement. For the bleed port, the main design indicator is to reduce the flow loss caused by suction, while providing sufficient jet flow and jet pressure to the injector. In order to gain a better study of the bleed port stabilization mechanisms, the bleed configuration was parameterized with the bleed port inlet width and the bleed port axial position. Five kinds of recirculating casing treatments were applied to a 1.5-stage transonic axial compressor with the method of three-dimensional unsteady numerical simulation. Fifteen identical self-recirculating devices are uniformly mounted around the annulus. The numerical results show that the SCT can improve compressor total pressure ratio and stability, shift the stall margin towards lower mass flows. Furthermore, it has no impact on compressor efficiency. The optimal case presents that stability margin is improved by 6.7% employing 3.1% of the annulus mass flow. Expanding bleed port inlet width to an intermediate level can further enhance compressor stability, but excessive bleed port inlet width will reduce the stabilization effect. The optimal bleed port position is located in the blocked area of the low energy group at the top of the rotor. In the case of solid casing, stall inception was the tip blockage, which was mainly triggered by the interaction of the tip leakage vortex and passage shock. From radial distribution, the casing treatment predominantly affects the above 70% span. The reduction of tip reflux region by suction effect is the main reason for the extension of stable operation range. The SCT also has an obvious stability improvement in tip blockage stall, while delaying the occurrence of compressor stall.


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