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German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Combustion Technology, Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH 45433, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Available online 8 May 2012
Keywords:
Gas turbine combustion
Turbulent swirl ame
Precessing vortex core
Laser diagnostics
a b s t r a c t
The interaction of a helical precessing vortex core (PVC) with turbulent swirl ames in a gas turbine
model combustor is studied experimentally. The combustor is operated with air and methane at atmospheric pressure and thermal powers from 10 to 35 kW. The ow eld is measured using particle image
velocimetry (PIV), and the dominant unsteady vortex structures are determined using proper orthogonal
decomposition. For all operating conditions, a PVC is detected in the shear layer of the inner recirculation
zone (IRZ). In addition, a co-rotating helical vortex in the outer shear layer (OSL) and a central vortex originating in the exhaust tube are found. OH chemiluminescence (CL) images show that the ames are
mainly stabilized in the inner shear layer (ISL), where also the PVC is located. Phase-averaged images
of OH-CL show that for all conditions, a major part of heat release takes place in a helical zone that is coupled to the PVC. The mechanisms of the interaction between PVC and ame are then studied for the case
P = 10 kW using simultaneous PIV and OH-PLIF measurements with a repetition rate of 5 kHz. The measurements show that the PVC causes a regular sequence of ame roll-up, mixing of burned and unburned
gas, and subsequent ignition of the mixture in the ISL. These effects are directly linked to the periodic vortex motions. A phase-averaged analysis of the ow eld further shows that the PVC induces an unsteady
lower stagnation point that is not present in the average ow eld. The motion of the stagnation point is
linked to the periodic precession of the PVC. Near this point burned and unburned gas collide frontally
and a signicant amount of heat release takes place. The ame dynamics near this point is also coupled
to the PVC. In this way, a part of the reaction zone is periodically drawn from the stagnation point into the
ISL, and thus serves as an ignition source for the reactions in this layer. In total, the effects in the ISL and
at the stagnation point showed that the PVC plays an essential role in the stabilization mechanism of the
turbulent swirl ames. In contrast to the PVC, the vortices in the OSL and near the exhaust tube have no
direct effect on the ame since they are located outside the ame zone.
2012 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Modern gas turbine (GT) combustors are operated under lean
premixed or partially premixed conditions in order to reduce emissions of NOx and CO. The highly turbulent ames in GT combustors
are most often stabilized aerodynamically by swirl-induced vortex
breakdown. This leads to recirculation of hot burned gases, which
enhances ignition of unburned gas and thus helps to operate the
ames under the desired lean conditions. The detailed mechanisms
of the stabilization of turbulent swirl ames, however, are based on
complex unsteady interactions of ow eld and chemistry that are
still not well enough understood today [1]. Further improvements
of GT combustors with respect to emissions, fuel exibility, and
reliability therefore depend considerably on a better understanding of these interactions.
Corresponding author. Fax: +49 711 6862 578.
E-mail address: michael.stoehr@dlr.de (M. Sthr).
The ow eld of turbulent swirl ames not only contains turbulent velocity uctuations, but in many cases also features unsteady
coherent vortex structures. The most common coherent vortex
structure in swirl combustors is the so-called precessing vortex
core (PVC) [2]. A literature survey provided in Appendix A shows
that PVCs are frequently encountered in GT-typical swirl
combustors. Consequently, not only turbulence-chemistry interaction [35] is important in swirl combustors, but also the interaction of coherent vortices with the ame. While ow pattern and
frequency of PVCs have been frequently characterized, studies of
their interaction with a ame are, however, limited to the pioneering works of Syred and coworkers [68] and a study of Li and
Gutmark [9]. Although these works could show some effects of
the PVC on mixing and ame shape, the detailed mechanisms of
the interaction remain largely unclear.
Many previous works have investigated vortex-ame interaction at a rather fundamental level (see, e.g., Refs. [1013] and references therein). In these works, interaction of a single vortex or a
0010-2180/$ - see front matter 2012 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.combustame.2012.03.020
2637
2. Experimental methods
2.1. Combustor
A sketch of the GT model combustor is shown in Fig. 1a. Dry air
at ambient temperature enters the plenum (diameter 79 mm,
height 65 mm) and then separately passes the inner (Fig. 1d) and
outer (Fig. 1c) radial swirl generator. The two co-swirling ows enter the combustion chamber through a central circular nozzle
(diameter 15 mm) and a surrounding annular nozzle (inner diameter 17 mm, outer diameter 25 mm contoured to an outer diameter
Microphone
probe access
85 mm
110 mm
vortex pair with a ame front is studied under well-dened conditions. The studies revealed that a vortex can interact with a ame
in numerous ways. E.g., the vortex can inuence the ame through
transport and mixing, leading to changes of local gas composition
and temperature. Furthermore, vortical structures may induce an
enlarged ame surface or lead to strain-induced local extinction.
The magnitude of each effect strongly depends on various parameters like, e.g., local gas composition and temperature, relative size
and orientation of ame front and vortex, and time scales of chemistry and ow. Conversely, the ame affects the vortex due to the
expansion induced by heat release and leads to changes of ow
parameters such as density and viscosity.
In highly turbulent GT-typical swirl ames, interaction of a vortex with the ame is much more complex than under the well-dened conditions of the fundamental studies referenced above. This
is mainly owing to the irregular turbulent velocity uctuations that
are superimposed on the coherent vortex ow structure. The turbulent ow can lead to effects like unsteady strain, mixing and a
change of local ame surface orientation that can then compete
and interact with the effects of the coherent vortex. Under such
conditions, the detailed mechanisms of vortex-ame interaction
are not well understood, and further detailed experimental studies
are required.
The objective of this work is to elucidate the interaction of
large-scale coherent vortices within turbulent swirl ames in a
GT-typical combustor by means of modern laser-based methods.
In particular, novel high-speed laser techniques are applied for
simultaneous measurements of ow eld and ame structure with
high temporal and spatial resolution, which provide detailed
insights into the mechanisms of the interaction. The study uses a
GT model combustor, which at certain operating conditions exhibits thermoacoustic oscillations. These oscillations have been subject of numerous previous experimental studies, where several
diagnostic techniques have been applied such as Raman spectroscopy, PLIF, and PIV at repetition rates between 5 Hz and 5 kHz. Recent reviews of these works are provided by Boxx et al. [14] and
Steinberg et al. [15]. In another work, where the same combustor
was operated at a fuel-lean condition, Sthr et al. have investigated
the dynamics of lean blowout [16].
The present study, by contrast, focuses completely on the role of
coherent vortex structures. The combustor is therefore operated at
conditions where no blowout and virtually no thermoacoustic
oscillations occur, while coherent vortices such as a PVC are present. The operating conditions cover a range of thermal power from
10 kW to 35 kW. After a general characterization of the ames, the
ow eld with the coherent vortices is studied in detail using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and acoustic analysis. An important
part of this study is the analysis of the ow eld using proper
orthogonal decomposition (POD). The usefulness of POD for the
analysis of a PVC has been demonstrated in a recent publication
[17]. In the second part, the interaction of vortex and ame is studied using simultaneous PIV and planar laser-induced uorescence
of OH with repetition rates up to 5 kHz.
85 mm
Air
CH4
Cut 1
Cut 2
25 mm
15
mm
CH4
Swirler
Plenum
Vertical
laser sheet
Air
Cut 1
Cut 2
Fig. 1. Geometry of the combustor (a) from the side and (bd) in different
horizontal views.
of 40 mm). Non-swirling gaseous fuel is supplied through 72 channels (0.5 0.5 mm2) forming a ring between the air nozzles
(Fig. 1b). The exit planes of the fuel and central air nozzles are located 4.5 mm below the exit plane of the outer air nozzle that is
taken as height y = 0 mm. The combustion chamber has a square
cross-section of 85 85 mm2, a height of 114 mm, and is enclosed
by four quartz windows held by four posts (diameter 10 mm) in
the corners allowing very good optical access. A conical top plate
with a central exhaust tube (diameter 40 mm, length 50 mm)
forms the exit.
2.2. Operating conditions
Six operating conditions with a global equivalence ratio
Table 1
Operating conditions.
P (kW)
Re
10
15
20
25
30
35
0.65
0.65
0.65
0.65
0.65
0.65
15,000
22,500
30,000
37,500
45,000
52,500
2638
S, calculated as the ratio between the tangential and axial momentum ux, has been estimated in a previous work as S 0.55 at
P = 10 kW and S 0.9 at P = 35 kW [18].
2.3. Diagnostic techniques
2.3.1. Overview
The experimental techniques used in this work have largely
been detailed in previous publications, and therefore mostly brief
descriptions of them will be provided here. Stereoscopic particle
image velocimetry (PIV) was applied both separately with a repetition rate of 5 Hz (Section 2.3.2) and in combination with planar
laser-induced uorescence (PLIF) of OH (Section 2.3.3) at rate of
5 kHz. While the eld of view of the 5 kHz PIV system is limited
to a region of 30 30 mm2, the measurement domain of the 5 Hz
system extends across the full width of the chamber. Furthermore,
imaging of OH chemiluminescence (Section 2.3.4) and recording of
pressure (Section 2.3.5) were performed.
2.3.2. Stereoscopic PIV
For all conditions listed in Table 1, three-component velocity
elds were measured using a stereoscopic PIV system (FlowMaster,
LaVision) with a repetition rate of 5 Hz. The system consisted of a
frequency-doubled dual-head Nd:YAG laser (NewWave Solo 120,
120 mJ per pulse at 532 nm), two double-shutter CCD cameras
(LaVision Imager Intense, 1376 1040 pixels) and a programmable timing unit (PTU 9, LaVision).
The laser beam was expanded to a planar light sheet that covered the entire vertical section of the combustion chamber. The
thickness of the laser sheet was around 1 mm. The separation time
between the two PIV frames was between 6 ls (P = 35 kW) and
20 ls (P = 10 kW). The cameras were equipped with a wide-angle
lens (f = 16 mm, f/1.4) and a bandpass lter (532 5 nm) for reducing the inuence of ame luminosity. Both cameras were mounted
on Scheimpug adapters in order to align their focal plane with the
laser sheet. The two cameras were located as close as possible to
the combustor in order to image the full vertical section of the
chamber with a reasonably large stereoscopic angle. In the present
conguration, the distance between the camera lenses and the
measurement plane was 20 cm, and the angle of view of the cameras to the z axis was 20. An infrared lter was mounted between
the combustor and the cameras in order to protect the latter from
thermal radiation.
The air ow was seeded with TiO2 particles with a diameter of
1 lm, which have a relaxation time of s 0.5 105 s. For the condition with the highest velocities (P = 35 kW, velocity scale
v = 80 m/s, length scale l = 10 mm, cf. Fig. 6b), the resulting slip
v 2 1:6 m=s, which corresponds to a (maximal)
velocity is Dv s2l
velocity error due to particle slip of Dvv 2 %.
Velocity elds were evaluated from particle images using a commercial PIV software (LaVision Davis 7.2). A multi-scale cross-correlation algorithm was used with a nal interrogation window
size of 16 16 pixel (corresponding to an in-plane spatial resolution of 1.3 1.3 mm2) and a window overlap of 50%. Based on the
0.1 pixel uncertainty of the peak-nding algorithm, the estimated
random uncertainty of in-plane instantaneous velocities is ranging
from 0.3 m/s (P = 10 kW) to 1.4 m/s (P = 35 kW). With the camera
angle of a 20, the uncertainty of the out-of-plane velocity is
about three times higher as for the in-plane uncertainty [19]. The
same seed particles and algorithms for calculation of velocities
were also used for the PIV systems combined with OH-PLIF.
2.3.3. Simultaneous stereo-PIV and OH-PLIF at 5 kHz
For the case with P = 10 kW (Table 1), measurements were performed with a combined stereo-PIV and OH-PLIF system operated
at a repetition rate of 5 kHz. The stereo-PIV system was based on a
2639
|v| 0
P=10 kW [m/s]
10
vz -10
[m/s]
15
-5
10
15
30
100
90
80
y [mm]
70
60
50
IRZ
40
30
20
15 kW
15
30
45
vz -30 -15
[m/s]
100
90
80
y [mm]
70
60
50
IRZ
40
30
20
ORZ
10
(b)
ORZ
0
-40 -30 -20 -10 0
10 20 30 40
x [mm]
10 20 30 40
x [mm]
Fig. 3. Average velocity elds for (a) P = 10 kW and (b) P = 35 kW. Colors represent
absolute value of velocity (left) and azimuthal velocity (right).
10 kW
ORZ
|v| 0
P=35 kW [m/s]
100
ORZ
10
(a)
20 kW
25 kW
30 kW
35 kW
y [mm]
80
60
40
20
0
-40
-20
x [mm]
20
40
-40
-20
x [mm]
20
40
-40
-20
x [mm]
20
40
-40
-20
x [mm]
20
40
-40
-20
x [mm]
20
40
-40
-20
20
x [mm]
40
2640
v 0
[m/s]
P=10 kW
100
v 0 5
[m/s]
P=35 kW
10
15
between y = 3 mm and y = 8 mm above the nozzle exit. In Section 4.3 it will be shown that the motion of the LSP is coupled to
the vortex dynamics. The unsteady LSP plays an important role
in the stabilization of the ames, which will be discussed in
Section 5.
20
90
80
y [mm]
70
60
50
40
30
ISL
20
ISL
10
OSL
OSL
OSL
OSL
x [mm]
10 20 30 40
x [mm]
y [mm]
Fig. 4. RMS values of the velocity eld for P = 10 kW (left) and P = 35 kW (right).
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
30
20
20
10
10
10
20
30
10
20
30
x [mm]
0.02
0.04
0.06
400
800
1002
1006
Fig. 5. Average distributions of (a) mixture fraction and (b) temperature measured
with Raman spectroscopy.
instantaneous ow contains distinctive features that are not present in the average ow eld. First, both instantaneous ow elds
exhibit a zigzag arrangement of vortices in the ISL marked by
black arrows. This arrangement indicates the presence of a coherent 3D helical vortex in the ISL. Such a helical vortex is often found
in swirl ames (cf. Appendix A) and is commonly termed a precessing vortex core (PVC). Furthermore, some more or less strong vortices appear in the OSL (marked by gray arrows) at positions that
are obviously associated with the vortices in the ISL. The phaseaveraged analysis in Section 4.3 will show that these vortices are
part of a secondary helical vortex in the OSL, which co-rotates with
the PVC around the central axis.
Another important element of the instantaneous ow are the
stagnation point and the stagnation line above the nozzle exit,
which are marked by red dots. In contrast to the average ow
(Fig. 3), where the LSP is located below the dump plane
(y < 0 mm), the unsteady instantaneous LSP is typically found
As it was seen in Section 4.1, the velocity eld in the combustion chamber features different unsteady vortex structures as well
as incoherent turbulent motions. Since the different phenomena
are often superimposed on each other, it is not trivial to properly
characterize the individual parts. It is therefore desirable to have
available an appropriate statistical tool for analyzing the instantaneous ow elds. In the eld of uid mechanics, the analysis of
ow elds using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) has been
established as a valuable tool for the extraction and characterization of coherent vortex structures [21]. The potential of POD to
aid investigation of the PVC dynamics in the present combustor
has been demonstrated in a recent work [17]. The same POD technique is used here to characterize the PVC for two ames,
P = 10 kW and P = 35 kW. The main results are presented below,
while details about the formalism and computational procedure
can be found in [17].
For both ames, a snapshot POD of 600 instantaneous velocity
elds ~
v i ~x (i = 1. . .600) is performed. The result of the POD is a
set of 600 POD modes ~
/j ~
x (j = 1. . .600). Generally, the POD modes
represent the most dominant unsteady ow structures in terms of
kinetic energy [21]. For the two ames investigated here, the three
most dominant modes are shown in Fig. 7. The percentage values
denote their contribution to the total turbulent kinetic energy in
the measurement domain. It is seen that the rst two modes represent vortex patterns in the ISL, whereas the third mode contains
a vortex along the centerline in the upper part of the chamber (see
also Fig. 4 and Section 4.4). The arrangement of vortices in the rst
two modes represents the coherent helical PVC in the ISL. The PVC
is represented by two modes because of the precession of the PVC
helix, which causes a periodic streamwise motion of vortices in the
measuring plane. The vortex positions in the two modes are shifted
with respect to each other by half of the distance between adjacent
vortices. Any intermediate position of the vortices can be represented by an appropriately weighted linear combination of the
two modes. When this linear combination is superimposed on
the average ow eld, the characteristic zigzag arrangement of
vortices appears.
The relation between the vortex position and the relative
weights of the rst two modes can further be used to estimate
the vortex position in each instantaneous velocity eld ~
v i ~x. The
weight coefcients ai1 and ai2 can be calculated by taking the scalar
product of ~
v i and ~
/j (j = 1, 2), and as shown in Ref. [17], the phase
angle ui of the PVC precession can estimated by
1
i
a ia
i2
:
ui ln qi1
a2i1 a2i2
2641
100
|v|
[m/s]
100
|v|
[m/s]
90
Vortex in ISL
90
Vortex in OSL
80
25
80
80
70
70
70
20
15
10
5
0
y [mm]
60
50
50
40
40
y [mm]
60
30
30
50
40
30
20
20
20
10
10
10
0
-40 -30 -20 -10
10
20
30
60
40
(a) x [mm]
10
20
30 40
(b) x [mm]
Fig. 6. Instantaneous velocity elds for (a) P = 10 kW and (b) P = 35 kW.
P= 100
10 kW 90
Mode 1
4.9 %
Mode 2
4.2 %
Mode 3
Mode 1
7.0 %
Mode 2
6.3 %
Mode 3
3.0 %
80
y [mm]
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
P= 100
35 kW 90
4.9 %
80
y [mm]
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
-40 -30 -20 -10
10
20
30
40
x [mm]
10
20
30
40
x [mm]
10
20
30
40
x [mm]
2642
=0
40
=45
=90
Stagnation point
=135
30
y [mm]
20
10
vz
[m/s]
10 m/s
40
10
5
30
20
-5
10
-10
-30
-20
-10
10
20
30 -30
-20
-10
10
20
30 -30
-20
-10
10
20
30 -30
-20
-10
10
20
30
x [mm]
Fig. 8. Phase averages of velocity eld: streamline plots (top) and vector plots with azimuthal velocity (bottom).
other ames (P = 15, 20, 25 and 30 kW), the shape of the observed
vortex structures change gradually between the two cases. In a rst
~~
step, the 3 3 velocity gradient tensor D~
x r
v ~x is calculated.
From this tensor the swirling strength k, which is a common vortex
identication parameter [22], is determined. As rst described by
Zhou et al. [23], k is given by the imaginary part of the complex
conjugate eigenvalues of D.
For the two ames, isosurfaces of k are shown in Fig. 9b and c. In
both cases, three coherent vortices can be seen. The rst one is the
helical PVC in the ISL. While the overall structure of the PVC is similar for both cases, the length and slope of the vortex core are
somewhat different. At P = 10 kW, the PVC makes 114 revolutions
and ends at y 25 mm, whereas at P = 35 kW, 214 revolutions take
place until the end at y 35 mm.
A second helical vortex is found that is located in the OSL along
the PVC. The corresponding 2D vortices in the OSL have already
been seen in the instantaneous velocity elds shown in Fig. 6 (gray
arrows). The fact that the secondary vortex appears in the phase
averages of the PVC shows that both helical vortices are co-rotating
around the centerline.
A third vortex appears along the centerline starting at the top
of the chamber. This vortex forms in the exhaust tube contraction at the top and extends from there into the chamber. The
length of the vortex increases with thermal power, and covers
all the way to the bottom at P = 35 kW. The exhaust tube vortex
z
Vortex
in OSL
Vortex
in OSL
PVC
2D phase
average
(a)
PVC
(b)
(c)
has already been seen in the RMS values of velocity (Fig. 4) and
in the third mode of the POD (Fig. 7). At P = 35 kW, it is also visible in the instantaneous ow eld (Fig. 6b). Furthermore, this
type of vortex has been found in other swirl combustors [24
26]. As seen in Fig. 6b, this vortex can locally deviate from the
centerline, and may thus also perform a slightly precessing
motion. Therefore, care must be taken that this vortex is not
mistaken with the PVC.
4.5. Characterization of vortex core and outer zone
Previous studies of vortex-ame interaction have shown that
the effect of a vortex on a ame depends in large part on the vortex
radius R and the corresponding velocity u(R) [27,10]. In order to allow for comparison with other studies of vortex-ame interaction
in the literature, it is desirable to determine these parameters for
the present PVC.
For the case P = 10 kW, Fig. 10a shows the ow eld in a slice
perpendicular to the vortex axis. Here, x0 and y0 are the coordinates
relative to the vortex center. To the left and right of the vortex center, the reverse ow in the IRZ and the stream from the nozzle,
respectively, can be seen. The velocity prole across the vortex at
y0 = 0 is plotted in Fig. 10b. The prole shows the typical features
of a vortex in a viscous ow, namely an inner core characterized
by solid-body rotation (marked with the dashed red line), and an
outer zone where velocities decrease with distance from the center
(differential rotation). The location of the maximum circumferential velocity u(R) at the border between these two zones denes
the vortex radius R. The core is further characterized by its rotational frequency fcore 2DpuDhx0 .
The potential effects of the two zones on the ame are radically
different. In the inner core, velocity gradients and thus strain rates
are very low, which is favorable to the ame. Indeed it has been
shown that a ame can propagate along a vortex core even faster
than in a quiescent mixture [28,29]. In the outer zone, on the other
hand, strong velocity gradients are present owing to the differential rotation. Depending on the relative orientation of ame front
and vortex axis, these gradients may lead to increased rates of mix-
10
y [mm]
-5
-10
-10
-5
10
x [mm]
(a)
Outer zone
r
u (R)
u
Outer zone
2643
(b)
Fig. 10. (a) Velocity eld in a section across the PVC, (b) velocity prole across the
vortex (y0 = 0 mm).
4000
P=10 kW
P=20 kW
P=35 kW
35
30
3000
25
20
15
10
15
20
25
30
2500
2000
1500
10
1000
500
0
0
P=10 kW
P=20 kW
P=35 kW
3500
fcore [Hz]
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
uq(R) [m/s]
R [mm]
2644
0
0
(a) y [mm]
10
15
(b) y [mm]
20
25
30
10
15
20
25
30
(c) y [mm]
Fig. 11. Evolutions along the PVC of (a) vortex core radius, (b) maximum tangential velocity and (c) core rotation frequency.
the PVC is located. This suggests that the PVC may strongly interact
with the ame. In contrast, the vortex in the OSL and the exhaust
tube vortex are largely separated from the ame zone, and therefore, presumably, have no direct effect on the ame. In the following, the effect of the PVC is rst analyzed by means of phaseaveraged OH-CL measurements. The results show a major inuence of the PVC on the ame at all operating conditions. The interaction of PVC and ame is then studied in more detail by means of
simultaneous PIV and OH-PLIF measurements.
During the present work, the repetition rate of these measurements was restricted to 5 kHz. This rate provides a sufcient temporal resolution for the case P = 10 kW, but not for P P 20 kW. The
study of the interaction is therefore presently limited to the case
P = 10 kW. Additional equipment providing repetition rates up to
10 kHz recently became available. An investigation of PVC-ame
interaction at P = 20 and 35 kW using this equipment will be presented in a subsequent study [43].
5.2. Coupling between PVC and heat release
The coupling between PVC and heat release is characterized
using conditional averages of OH-CL with respect to the phase angle of the PVC precession. The phase angle u was determined using
35 kW
15 kW
10 kW
5 kW
2645
10 kW
15 kW
20 kW
25 kW
30 kW
35 kW
y [mm]
80
60
40
20
0
-40
-20
20
40
x [mm]
-40
-20
20
40
-40
x [mm]
-20
20
40
-40
x [mm]
-20
20
40
-40
x [mm]
-20
20
40
-40
x [mm]
-20
20
40
x [mm]
its ignition. Secondly, reaction zones are found near the vortices. It
can be seen that the vortex on the left side rolls up the reaction
zone, and thereby leads to an enlarged ame surface. The border
between burned and unburned gas lies in the outer zone of the vortex with differential rotation (cf. Section 4.5), which causes increased mixing of burned and unburned gas.
Figure 16 presents a series of PIV and OH-PLIF measurements
that show the temporal evolution of the situation in Fig. 14, with
a period between measurements of Dt = 0.2 ms. The ow eld
shows the downstream motion of the vortices (each marked with
an arrow) along the ISL. The downstream motion is the twodimensional representation of the rotation of the helical PVC
around the central axis. At t = 0.8 ms, another vortex appears on
the left-hand side and subsequently propagates downstream. Furthermore the motion of the stagnation points (red dots), which is
coupled to the vortex motion (cf. Section 4.3), can be seen.
The OH-PLIF image sequence shows the corresponding dynamics of the ame. At t = 0 ms, the left-hand vortex deects the
burned gas from the stagnation point towards the left-hand side.
In the following images (t = 0.2 ms and t = 0.4 ms), the deected
burned gas is further rolled up by the vortex. The differential rotation in the outer vortex zone (cf. Section 4.5) enlarges the boundary
between burned and unburned gas, which increases the supply of
heat and radicals to the unburned gas and therefore promotes ignition of the unburned gas. Starting from t = 0.4 ms, the OH levels in
the region around the vortex increase signicantly, which indicates
that reactions start taking place. Subsequently, the region of high
OH levels becomes larger and propagates downstream together
with the vortex. At the same time, the elongated region of unburned gas between the vortex and the IRZ decreases in size due
to the reaction at its boundaries. Furthermore, at t = 0.6 ms another
vortex starts to roll-up burned gas towards the right-hand side of
the nozzle. It thereby initiates a similar dynamics of the reaction
40
|v|
[m/s]
y [mm]
30
25
20
20
Vortex zone
10
Opposed-flow
zone
Burned gas
15
10
5
0
0
-40
-30
-20
-10
10
20
30
40
Unburned gas
x [mm]
Fig. 14. Simultaneous PIV and OH-PLIF measurement at P = 10 kW. Vortex positions are marked with arrows, and the red dot indicates the position of the LSP.
2646
40
40
y [mm]
30
30
20
20
10
10
0
-40
-30
-20
-10
10
20
30
40
t=0 ms
x [mm]
40
Fig. 15. Reaction zone structure determined from the gradient of the OH-PLIF
image in Fig. 14.
30
20
10
0
40
t=0.2 ms
Flame roll-up
and increased
mixing
30
20
10
y [mm]
t=0.4 ms
0
40
30
20
10
0
40
t=0.6 ms
Increased heat
release around
vortex
30
20
10
t=0.8 ms
0
40
Flame roll-up
and increased
mixing
30
20
10
t=1 ms
-40
-30
-20
-10
10
20
30
40
x [mm]
Fig. 16. Sequence of simultaneous PIV and OH-PLIF measurements showing the
interaction of PVC and ame. Vortex centers are marked with arrows, and red dots
indicate the position of stagnation points. The vector color scale is the same as in
Fig. 14.
2647
Sc [1/s]
30
Reaction zone
y [mm]
Vortex
zones
0
-1000
-2000
20
-3000
-4000
10
-5000
-6000
Opposedflow zone
-7000
0
-20
-10
10
-20
20
-10
10
20
x [mm]
x [mm]
Fig. 17. Simultaneous PIV and OH-PLIF measurement (left) with corresponding location of reaction zones and principal compressive strain rate Sc (right). Red dots indicate
the position of stagnation points. The vector color scale is the same as in Fig. 14.
x Vortex center
40
=0
=45
Stagnation point
=90
=135
30
20
x
10
y [mm]
x
40
30
20
x
10
-20
-10
10
20
30
-30
-20
-10
10
x
-30
x
20
30 -30
-20
-10
10
20
30
-30
-20
-10
x [mm]
Fig. 18. Phase averages of OH-PLIF distribution (top) and reaction zone structure (bottom) for P = 10 kW.
10
20
30
2648
and thus serves as an ignition source for the reactions in this layer.
In total, the effects in the ISL and at the stagnation point showed
that the PVC plays an essential role in the stabilization mechanism
of the turbulent swirl ames. In contrast to the PVC, the vortices in
the OSL and near the exhaust tube have no direct effect on the
ame since they are located outside the ame zone.
During the present work, the repetition rate of PIV and OH-PLIF
was restricted to 5 kHz. This rate provides a sufcient temporal
resolution for the case P = 10 kW, but not for P P 20 kW. Recently,
additional equipment providing repetition rates up to 10 kHz
became available. An investigation of PVC-ame interaction at
P = 20 and 35 kW using this equipment will be presented in a
subsequent study [43].
A survey of literature about PVCs in GT-typical swirl combustors is presented in Table 2. It can be seen that PVCs were found
both in experimental and numerical studies, and they were
encountered under reacting as well as non-reacting conditions.
Sometimes a PVC found in a non-reacting case disappears when
the ame is present. In most cases PVCs appear as a single helical
vortex in the ISL, but double helical structures in the ISL are some-
Table 2
Literature survey of PVCs in gas turbine combustors.
Combustor
Exp./
num.
React./
Non-react.
Swirl
number
Strouhal
number
Single/
Double helix
Refs.
Exp.
Num.
Exp.
Exp.
Num.
Exp.
Exp.
Both
Exp.
Num.
Exp.
Exp.
Num.
Both
Num.
Exp.
Both
Exp.
Exp.
Num.
React.
React.
Non-react.
Non-react.
Both
Non-react.
Both
Both
Non-react.
Non-react.
Both
Non-react.
Non-react.
Both
Both
Both
Both
Non-react.
React.
Non-react.
1.05
1.05
1.00
1.00
1.3
0.37
0.7
0.82
0.72
0.77
0.84
0.55
0.46
0.3
0.75
0.75
n/a
n/a
1.1
0.41.2
1.19
0.6
0.99
0.781.07
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
1.2
1.39
n/a
0.610.68
0.72
1.32
0.27
0.25
n/a
0.16
n/a
n/a
n/a
Single
Single
Single
Double
Single
n/a
n/a
Double
Double
Single
n/a
Single
Single
Single
n/a
Single
Single
Single
Single
[37]
[48,49]
[44,50]
[4547]
[51]
[52,53]
[52]
[54]
[55,26]
[56]
[57,58,8]
[59]
Num.
Num.
Num.
Exp.
Both
Exp.
Exp.
Num.
Exp.
Num.
Num.
Exp.
Both
Exp.
Num.
Num.
Num.
Num.
Num.
Num.
Num.
Exp.
React.
React.
Non-react.
Both
Non-react.
Both
React.
Non-react.
Both
Both
React.
Both
Non-react.
Non-react.
Non-react.
Non-react.
Non-react.
Non-react.
Both
Non-react.
React.
Both
0.76
0.441.1
n/a
1.2
0.52
0.51, 0.64
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
2.4
1.17
0.63.8
0.8, 1
0.35, 0.49
n/a
0.790.9
1.0
n/a
0.9
0.550.9
n/a
n/a
0.84, 1.78
0.78, 1.84
0.650.68
n/a
0.591.35
0.99
0.295
0.63
n/a
0.79
1
0.61.6
0.17, 0.4
n/a
0.961.1
0.520.67
2.88
n/a
1.29
1.35
Both
Both
Single
n/a
Single
Single
n/a
Single
Single
Single
n/a
n/a
Single
Single
n/a
n/a
Single
single
Single
Single
Single
Single
[67]
[68,69]
[70]
[71,72,70]
[73]
[74]
[75,76]
[77]
[78]
[79]
[80]
[81]
[25]
[82]
[83]
[84]
[85]
[86]
[87,88]
[89]
[90]
Present work
[36]
[60]
[61]
[62]
[9]
[63]
[6466]
Remarks
Liquid fuel
[41]
[42]
[43]
[44]
[45]
[46]
[47]
[48]
[49]
[50]
[51]
[52]
[53]
[54]
[55]
References
[56]
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[33]
[34]
[35]
[36]
[37]
[38]
[39]
[40]
[57]
[58]
[59]
[60]
[61]
[62]
[63]
[64]
[65]
[66]
[67]
[68]
[69]
[70]
[71]
[72]
[73]
[74]
[75]
[76]
[77]
[78]
[79]
[80]
[81]
[82]
[83]
[84]
[85]
[86]
[87]
[88]
[89]
[90]
2649