Thermoacoustic instabilities in combustors:

progress and challenges

Swiss combustion workshop, ETH – 09.09.2015

Nicolas Noiray
D-MAVT, CAPS Lab.

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 1
 Thermoacoustics in combustion chambers
Power generation Aeronautics Aerospace
Liquid Rocket
Gas turbine Propellant
combustors

Aero-engine combustors

Boilers, Industrial
furnaces Solid Rocket
Propellant

Afterburners

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 2
 Gas Turbine combustors

GT26 Technology
GT: 326 MW, 40.3% efficiency
CCPP: 467MW, 59.5% efficiency Performance and efficiency
closely linked to the
Operating window
HP Turbine LP Turbine
Compressor
Combustion
instabilities
à Pulsations

NOx

Low Fuel/air mixing High

quality

EV Combustor
SEV Combustor

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 3
 Why does combustion instabilities matter?
Dynamic pressure Pulsations-induced damages

Time

Frequency

Structural vibrations

Time

Frequency

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 4
 Thermoacoustic feedback mechanisms
Combustor Acoustics
Emitted acoustic Impedance Reflected acoustic p0
waves 1 at boundaries 2 waves 3

Q̇0t Tt0 @ 2 p0 @p0 2 2 0 @ Q̇0

+↵ c r p =( 1)
Q̇0c Tc0 @t2 @t @t
5
2
1
9
8
4
6

7 3

0 Air feed 4
Coherent fluctuations of reactants c Convected Equivalence modulation
consumption inducing ratio oscillations 6
8
- heat release rate oscillations
- entropy waves 9
u0c Fuel feed 5
Coherent vortex shedding 7
Mixture mass flow oscillations Modulation
0
Stochastic fluctuations of
u0t t
reactants consumption Turbulence

Flame dynamics Burner Aerodynamics

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 5
 Time delayed system

Oscillation Speed of sound

frequency = 2 R L

Swing
analogy
R

The time delay between acoustic perturbation and flame

response must fulfill a certain phase relationship

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 6
 Several potential modes

Frequency (Hz)

Depending on the operating condition, one can get

different self-excited acoustic modes

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 Nonlinearities
Acoustic energy budget Loss

Acoustic gain/loss
Gain
Heat release
response

Acoustic amplitude

amplitude
Acoustic
Acoustic amplitude

Time

Main nonlinearity driving the saturation on a limit cycle:

Flame response nonlinearity

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 8
 Acoustic energy balance
Acoustic losses through Acoustic sources induced
combustor boundaries by the flames

Conservation of acoustic energy with fluctuating

heat release term - Rayleigh criterion

Outgoing acoustic energy Acoustic energy source/

flux on the boundaries sink from the flames
Frequency
Acoustic response
of the combustor

Acoustic sources stronger than losses à an increase of

acoustic energy in the system

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 9
 Mitigation strategy: Reduce source term

Acoustic sources induced Acoustic losses through

by the flames combustor boundaries

Frequency

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 10
 Mitigation strategy: Increase damping

Acoustic sources induced Acoustic losses through

by the flames combustor boundaries

Frequency

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 11
 Technology drivers
Air pollution
Climate change Burn hotter for higher performance
Increase efficiency for lower CO2 emissions while reducing NOx emissions
New technologies for hydrogen combustion
Oxy-combustion for Carbon Capture

Fuel Flexibility
Standard fuels (NG, fuel oil)
Drive fundamental and applied Syn(thetic)-gas
research to develop new Biofuels (gas, liquid)
Hydrogen
combustion technologies

Reliability and Availability Operational flexibility Balance

Mechanical integrity of fluctuating production from
combustion systems renewables

Future technologies will exhibit combustion instabilities that are

even more difficult to tackle than the ones in modern systems

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 12
 How to deal with it?

for different
problems,
Different •  Gas/Liquid fuel combustion,
approaches, •  Burner aerodynamics,
In the next • slides,
Open/closed loop control,
some
•  Analytical solutions •  Damping enhancement
examples of upcoming
•  Low/high lines of
frequencies,...
•  Low order network models
•  Helmholtz solversresearch to address these
•  CFD challenges
•  Experiments at atmospheric
or high pressure conditions
in different contexts
•  Solving field issue,
•  Developing upgrades,
•  Developing a new chamber

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 13
 Predict combustion instabilities
Compressible reactive LES Thermoacoustic network
Full annular chamber

Flames:
Acoustics: Negative heat
Positive pressure release fluctuations
fluctuations

Flames:
Positive heat
release fluctuation

Acoustics:
Negative pressure
fluctuations

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 14
 Predict combustion instabilities Flame transfer function from
Apply broadband acoustic forcing and cross-correlation between
collect integrated heat release response response and forcing

Challenge now is to develop system identification tools to extract

in a computationally efficient way the nonlinear response

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 15
ent model
1.1. Model description
en following Reynolds decomposition

Optimize burner
U(x, t) = U (x) + u (x, t) design for low flame response
m
0

author

U(t) = Um + u0 (t)
= + i! (1.6)
ate and angular frequency !, the system becomes
SC Um = hUi 2 1
d flow (mean flow), and u are fluctuations such that hu i = 0. Consider (1.7)
N(U
0 m ) = A (u) 0
el u + Navier–Stokes
al (2D) incompressible L(Um )u = 0 equations (1.8)
1.1. Model description
Navier-Stokes == 0 0
equations
@t U + N(U) (1.1) (1.9)
ng Reynolds decomposition ||u|| = 1 (1.10)
U(x, @tt)U=+U Um·(x)rU + +u 0rP
(x, t) Re 1 r2 U = 0 (1.2)
ynolds stress divergence 1 2
is noted
rU +mean rP Re flow r + U is the Navier–Stokes operator, Re = U1 D/⌫
fluctuations
ber, U1 the free-stream (u) = velocity, u⇤ · ru D uthe · ru ⇤
.
cylinder diameter and ⌫ the(1.11)
0
of theU(t)fluid.= The
Um + u (t)
continuity equation r · U = 0 is omitted, as for all
ocity fields in the following. Introducing the Reynolds decomposition
Uupled
m · Linearized
rU +
equations
m rP Navier
m mean flowUand
for Re 1 2Stokes 2 ⇤
r m =fluctuations A (u · ru + u · ru⇤ )
Um = hUi
equations
an flow), and N(U ) = hu0 · ru
u0 aremfluctuations such
0
i that hu0 i1= 0. 2 Consider
(1.3) Flow response at f1
u0 + Um · ru0 + u · rU m 0 + rp Re r u = 0
compressible
@t u + L(U Navier–Stokes
m )u = u0 equations
· ru + hu0 · ru0 i (1.4)
eter A is the real amplitude of the fundamental mode normalised to
@N/@U
L2 norm, Linear
@mt Uiswith
+the
N(U) Navier–Stokes
the L2problem
= 0 norm induced adequate
operator by thefor
linearised (1.1) the
around
Hermitian innermean
product
⇤
a · b d⌦ on the flow domain stability ⌦. ?and have flow shownresponse that the limit cycle amplitude
+ U · 0rU + rP 0 Re 01 r2 U = 0 0 (1.2) Flow response at f2
resm )u
U Umanalysis
the =condition · ru + =u0 ·can rUbe m+ computed
rp Re by1 r 2 0
relaxing
u. (1.9) and solving
(1.5)
1 2
Pmean Re flow r equation
U is the (1.7) Navier–Stokes and the eigenvalue operator, Re = U1 D/⌫
problem (1.8) for increasing
↵ected by fluctuations through the nonlinear forcing term hu0 · ru0 i,
he free-stream
amplitude velocity,
à until the mean D the flow cylinder
saturates diameter and ⌫ from
asUit evolves the the base flow
the di↵erence
CAPS   between the steady mean flow m solution of (1.3) and Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 16
id.0)
The continuity
Combus+on  and  equation r
Acous+cs  for  Power   · U
Systems   L=
ab.   0 is omitted, as for all
w U solution of N(U ) =m0. In turn, fluctuations are a↵ected by themode
=
b
to the mean flow
b
U (where à = A), while the fundamental
 Sequential combustor architectures with auto-
ignition stabilized flames
SEV Burner – Alstom GT26
Inlet vitiated air
1000°C

GT2015-43203

Auto-ignition Appl. Phys. B

stabilized flame 107, 2012
(30 MW)

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 17
 Sequential combustor architectures with auto-
ignition stabilized flames
Automatic reduction of detailed chemical
OH schemes

22 species reduced scheme (Methane-Air)

validated against Cabra flame

HO2

CH4

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 18
 Damper development
Pulsation amplitude

time
Estimation of linear growth rate from
stochastically driven limit cycle data
Frequency

Dampers + Same operating

Pulsation amplitude

condition à low pulsation

Suitable damper design and

positioning, bring the system
Frequency back to stable equilibrium

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 19
 Damper development
Pulsations without dampers Pulsations with dampers

GT2015-42287

Without dampers
Puls. Ampl.

With dampers

Freq. (Hz) Front panel combining near

wall cooling and damping
CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   elements Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 20
 Other examples of lines of research

§  High frequencies (non-compact flames)

§  Coupling via entropy waves
§  Liquid fuels (acoustic/atomization interactions)
§  Active control
§  Specificities of thermoacoustic couplings in future
combustor architectures

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 21
 Conclusion and outlook
Ø  Lot of progress in the recent years in terms of combustion
instability understanding, modeling and control

Ø  Fuel and operational flexibility requirements à new type of

combustor architectures à more complex and less predictable
thermoacoustic couplings à Crucial need for new approaches
to deal with this challenging problem

Ø  Combination of theoretical, numerical and experimental work

on generic experiments and at engine level

Ø  Multidisciplinary: Fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, chemistry,

control theory, stochastic dynamics,…

CAPS  Combus+on  and  Acous+cs  for  Power  Systems  Lab.   Nicolas Noiray | 15/10/15 | 22