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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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28 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Effect of Hydrogen on Steady-State and Transient Combustion Instability Characteristics

This paper examines the effects of steady-state and transient hydrogen enrichment on thermoacoustic instability in a model gas turbine combustor. Combustion instability, a feedback loop between flame heat release rate oscillations and combustor acoustics, is characterized in a swirl-stabilized flame operated at a range of hydrogen–natural gas fuel blends and heat rates. Measurements of combustor chamber pressure fluctuations and CH* chemiluminescence imaging are used to characterize instability at a range of operating conditions. Steady-state tests show that both mixture heat rate and hydrogen content affect system stability. At a given heat rate, higher levels of hydrogen result in unstable combustion. As heat rate increases, instability occurs at lower concentrations of hydrogen in the fuel. Transient operation was tested in two directions—instability onset and decay—and two hydrogen-addition times—a short time of 1 ms and a longer time of 4 s. Results show that instability onset processes, through the transient addition of hydrogen, are highly repeatable regardless of the timescale of hydrogen addition. Certain instability decay processes are less repeatable, resulting in cases that do not fully transition from unstable to stable combustion despite similar changes in hydrogen fuel flow rate. Flame behavior before, during, and after the transient is characterized using high-speed CH* chemiluminescence imaging. Analysis of the high-speed images shows changes in flame stabilization and dynamics during the onset and decay processes. Finally, the results of this study can have implications for systems that experience variations in fuel composition, particularly in light of growing interest in hydrogen as a renewable fuel.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dynamics of hydrogen–ammonia–natural gas lean-premixed high-pressure flames

The influence of fuel composition on self-excited combustion instabilities in a high-pressure combustor operated with ammonia, hydrogen, and natural gas fuels is characterized with high-frequency pressure measurements and imaging of the flame structure. A micromix multi-stage injector with 19 elements is used to introduce the fuel blend premixed with heated air into an optically accessible combustor operated at ~1.1 MPa. As hydrogen is substituted for natural gas, longitudinal thermoacoustic instabilities are observed in the combustor with pressure fluctuation amplitudes as large as 8% of the mean chamber value. In the absence of natural gas, limit-cycle instability magnitude is largely insensitive to ammonia addition. However, fuel compositions with > 20% natural gas result in positive correlation between instability amplitude and ammonia concentration. Spatial distribution of heat release in the combustor evaluated from OH* chemiluminescence imaging reveals axial growth in the regions of heat release fluctuation as hydrogen decreases, thus correlating flame length to instability amplitude. Distinct transitions from the first harmonic of the fundamental longitudinal acoustic mode (~1100 Hz) to the fundamental mode (~550 Hz) are observed with root mean square pressure fluctuations exceeding 7% of the mean chamber value. Here, these cases correspond to hydrogen mole fractions ≤ 50%. Analysis of the phase relationship between pressure fluctuations upstream and downstream of the flame zone indicates acoustic coupling of the injector as a key contributor to instability growth.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Experimental Investigation of Interactions Between Two Closely Spaced Azimuthal Modes in a Multinozzle Can Combustor

Thermoacoustic instabilities in annular or circular combustors are often coupled with azimuthal modes. These modes can be characterized by a spin ratio (SR), which quantifies the dominant mode between two counter-rotating waves, and a phase difference between them, which is directly related to the orientation of the antinodal line. This study investigates the instability amplitudes, SR, and phase difference of two closely spaced (3% of their mean frequency), yet distinct azimuthal modes; one is the first azimuthal (1A) mode, and the other is a combination of first azimuthal and first longitudinal (1A1L) mode. Each mode itself consists of two peaks that are spaced even more closely in frequency (0.8%). Furthermore, distinct harmonics at 2× and 3× of these frequencies, presumably associated with nonlinearities, are also evident in the spectra. Each mode is bandpass filtered in spectrum to analyze them separately. For the 1A mode, the SR and phase difference exhibit a variety of behaviors—including quasi-periodic standing waves, spinning waves, and intermittency—depending on operating conditions such as thermal power and azimuthal fuel staging. Similar trends are observed for the 1A1 L mode. Moreover, there is clear coupling between the 1A and 1A1 L modes, as their SRs are almost synchronized during the quasi-periodic standing wave. This synchronization is observed in phase differences as well, but not in the instability amplitude. For spinning dominant wave conditions, the SRs of each mode have similar average values, but they fluctuate in a seemingly random fashion. For the phase difference, both average and fluctuation are not correlated. In contrast, the instability amplitudes are strongly correlated, with modulation of the 1A mode leading to that of the 1A1 L mode. Furthermore, these results clearly indicate that complex coupling occurs across closely spaced frequencies under instability conditions, coupling that must be understood in order to capture limit cycle dynamics.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Identification of High-Frequency Transverse Acoustic Modes in Multi-Nozzle Can Combustors

Abstract High frequency thermoacoustic instabilities are problematic for lean-premixed gas turbines. Identifying which acoustic mode is being excited is important, in that it provides insight into potential mitigation measures and mechanical stress/life. However, the frequency spacing between modes becomes quite close for high frequency instabilities in a can combustor. This makes it difficult to distinguish between the modes (e.g., the first transverse mode vs. a higher order axial/mixed mode) based upon frequency calculations alone, which inevitably have uncertainties in boundary conditions, temperature profiles, and combustion response. This paper presents a methodology to simultaneously identify the acoustic mode shapes in the axial and azimuthal directions from acoustic pressure measurements. Multiple high temperature pressure transducers, located at distinct axial and azimuthal positions, are flush mounted in the combustor wall. The measured pressure oscillations from each sensor are then used to reconstruct the pressure distributions by using a least squares method in conjunction with a solution of a three dimensional wave equation. In order to validate the methodology, finite element method (FEM) calculations with estimated post-flame temperature is used to provide the candidate frequencies and corresponding mode shapes. The results demonstrate the reconstructed mode shapes and standing/spinning character of transverse waves, as well as the associated frequencies, both of which are consistent with the FEM predictions. Nodal line location was also extracted from the experimental data during the instabilities in the pressure data.

Kim, J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Fuel Injection Dynamics and Composition Effects on RDE Performance

Rotating detonation engines (RDEs) provide a promising route to substantially increasing cycle efficiency in stationary gas turbines. Much of this increase relies on the ability to achieve consistent pressure gain within the combustor. In particular, the design of injectors that feed fuel and air into the detonation channel plays a crucial role. Such injectors have to ensure proper mixing of fuel and oxidizer, while minimizing backflow of detonation products into the feed plenums, and reduce susceptibility to the complex wave structures that exist within the combustor. From a practical perspective, such RDEs also need to operate with variable fuel composition. When fuel mixtures with components that possess vastly different oxidation pathways and time-scales are used, there could be additional losses through deflagrative burning instead of detonation-driven heat release. Such sensitivity to the complete flow path is akin to the physics of thermoacoustic instabilities in conventional gas turbines. In this sense, RDEs pose a unique research challenge: the performance of the device relies on the small-scale heat release process, which is highly dependent on the flow interactions within the full-scale system. As a result, canonical flow configurations, instrumented with detailed diagnostics or modeled using high-fidelity tools, but only focus on the small-scale processes will not contain the key system-level interactions. At the same time, macroscopic measurements and models that only capture system-level performance will not provide insight into the key sources of pressure losses. These couplings and sensitivities provide a formidable challenge to both experimental and simulation studies of the effects Thus, a joint experimental/computational program designed specifically to address these challenges was undertaken in this program. The focus of this program was on two key topics: a) the interaction between injector flow and the overall wave dynamics within the combustor, and b) the deflagration/detonation structure in multi-component fuels that are of practical interest. Both topics involve interaction of small-scale heat release processes with the geometry-dependent wave structure. Studies focused on the study of full-scale RDE systems, based on a 6-inch conventional annular geometry. Experimentally RDEs were studied using a combination of diagnostics. A combination of optical diagnostics and aero-thermo-acoustic analysis based on a combination of spectral and mode decomposition analysis was used to identify the dynamics of the detonation wave and other secondary waves that exist in the system. These studies have helped the identification and investigation of injector and detonation dynamics arising from coupling, and how they affect RDE mixing, detonation structure, operability and performance. Performance of RDEs was investigated through thrust stand measurements, which was used to evaluate the effective pressure gain generated by the system through the concept of equivalent available pressure. Optical diagnostics were developed and implemented to investigate the distribution of heat release, across the detonation wave. Novel optical diagnostics of NIR imaging was also developed and applied to investigate the high temperature / high pressure distribution across the detonation wave. In order to complement the experiments, the computational tools were geared to simulate the full experimental setup. GPU-based acceleration of the models and computations were developed to enable rapid simulation of the full system. In addition, the use of adaptive mesh refinement, and unstructured grid formulation, enabled the investigation of realistic geometries studied in the laboratory. The simulations produced a wealth of detail on the structure of the detonation wave under different operating conditions. Emphasis was placed on quantifying mixture pre-burning and the impact on wave propagation and structure.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2022

High Frequency Transverse Instabilities in Low NOx Gas Turbines

This program addresses the topic of combustion instabilities under the goal of developing “Low-NOx Combustion Technology for ‘Air-Breathing’ Advanced Turbines”. With recent advances in high-temperature withstanding materials, the push towards higher efficiency has resulted in efforts to design high temperature, low NOx gas turbines. The development of such low NOx systems is often plagued with combustion instabilities. These instabilities manifest with acoustic modes that are longitudinal, transverse or both. A large body of literature and work exists addressing the underlying mechanisms and models for longitudinal instabilities and these have been successfully implemented in the design tools for low NOx gas turbines. The flame response aspect of the thermoacoustic feedback loop was often modeled in an acoustically compact framework since for low frequencies, the flame length scale was small compared to the acoustic wavelength. This enabled simplification where the modeling focused only on the overall flame response and not the local spatial distribution of the flame response. In addition, additional mechanisms such as the direct effect of pressure fluctuations on the flame response could be neglected. In contrast, high frequency instabilities which often are transverse in nature, have received relatively less attention in the literature. The flame is no longer acoustically compact and thus the local distribution of heat release must be accurately understood. The flame responds to velocity fluctuations, equivalence ratio fluctuations as before, but also to pressure fluctuations through kinetic effects. These aspects of high-frequency instabilities make it a challenging problem that requires a detailed elucidation of the underlying mechanisms and creating models for them. In this program we significantly improved the understanding of these instabilities through a combination of experiments (informed by interactions with OEMs), modeling of measured data and reduced order modeling of flame response. The results from the program can be used as basis for robust design tools that are essential for successfully developing gas turbines that operate in an environmentally acceptable manner with mitigation strategies for high-frequency instabilities.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2023

Control of Large-Amplitude Combustion Oscillations Using Nanosecond Repetitively Pulsed Plasmas

This paper details the use of nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharges to attenuate combustion instabilities in a 14 kW swirl-stabilized methane/air combustor. The combustor exhibits large-amplitude pressure oscillations ranging from 1 to 4% of the mean pressure during which the flame exhibits bulk motion in each instability cycle, upstream and downstream, as revealed by high-speed chemiluminescence. Control is accomplished with an electrode comprising a pin anode at the centerline of the combustor, allowing a nanosecond spark to be generated in a region spanning close to the flame base, through the shear layers of the swirling flow and ending at the metallic combustor wall. The discharges are generated using 20 kV, 9 kHz pulses; and they correspond to about 120 W of mean power. This results in a suppression of the peak amplitude of the pressure oscillations by a factor of two to four, and 5 dB in the rms value. Using phase-averaged visualizations of the flame with and without plasma, we detail the sequence of flame motion in the course of the instability. With the plasma active, this reveals significant interactions between the flame and the plasma during the suppression. Finally, we present a state-space model of the thermoacoustic system, and we demonstrate open-loop control of the instabilities.

Engineering↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nonlinear dynamics of combustor azimuthal modes: Experiments and modeling

This paper provides an experimental and theoretical investigation of azimuthal instabilities in a lean, premixed combustor. It presents data from a high Reynolds number, industrial-scale facility with multiple fuel stages that enable variation of radial and azimuthal symmetries. The combustor exhibits a variety of behaviors – including standing, spinning, mixed waves, and intermittent behaviors, as well as periodic limit cycles and quasi-periodic oscillations – depending upon varying power and azimuthal symmetry. A second key objective of this paper is to present a weakly nonlinear framework that is used to understand and interpret these results, showing the influence of eigenmode degeneracy, background noise, and azimuthal non-uniformities in mean quantities such as temperature and flame-acoustic coupling. In particular, this analysis shows the importance of the linear instability growth/damping rate and azimuthal non-uniformities in controlling the relative prominence of standing, spinning, or mixed waves at the limit cycle, as well as the preference in the spinning direction. It also shows the conditions under which single frequency or quasi-periodic oscillations are dominant, and how these are more fundamentally influenced by azimuthal non-uniformities and background noise.

42 ENGINEERING↗