Search Results (21)

Hydrogen is widely regarded as a promising carbon-free alternative fuel. However, the development of low-emission marine gas turbine combustion systems has been hindered by the associated risks of combustion instability, also termed as thermoacoustic oscillations. Although there is sufficient literature on hydrogen fuel and combustion instability, systematic reviews addressing the manifestations and mechanisms of these instabilities remain limited. The present study aims to provide a comprehensive review of combustion instabilities in hydrogen-enriched marine gas turbines, with a particular focus on elucidating the characteristics and underlying mechanisms. The review begins with a concise overview of recent progress in understanding the fundamental combustion properties of hydrogen, and then details various instability phenomena in hydrogen-enriched methane flames. The mechanisms by which hydrogen enrichment affects combustion instabilities are extensively discussed, particularly in relation to the feedback loop in thermoacoustic combustion systems. The paper concludes with a summary of the key combustion instability challenges associated with hydrogen addition to methane flames and offers prospects for future research. In summary, the review highlights the interaction between hydrogen-enriched methane flames and thermoacoustic phenomena, providing a foundation for the development of stable, low-emission combustion systems in industrial marine applications incorporating hydrogen enrichment. Full article

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generators are direct energy conversion devices that transform the motion of an electrically conducting fluid into electricity through interaction with a magnetic field. Developed as an alternative to conventional turbine-generator systems, MHD generators evolved through the 20th century from large units, which are intended to transform thermal energy into electricity using plasma as a working fluid, to smaller units that can harness heat from a variety of sources. In the last few decades, an effort has been made to develop energy conversion systems that incorporate MHD generators to harvest renewable sources such as solar and ocean energy, strengthening the sustainability of this technology. This review briefly synthesizes the main steps in the evolution of MHD technology for electricity generation, starting by outlining its physical principles and the proposals to convert thermal energy into electricity, either using a high-temperature plasma as a working fluid or a liquid metal in a one- or two-phase flow at lower temperatures. The use of wave energy in the form of acoustic waves, which were obtained from the conversion of thermal energy through thermoacoustic devices coupled to liquid metal and plasma MHD generators, as well as alternatives for the transformation of environmental energy resources employing MHD transducers, is also assessed. Finally, proposals for the conversion of ocean energy, mainly in the form of waves and tides, into electric energy, through MHD generators using either seawater or liquid metal as working fluids, are presented along with some of the challenges of MHD conversion technology. Full article

Recent advancements in marine technology have highlighted the urgent need for enhanced underwater acoustic applications, from sonar detection to communication and noise cancellation, driving the pursuit of innovative transducer technologies. In this paper, a new underwater thermoacoustic (TA) transducer made from carbon nanotube (CNT) sponge is designed to achieve wide bandwidth, high energy conversion efficiency, simple structure, good transient response, and stable sound response, utilizing the TA effect through electro-thermal modulation. The transducer has potential application in underwater acoustic communication. An electro-thermal-acoustic coupled simulation for the open model, sandwich model, and encapsulated model is presented to analyze the transient behaviors of CNT sponge TA transducers in liquid environments. The effects of key design parameters on the acoustic performances of both systems are revealed. The results demonstrate that a short pulse excitation with a low duty cycle could greatly improve the heat dissipation of the encapsulated transducer, especially when the thermoacoustic response time becomes comparable to thermal relaxation time. Full article

When aiming to cut down on the emission of nitric oxides by gas turbine engines, it is advantageous to have them operate at low combustion temperatures. This is achieved by lean premixed combustion. Although lean premixed combustion is a proven and promising technology, it is also very sensitive to thermoacoustic instabilities. These instabilities occur due to a coupling between the unsteady heat release rate of the flame and the acoustic field inside the combustion chamber. In this paper, this coupling is investigated in detail. Two acoustic design parameters of a swirl-stabilized pressurized preheated air (300 °C)/natural gas combustor are varied, and the occurrence of thermoacoustic limit cycle oscillations is explored. The sensitivity of the acoustic field as a function of combustion chamber length (0.9 m to 1.8 m) and reflection coefficient (0.7 and 0.9) at the exit of the combustor is investigated first using a hybrid numerical and analytical approach. ANSYS CFX is used for Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) numerical simulations, and a one-dimensional acoustic network model is used for the analytical investigation. Subsequently, the effects of a change in the reflection coefficient are validated on a pressurized combustor test rig at 125 kW and 1.5 bar. With the change in reflection coefficient, the combustor switched to limit cycle oscillation as predicted, and reached a sound pressure level of 150 dB. Full article

Thin-walled connection structures are commonly used in the hot-end components of aerospace vehicles. Large deflection nonlinear responses and fatigue failure occur due to their discontinuous mass distribution and prominent cross-sectional changes under the action of complex thermal, aerodynamic, and noise loads. A thermoacoustic fatigue test was carried out to obtain the acoustic and vibration responses and fatigue life changes of the connection structure under heat flow conditions in engineering applications. The high-temperature acoustic fatigue test system of aviation thin-walled structures was used, taking the high-temperature alloy thin-walled plate-load-bearing frame bolted connection structure as the research object. As a result, the vibration response and fatigue life under different thermoacoustic loads were obtained. The contact finite element method was used to simulate the connection pre-tightening force, and the coupled finite element/boundary element method was used to calculate the acoustic and vibration response of the heat flow conditions. The changing rules of the frequency response peak value at the critical point of the thin-walled connection structure under the effects of different temperature fields, fluid fields, and sound fields were obtained through the processing and analysis of the calculation results. Considering the structural vibration fatigue damage mechanism, this study employed an improved rainflow counting method to compute the rainflow circulation matrix (RFM) and rainflow damage matrix (RFD) of the vibration stress time history at critical points within the structure framework. Said method was combined with Miner’s linear cumulative damage theory to estimate the fatigue life under various thermal-fluid-acoustic coupled loads. A comprehensive analysis validates the accuracy of the established numerical simulation calculation model in identifying critical connection points within structures subjected to pre-tightening forces. This model effectively characterizes thermal, aerodynamic, and acoustic loads on high-temperature alloy thin-walled-load-bearing frame bolted connection structures. It delineates the relationship between vibration response and fatigue life while assessing the impact of three distinct load parameters. Full article

Thermoacoustic oscillation is indeed a phenomenon characterized by the symmetric coupling of thermal and acoustic waves. This paper introduces a novel approach for monitoring and predicting thermoacoustic combustion instability using a combination of recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) and an optimized deep belief network (DBN). Six samples of combustion state data were collected using two distinct types of burners to facilitate the training and validation of GA-DBN. The proposed methodology leverages RQA to extract intricate patterns and dynamic features from time series data representing combustion behavior. By quantifying the recurrence plot of specific patterns, the analysis provides valuable insights into the underlying thermoacoustic dynamics. Among three different feature extraction methods, RQA stands out remarkably in performance. These RQA-derived features serve as input to a carefully tuned DBN, which is trained to learn the complex relationships within the combustion process. The classification accuracy of deep belief network optimized by genetic algorithm (GA-DBN) reached an impressive 99.8%. Subsequent multiple comparisons were conducted between GA-DBN, DBN, and support vector machine (SVM), revealing that GA-DBN consistently demonstrated satisfactory classification results. This method holds significant importance in monitoring intricate combustion states. Full article

Self-excited thermoacoustic instability (SETAI) is an undesirable and dangerous phenomenon in combustion systems. However, its control is difficult, thus greatly limiting the development of combustion technology. Our previous works clarified how the premixed chamber length (L_P) and equivalence ratio (φ) influence SETAI behavior in a symmetrical hedge premixed combustion system. On real-world sites, however, the supply structure or combustion condition in a multi-flame system could be asymmetric due to space limitations or combustion adjustment needs. This paper aims to clarify the SETAI behavior of a combustion system with an asymmetric supply structure or an asymmetric combustion condition. The results indicate that the sound pressure amplitude under strong oscillation can reach 160 dB, which is about 5% of the total pressure. The SETAI state under the asymmetric condition is determined by the coupling between the heat release oscillation and sound pressure oscillation on each side and their cooperation. The asymmetric supply structure leads to asynchronous heat release oscillations between the two sides; it may be that one promotes oscillation and that the other suppresses it, or that both have a promotion effect but with asynchronous action, thus partly canceling each other out to lower the system’s oscillation intensity. This brings an advantage for controlling SETAI, which can be achieved by only changing one side of the structure. The oscillation amplitude can be reduced by 80–90% by appropriately changing one L_P only by ~20%. Under an asymmetric combustion condition with φ differing between the two sides, the heat release oscillation on each side is dependent on the local φ but not the global φ. Consequently, SETAI can also be controlled by changing the distribution but maintaining a constant fuel feeding rate and φ. The concepts identified in this paper demonstrate that SETAI can be effectively controlled by adopting an asymmetric φ distribution or an asymmetric structure of the supply system. This provides a convenient SETAI control approach without affecting the equipment’s thermal performance. Full article

Non-premixed swirl combustion has been widely used in pieces of industrial combustion equipment such as industrial boilers, furnaces, and certain specific gas turbine combustors. In recent years, the combustion instability of non-premixed swirl flames has begun receiving attention, yet there is still a lack of related research in academia. Therefore, in this study, we conducted experimental research on a swirl stabilized gas flame model combustor and studied the heat release response characteristics of the swirl combustor through the flame transfer function. Firstly, the flame transfer function (FTF) was measured under different inlet velocities and equivalence ratios, and the experimental results showed that the FTF gain curve of the non-premixed swirl flame exhibited a significant “bimodal” shape, with the gain peaks located around 230 Hz and 330 Hz, respectively. Secondly, two oscillation modes of the flame near the two gain peaks were identified (the acoustic induced vortex mode M_v and the thermoacoustic oscillation mode M_a), which have not been reported in previous studies on swirl non-premixed flames. In addition, we comprehensively analyzed the flame pulsation characteristics under the two oscillation modes. Finally, the coupling degrees between velocity fluctuations, fuel pressure fluctuations, and heat release fluctuations were analyzed using the Rayleigh Index (RI), and it was found that in the acoustic-induced vortex mode, a complete feedback loop was not formed between the combustor and the fuel pipeline, which was the main reason for the significant difference in the pressure fluctuation amplitude near 230 Hz and 330 Hz. Full article

The propagation mechanism of flow disturbance under acoustic excitations plays a crucial role in thermoacoustic instability, especially when considering the effect of non-premixed combustion on heat release due to reactant mixing and diffusion. This relationship leads to a complex coupling between the spatial distribution of the equivalence ratio and the propagation mechanism of flow disturbance. In the present study, the response of a methane-air non-premixed swirling flame to low-frequency acoustic excitations was investigated experimentally. By applying Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) analysis to CH* chemiluminescence images, the harmonic flame response was revealed. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) was utilized to analyze the correlation between the vortex motion within the shear layers and the harmonic response under non-reacting conditions at excitation frequencies of 20 Hz, 50 Hz, and 150 Hz. The results showed that the harmonic flame response was mainly due to the harmonic velocity pulsations within the shear layers. The acoustically induced vortices within the shear layer exhibited motion patterns susceptible to harmonic interference, with spatial distribution characteristics closely related to the oscillation modes of the non-premixed combustion. Full article

In this paper, an electrical generator is presented for the exploitation of alternating energy. Some renewable sources are directly available in such forms, such as the wave power obtainable from the sea, but most of them can be converted to alternative forms; therefore, the proposed generator can be applied to different kinds of renewable sources. In particular, the proposed system is thought to be coupled with a thermoacoustic engine, which converts heat into mechanical vibration without using solid moving parts. This opens the proposed system to the use of most thermal sources, such as solar radiation, waste recovery, geothermic, car exhaust, and others. The object of of this present work concerns the transformation of alternating mechanical energy into electricity by using a specific type of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) disk generator. The functioning of this generator is based on the interaction between a DC magnetic field embedded in a disk structure and a conducting fluid held in an inner channel. A simplified model of the generator is presented here, and a sensitivity analysis is performed. It is shown that, under specific operating conditions, the efficiency of the system can reach 70% with a level of power of hundreds of watts. Full article

Combustion instability is a common thermoacoustic coupling problem in combustion systems, and the pressure oscillations generated inevitably damage the combustion system. Studying the mechanism of combustion instability, especially the triggering problem of combustion instability, is particularly important for understanding combustion instability. This article adopts experimental research methods. The flame transfer function and flame describing function governing pressure pulsation were hereby measured to study the effect of heat release rate fluctuation on acoustic disturbance. By triggering combustion instability through ignition, the growth process of combustion instability was also studied. The results showed that flame pulsation amplitude shows a complex curvature when the frequency is lower than 200 Hz, while the growth rate of pulsation amplitude monotonically decreases as frequencies increase above 200 Hz. According to the considerable self−excited combustion instability tests, the oscillation amplitudes in the limit cycle state are generally greater than 0.4, while the pressure amplitudes in the limited state are less than 0.2, thus verifying the concept of a trigger threshold for low−frequency oscillation. In addition, analysis of the growth rate, the pressure and the attractor of the heat release pulsation observed after the triggering of combustion instability reveals that the triggering of combustion instability is a gradual coupling process between oscillation pressure and heat release rate pulsation. Full article

Intense thermoacoustic oscillations may lead to severe deterioration due to the induced intolerable damage to combustors. A better understanding of unstable behaviors is important to prevent or suppress these oscillations. Active thermoacoustic coupling in practical combustors is caused primarily by two approaches: inherent turbulent fluctuations and the flame response to acoustic waves. Turbulent fluctuations are generally characterized by random noise. This paper experimentally expands on previous analytic studies regarding the influence of colored disturbances on the thermoacoustic response near the supercritical bifurcation point. Therein, a laboratory-scale Rijke-type thermoacoustic system is established, and both supercritical and subcritical bifurcations are observed. Then, Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU)-type external colored noise is introduced near the supercritical bifurcation point, and the effects of the corresponding correlation time ${\tau }_c$ and noise intensity D are studied. The experimental results show that these variables of the colored noise significantly influence the dynamics of thermoacoustic oscillations in terms of the most probable amplitude and autocorrelation properties. A resonance-like behavior is observed as the noise intensity or the autocorrelation time of the colored noise is continuously varied, which means that the coherent resonance occurs in the thermoacoustic system. Finally, when the system is configured closer to the stability boundary, the extent of the coherence motion is intensified in the stochastic system response. Meanwhile, the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the colored-noise-induced response are found to become more distinguished, the optimal colored noise intensity decreases, and the optimal autocorrelation time increases. These findings provide valuable guidance to predict the onset of thermoacoustic instabilities. Full article

Thermoacoustic instabilities in gasturbine combustor systems can be predicted in the design phase with a thermoacoustic network model. In this model, the coupling between acoustic pressure fluctuations and the combustion rate is described by the Flame Transfer Function. The present paper introduces a new, efficient, and robust method for deriving the FTF from CFD predictions by means of a discrete multi-frequency sinusoidal fuel flow excitation method. The CFD-based FTF result compares well with experimental data for the time delay, but for the gain, only up to 400 Hz. Above 400 Hz, the CFD result reveals a smooth low-amplitude gain, which is not found in the measured data. A novel, accurate continuous correlation function for the FTF gain is computed based on the results for discrete frequencies. When this is implemented into a 1D acoustic network model, the stability map shows, below 600 Hz, two eigenfrequencies, by both the experiment and CFD-based FTF, that are identical. The CFD-based FTF correctly predicts marginal activity at the highest eigenfrequency, while the experimentally based FTF suggests an unstable operation. The unstable operation is not observed in the experiments. This suggests that the CFD-based FTF is also correct for high frequencies. Full article

Air-coupled ultrasound sensors have advantages over contact ultrasound sensors when a sample should not become contaminated or influenced by the couplant or the measurement has to be a fast and automated inline process. Thereby, air-coupled transducers must emit high-energy pulses due to the low air-to-solid power transmission ratios (10⁻³ to 10⁻⁸). Currently used resonant transducers trade bandwidth—a prerequisite for material parameter analysis—against pulse energy. Here we show that a combination of a non-resonant ultrasound emitter and a non-resonant detector enables the generation and detection of pulses that are both high in amplitude (130 dB) and bandwidth (2 µs pulse width). We further show an initial application: the detection of reflections inside of a carbon fiber reinforced plastic plate with thicknesses between 1.7 mm and 10 mm. As the sensors work contact-free, the time of flight and the period of the in-plate reflections are independent parameters. Hence, a variation of ultrasound velocity is distinguishable from a variation of plate thickness and both properties are determined simultaneously. The sensor combination is likely to find numerous industrial applications necessitating high automation capacity and opens possibilities for air-coupled, single-side ultrasonic inspection. Full article

Thermoacoustic instabilities occur when heat release is coupled with pressure fluctuation, which may cause performance degradation of the combustor and serious structural damage. This study focued on an active control method using discharge plasma and showed experimentally that discharge plasma can make a difference in controlling the thermoacoustic instabilities in a Rijke tube. A vertically placed Rijke tube thermoacoustic system using induction heating tungsten mesh as a heat source was built. The results show that the high repetition rate discharge can effectively suppress the thermoacoustic oscillations in the Rijke tube and that they will not re-occur for some time. Additionally, their effectiveness depended more on average power than energy per pulse. Combining the collected pressure, schlieren data, and theoretical analysis, it can be suggested that the plasma discharge could heat the inlet airflow, which could influence the heat exchange and then could break thermo-acoustic coupling, and its high-frequency pressure perturbation might increase the dissipation of the energy of sound. Full article