MITIGATING INSTABILITY BY ACTUATING THE SWIRLER IN A COMBUSTOR

摘要

The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus to mitigate thermo-acoustic instabilities in combustor of gas turbine engines using a lean premixed flame; and provides a dynamic control strategy for mitigating thermo-acoustic instability in a swirl stabilized, lean premixed combustor by rotating the otherwise static swirler meant for stabilizing the lean premixed flame. The swirler is subjected to a controlled rotation for imparting increased turbulence intensity and higher tangential momentum to the premixed reactants towards mitigating thermo-acoustic instability. The rotating swirler induces vortex breakdown and increased turbulence intensity to decimate periodic interactions found during a particular phase of the instability cycle on account of periodic collision of diverging flame base with the flame segment above the dump plane in the combustor. This prevents flame-flame interactions and emergence of strongly positive Rayleigh indices which contribute as sources of acoustic energy to drive the self-excited instability.