Disturbance field characteristics of a transversely excited annular jet

This paper describes an investigation of transverse acoustic instabilities in premixed, swirl-stabilized flames. Additional measurements, beyond the scope of the current work, are described in O'Connor et al. [1]. Transverse excitation of swirling flow involves complex interactions between acoustic waves and fluid mechanic instabilities. The flame's response to transverse acoustic excitation is a superposition of both acoustic and vortical disturbances that fluctuate in both the longitudinal and transverse direction. In the nozzle near field region, the disturbance field is a complex superposition of convecting vortical disturbances, as well as longer wavelength transverse and longitudinal acoustic disturbances. Farther downstream, the disturbance field is dominated by the transverse acoustic field. The phasing between the disturbances on the inside and outside of the burner annulus, as well as the left and right sides of the burner annulus is a strong function of the transverse disturbance field characteristics. For cases where the burner centerline is an approximate pressure node and velocity anti-node, the mass flow out of the left and right sides of the burner actually oscillates out-of-phase with respect to each other. In contrast, for cases where the centerline is a pressure anti-node, the burner responds symmetrically about the burner and annulus centerlines. These results show that the burner response characteristics strongly depend upon their location in the acoustic mode shape.