Fuel-forced flame response of a lean-premixed combustor

The response of a swirl-stabilized flame to equivalence ratio fluctuations is experimentally investigated in a single-nozzle lean premixed combustor. Equivalence ratio fluctuations are produced using a siren device to modulate the flow rate of fuel to the injector, while the air flow rate is kept constant. The magnitude and phase of the equivalence ratio fluctuations are measured near the exit of the nozzle using an infrared absorption technique. The flame response is characterized by the fluctuation in the flame's overall rate of heat release, which is determined from the total CH* chemiluminescence emission from the flame. The relationship between total CH* chemiluminescence intensity and the flame's overall rate of heat release is determined from a separate calibration experiment which accounts for the nonlinear relationship between chemiluminescence intensity and equivalence ratio. Measurements of the normalized equivalence ratio fluctuation and the normalized rate of heat release fluctuation are made over a range of modulation frequencies from 200 Hz to 440 Hz, which corresponds to Strouhal numbers from 0.4 to 2.8. These measurements are used to determine the fuel-forced flame transfer function which expresses the relationship between the equivalence ratio and rate of heat release fluctuations in terms of a gain and phase as a function of frequency. In addition, phase-synchronized CH* chemiluminescence images are captured to study the dynamics of the flame response over the modulation period. These measurements are made over a range of operating conditions and the results are analyzed to identify and better understand the mechanisms whereby equivalence ratio fluctuations result in fluctuations in the flame's overall rate of heat release. Such information is essential to guide the formulation and validation of analytical fuel-forced flame response models and hence to predict combustion dynamics in gas turbine combustors.