Combustion instabilities (thermo-acoustic pressure oscillations) have been recognised for some time as a problem limiting the development of low emissions (e.g., lean burn) gas turbine combustion systems, particularly for aviation propulsion applications. Recently, significant research efforts have been focused on acoustic damping for suppression of combustion instability. Most of this work has either been experimental or based on linear acoustic theory. The last 3-5 years has seen application of density based CFD methods to this problem, but no attempts to use pressure-based CFD methods which are much more commonly used in combustion predictions. The goal of the present work is therefore to develop a pressure-based CFD algorithm in order to predict accurately acoustic propagation and acoustic damping processes, as relevant to gas turbine combustors. The developed computational algorithm described in this thesis is based on the classical pressure-correction approach, which was modified to allow fluid density variation as a function of pressure in order to simulate acoustic phenomena, which are fundamentally compressible in nature. The fact that the overall flow Mach number of relevance was likely to be low ( mildly compressible flow) also influenced the chosen methodology. For accurate capture of acoustic wave propagation at minimum grid resolution and avoiding excessive numerical smearing/dispersion, a fifth order accurate Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory scheme (WENO) was introduced. Characteristic-based boundary conditions were incorporated to enable accurate representation of acoustic excitation (e.g. via a loudspeaker or siren) as well as enable precise evaluation of acoustic reflection and transmission coefficients. The new methodology was first validated against simple (1D and 2D) but well proven test cases for wave propagation and demonstrated low numerical diffusion/dispersion. The proper incorporation of Characteristic-based boundary conditions was validated by comparison against classical linear acoustic analysis of acoustic and entropy waves in quasi-1D variable area duct flows. The developed method was then applied to the prediction of experimental measurements of the acoustic absorption coefficient for a single round orifice flow. Excellent agreement with experimental data was obtained in both linear and non-linear regimes. Analysis of predicted flow fields both with and without bias flow showed that non-linear acoustic behavior occurred when flow reversal begins inside the orifice. Finally, the method was applied to study acoustic excitation of combustor external aerodynamics using a pre-diffuser/dump diffuser geometry previously studied experimentally at Loughborough University and showed the significance of boundary conditions and shear layer instability to produce a sustained pressure fluctuation in the external aerodynamics.

L’application de cette thèse est le contrôle actif de la combustion dans les brûleurs industriels à combustible liquide. Il s’agit d’explorer les possibilités de contrôle d’un spray par des jets gazeux auxiliaires. Deux familles d’actionneurs utilisant ce procédé ont été testées sur un atomiseur coaxial assisté par air. Le premier dispositif est appelé (Dev). Composé d’un unique jet actionneur, il vise à dévier le spray. La seconde configuration, appelée (Sw), est équipée de 4 jets auxiliaires tangents au spray afin de lui conférer un effet de swirl et d’en augmenter le taux d’expansion. Les mesures de granulométrie par PDA et les visualisations du spray par strioscopie démontrent un effet important du contrôle sur l’atomisation et la forme du spray. On observe en outre une déviation pouvant atteindre 30°avec l’actionneur (Dev) et une augmentation du taux d’expansion de 80% dans le cas (Sw). Des simulations du banc expérimental ont de plus été menées avec le code AVBP. L’écoulement de gaz est calculé par simulation aux grandes échelles (SGE ou LES en Anglais). L’approche lagrangienne est utilisée pour simuler la phase dispersée. Une attention particulière a été portée aux conditions d’injection du gaz et des gouttes dans le calcul. Ceci a abouti au développement d’une nouvelle condition limite caractéristique non réfléchissante (VFCBC) destinée à l’injection d’écoulements turbulents en LES compressible. Les résultats de LES présentent un bon accord avec les mesures expérimentales. Les effets du contrôle sur la dynamique des gouttes et sur la topologie du spray (forme, déviation, expansion) sont correctement décrits. / The present work focuses on active control of two-phase combustion in industrial burners. The generic method explored in this thesis consists in controlling the injected fuel spray with transverse air jets. Two families of these jet actuators are tested on a coaxial airblast atomizer. The first system (Dev) is used to modify the trajectory of the spray, while the second one (Sw) introduces swirl into the spray to modify its spreading rate and mixing with the surrounding air. Experimental characterisations of the controlled flow with Schlieren visualisations and Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA) show that actuators induce important effect on the spray. The deviation angle reaches 30° for the actuator (Dev) and the expansion rate increases of 80 % in the swirl case (Sw). Simulations of the experiment are then performed with the CFD code AVBP. The gas flow is computed with Large Eddy Simulation (LES). A Lagrangian formulation is used to simulate droplets trajectories. A particular attention is given to the injection of the gas flow and the droplets in the calculations. Therefore, a new non-reflecting characteristic boundary condition (VFCBC) has been derived to inject turbulent flows in compressible LES. A good agreement is observed between simulation and experiment. Control effects on the spray topology ( features, deviation, spread rate) and on the droplets velocities and diameters are correctly described by the Lagrangian LES.

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