Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2008. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

M.S.

To advance the design of hypersonic vehicles, high-fidelity multi-physics CFD is used to characterize 3-D scramjet flow-fields in two novel streamline traced configurations. The two inlets, Jaws and Scoop, are analyzed and compared to a traditional rectangular inlet used as a baseline for on/off-design conditions. The flight trajectory conditions selected are Mach 6 and a dynamic pressure of 1,500 psf (71.82 kPa). Analysis of these hypersonic inlets is performed to investigate distortion effects downstream with multiple single cavity combustors acting as flame holders, and several fuel injection strategies. The best integrated scramjet inlet/combustor design is identified. The flow physics is investigated and the integrated performance impact of the two innovative scramjet inlet designs is quantified. Frozen and finite rate chemistry is simulated with 13 gaseous species and 20 reactions for an Ethylene/air finite-rate chemical model. In addition, URANS and LES modeling are compared to explore overall flow structure and to contrast individual numerical methods. The flow distortion in Jaws and Scoop is similar to some of the distortion in the traditional rectangular inlet, despite design differences. The baseline and Jaws performance attributes are stronger than Scoop, but Jaws accomplishes this while eradicating the cowl lip interaction, and lessening the total drag and spillage penalties. The innovative inlets work best on-design, whereas for off-design, the traditional inlet is best. Early pressure losses and flow distortions in the isolator aid the mixing of air and fuel, and improve the overall efficiency of the system. Although the trends observed with and without chemical reactions are similar, the former yields roughly 10% higher mixing efficiency and upstream reactions are present. These show a significant impact on downstream development. Unsteadiness in the combustor increases the mixing efficiency, varying the flame anchoring and combustion pressure effects upstream of the step.

A full Strouhal number thermo-acoustic model is purposed for the feedback control of self excited noise driven combustors. The inclusion of time delays in the volumetric heat release perturbation models create unique behavioral characteristics which are not properly reproduced within current low Strouhal number thermo acoustic models. New analysis tools using probability density functions are introduced which enable exact expressions for the statistics of a time delayed system. Additionally, preexisting tools from applied mathematics and control theory for spectral analysis of time delay systems are introduced to the combustion community. These new analysis tools can be used to extend sensitivity function analysis used in control theory to explain limits to control effectiveness in self-excited combustors. The control effectiveness of self-excited combustors with actuator constraints are found to be most sensitive to the location of non-minimum phase zeros. Modeling the non-minimum phase zeros correctly require accurate volumetric heat release perturbation models. Designs that removes non-minimum phase zeros are more likely to have poles in the right hand complex plane. As a result, unstable combustors are inherently more responsive to feedback control.

Thesis (MScEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The automotive industry in South Africa is expanding as a result of pressure on the world economy that forces vehicle manufacturers to outsouree work to developing countries. In order to add value to automotive engine development, the capability to perform state-of-the-art engineering must be developed in this country. Threedimensional fluid flow simulation is one such area and is being developed in this study in order to enhance the ability to develop combustion systems. Another capability being developed at the University of Stellenbosch is the simulation of valve train dynamics. It was realised that there is a lack of research results of in-cylinder flow characteristics and how they influence combustion chamber processes. This project focuses on the investigation of two different combustion chamber geometries and how they influence the flow and combustion processes in two different combustion chambers. The aim is to gain a better understanding of combustion chamber flow as an indirect result from comparing the flow in two fundamentally different engines under similar operating conditions. The difference in the engines is that one was developed for reduced exhaust gas emissions while the other was developed to achieve high performance. The numerical simulation capability is developed in the process of achieving this goal. To achieve the above-mentioned aim, a literature study was performed on the different combustion chamber flow characteristics and how they are influenced by different configurations. An experimental method of measuring combustion characteristics is studied in order to establish the ability to perform the latter. Theory of numerical flow simulation is also studied with this same goal in mind. Experimental testing is performed and combustion analysis is done on the results. In conjunction to the experimental work, numerical flow simulations are performed on the two different combustion chambers. The results from experimental testing and numerical simulations have shown that obstructions in the flow into the combustion chamber, together with a port configuration that cause flow around the longitudinal axis of the cylinder, increases the rate at which fuel burns in the combustion chamber and thereby reduce the production of toxic emissions from the engine. The study also proved that reducing resistance to flow increases the amount of air that is breathed by the engine and thereby results in increased torque generation. Through this study, opportunities for further research are identified. The results of the study can be used when new combustion systems are developed, especially in the light of ongoing tightening of emission regulations. The contribution to numerical flow simulation capabilities developed in this study add value to the ability to develop new combustion systems in the future, especially when complimented by some of the further research topics identified. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die motorbedryf in Suid-Afrika is besig om vinnig te ontwikkel as direkte gevolg van druk op die wêreldekonomie wat internasionale motorvervaardigers forseer om werk na ontwikkelende lande uit te kontrakteer. Hoogs gesofistikeerde ingenieurstegnieke moet ontwikkel word in Suid-Afrika met die doelom waarde toe te voeg aan enjin ontwikkeling. Drie-dimensionele vloei simulasie is een van hierdie vermoëns en word tydens hierdie studie ontwikkelom die verbrandingstelsel ontwikkelings-vaardighede te bevorder. Nog 'n vaardigheid wat tans ontwikkel word aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch is die vermoë om nok-en-klepstelsel dinamika te simuleer. Daar bestaan egter 'n leemte in navorsingsresultate van vloei eienskappe binne in die verbrandingsruim en hoe dit verbrandingsruim prosesse beïnvloed. Die projek fokus dus op 'n ondersoek van twee verskillende geometriese konfigurasies van die verbrandingsruim en hoe dit die vloei- en verbrandingsprosesse in die twee konfigurasies beïnvloed. Die doel is om 'n beter begrip te ontwikkel van verbrandingsruim prosesse as 'n indirekte gevolg van die vergelyking tussen twee fundamenteel verskillende enjins onder eenderse bedryfstoestande. Die verkil tussen die twee enjins is dat een ontwikkel is met die doelop verlaagde uitlaatgas emmissies en die ander ontwikkel is om verbeterde werkverrigting. Die numeriese simulasie vermoë is ontwikkel in die proses om die doel te bereik. Om bogenoemde doel te bereik is 'n literatuurstudie gedoen wat verskillende vloeieienskappe in die verbrandingsruim ondersoek, asook hoe dit deur verskillende konfigurasies beïnvloed word. 'n Eksperimentele metode III die bepaling van verbrandingseienskappe is ook bestudeer met die doelom laasgenoemde uit te voer. Teorie aangaande numeriese vloei simulasie is ook bestudeer met bogenoemde doel. Eksperimentele toetse is gedoen en verbrandingsanalise uitgevoer op die resultate. In kombinasie met die eksperimentale werk is numeriese simulasies van die prosesse in die twee verbrandingsruim konfigurasies uitgevoer. Die resultate van die eksperimentele toetse en numeriese simulasies toon dat obstruksies in die vloei na die verbrandingsruim, gesamentlik met die poort konfigurasie wat veroorsaak dat lug om die longitudinale as van die silinder vloei, die tempo waarteen die lug-brandstof mengsel verbrand verhoog en sodoende die vrystelling van skadelike uitlaatgasse na die atmosfeer verminder. Die studie het ook getoon dat die vermindering van weerstand teen vloei, die hoeveelheid lug wat in die verbrandingsruim invloei vermeerder en sodoende die wringkrag wat deur die enjin gelewer word verhoog. Deur die studie is verdere navorsingsgeleenthede uitgewys. Die resultate van die studie kan gebruik word in die ontwikkeling van nuwe verbrandingstelsels, veral in die lig van verstrengende regulasies rakende uitlaatgas emmissies. Die bydrae tot numeriese vloei simulasie vermoëns ontwikkel in hierdie studie voeg waarde toe tot die vermoë om nuwe verbrandingstelsels te ontwikkel, veral wanneer dit gekomplimenteer word met van die verdere navorsingsonderwerpe wat geïdentifiseer is.

This thesis investigates the use of the Stagnation-Point Reverse-Flow (SPRF) combustor geometry for burning low-grade solid fuels that are attractive for specific industrial applications because of their low cost and on-site availability. These fuels are in general, hard to burn, either because of high moisture and impurity-content, e.g. biomass, or their low-volatiles content, e.g., petroleum-coke. This results in various challenges to the combustor designer, for example reduced flame stability and poor combustion efficiency. Conventional solutions include preheating the incoming flow as well as co-firing with high-grade fuels. The SPRF combustor geometry has been chosen because it was demonstrated to operate stably on standard gaseous and liquid-fuels corresponding to ultra fuel-lean conditions and power densities at atmospheric-pressure around 20-25 MW/m3. Previous studies on the SPRF combustor have proven that the unique, reverse flow-geometry allows entrainment of near-adiabatic products into the incoming reactants, thereby enhancing the reactivity of the mixture. Further, the presence of the stagnation-end created a region of low mean velocities and high levels of unsteadiness and mixing-rates that supported the reaction-zones. In this study, we examine the performance of the SPRF geometry on a specific low grade solid fuel, petroleum coke. There are three main goals of this thesis. The first goal is the design of a SPRF combustor to operate on solid-fuels based on a design-scaling methodology, as well as demonstration of successful operation corresponding to a baseline condition. The second goal involves understanding the mode of operation of the SPRF combustor on solid-fuels based on visualization studies. The third goal of this thesis is developing and using reduced-order models to better understand and predict the ignition and quasi-steady burning behavior of dispersed-phase particles in the SPRF combustor. The SPRF combustor has been demonstrated to operate stably on pure-oxygen and a slurry made from water and petroleum-coke, both at the baseline conditions (125 kW, 18 g/s, ~25 µm particles) and higher power-densities and powder sizes. For an overall combustor length less than a meter, combustion is not complete (global combustion efficiency less than 70%). Luminance imaging results indicate the incoming reactant jet ignites and exhibits intense burning at the mid-combustor region, around 15 jet diameters downstream of the inlet, most likely due to enhanced mixing as a result of the highly unsteady velocity field. This roughly corresponds to the location of the reaction zones in the previous SPRF combustors operating on gas and liquid fuels. Planar laser visualization of the reacting flow-field using particle-scattering reveals that ignition of a significant amount of the reactants occurs only after the incoming jet has broken into reactant packets. Post-ignition, these burning packets burn out slowly as they reverse direction and exit the combustor on either side of the central injector. This is unlike the behavior in liquid and gas-fueled operation where the incoming reactants burned across a highly corrugated, thin-flame front. Based on these findings, as well as the results of previous SPRF studies, an idealized model of combustor operation based on a plug flow reactor has been developed. The predictions suggest that fuel-conversion efficiency is enhanced by the combustor operating pressure and lowered by the heat-losses. Overall, this effort has shown the SPRF geometry is a promising compact-combustor concept for self-sustained operation on low-grade solid-fuels for typical high-pressure applications such as direct steam-generation. Based on these findings, it is recommended that future designs for the specific application previously mentioned have a shorter base-combustor with lower heat-losses and a longer steam-generation section for injection of water.

Combustion instabilities are a significant problem in combustion systems, particularly in Low NOx Gas Turbine combustors. These instabilities result in large-scale pressure oscillations in the combustor, leading to degraded combustor performance, shortened lifetime, and catastrophic combustor failure. The objective of this research was to develop a practical adaptive active control system that, coupled with an appropriate actuator, is capable of controlling the combustor pressure oscillations without a priori knowledge of the combustor design, operating conditions or instability characteristics. The adaptive controller utilizes an observer that determines the frequencies, phases and amplitudes of the dominant modes of the oscillations in real time. The research included development and testing of the adaptive controller on several combustors and on an unstable acoustic feedback system in order to analyze its performance. The research also included investigations of combustor controllability and combustor stability margin, which are critical issues for practical implementation of an active control system on an industrial combustor. The results of this research are directly applicable to a variety of combustors and can be implemented on full-scale industrial combustion systems.

No description available.

Thermo-acoustic instabilities in combustion chambers are generated by the interactions between a flame and the combustor acoustics, leading to a resonant coupling. These self-sustained oscillations may be observed in many practical systems such as domestic boilers, industrial furnaces, gas turbines or rocket engines. Although this phenomenon has already been the topic of many investigations, there is yet no generalized robust framework to predict the onset of these self-sustained oscillations and to determine the evolution of the flow variables within the combustor during unstable operation. This work builds on previous models and experiments to improve the description of the response of laminar conical flames to flow perturbations and the prediction of thermoacoustic instability in burners operating with conical flames. In the first part of the manuscript, an extensive review of conical flame dynamics modeling is undertaken and a general framework for the modeling of their Flame Transfer Function (FTF) is presented. The experimental setup and the diagnostics used to characterize their response to flow disturbances are then described. They are used to measure the FTF when the flames are submitted to harmonic flow perturbations. A novel experimental technique is also proposed to control the flow perturbation level at the burner outlet. It enables to modulate the flow with random white noise perturbations and to measure the FTF with a better frequency resolution. Results with this alternative technique compare well with results from the classical method using harmonic signals for small disturbances. Limits of this technique are also highlighted when the perturbation level increases. Different analytical expressions for the FTF of conical flames are derived in the second part of the thesis by progressively introducing more physics into the models. Models based on convected flow disturbances are extended by taking into account the incompressible nature of the perturbed velocity field. It is shown that the prediction of the FTF phase lag of a conical flame is greatly improved and collapses well with measurements. Then, a thorough investigation of the flame base dynamics interacting with the anchoring device is conducted by considering unsteady heat loss from the flame to the burner. This mechanism is shown to drive the motion of the flame base and the flame dynamics at high frequencies. It is also shown that this contribution to the FTF rules the high frequency behavior of the FTF as well as the nonlinear evolution of the FTF when the perturbation level increases. Finally, an analysis is conducted on the dynamics of a single conical flame placed into cylindrical flame tubes featuring different diameters. It is shown that confinement effects need to be taken into account when the burnt gases cannot fully expand. Large differences are observed between FTF measured for different confinement tube diameters. A new dimensionless number is derived to take these effects into account and make all the FTF collapse on a single curve. These different models are then used to model the response of a collection of small conical flames stabilized on a perforated plate. It is shown that by sorting out the different contributing mechanisms to the FTF, the expressions proposed in this work may be combined to capture the main behavior and correct phase lag evolution of these flames in the frequency range of interest for thermo-acoustic instability prediction.

This thesis describes an experimental investigation of lean blowoff for H2/CO/CH4 mixtures in a swirling combustor. This investigation consisted of three thrusts. The first thrust focused on correlations of the lean blowoff limits of H2/CO/CH4 mixtures under different test conditions. It was found that a classical Damköhler number approach with a diffusion correction could correlate blowoff sensitivities to fuel composition over a range of conditions. The second part of this thesis describes the qualitative flame dynamics near blowoff by systematically characterizing the blowoff phenomenology as a function of hydrogen level in the fuel. These near blowoff dynamics are very complex, and are influenced by both fluid mechanics and chemical kinetics; in particular, the role of thermal expansion across the flame and extinction strain rate were suggested to be critical in describing these influences. The third part of this thesis quantitatively analyzed strain characteristics in the vicinity of the attachment point of stable and near blowoff flames. Surprisingly, it was found that in this shear layer stabilized flame, flow deceleration is the key contributor to flame strain, with flow shear playing a relatively negligible role. Near the premixer exit, due to strong flow deceleration, the flame is negatively strained i.e., compressed. Moving downstream, the strain rate increases towards zero and then becomes positive, where flames are stretched. As the flame moves toward blowoff, holes begin to form in the flame sheet, with a progressively higher probability of occurrence as one moves downstream. It is suggested that new holes form with a more uniform probability, but that this behavior reflects the convection of flame holes downstream by the flow. It has been shown in prior studies, and affirmed in this work, that flames approach blowoff by first passing through a transient phase manifested by local extinction events and the appearance of holes on the flame. A key conclusion of this work is that the onset of this boundary occurs at a nearly constant extinction strain rate. As such, it is suggested that Damköhler number scalings do not describe blowoff itself, but rather the occurrence of this first stage of blowoff. Given the correspondence between this first stage and the actual blowoff event, this explains the success of classical Damköhler number scalings in describing blowoff, such as shown in the first thrust of this thesis. The physics process associated with the actual blowoff event is still unclear and remains a key task for future work.