This thesis describes an experimental investigation of the flame transfer function between flow disturbances and heat release oscillations in lean, premixed combustors. This research effort was motivated by the fact that modern gas turbines, operating fuel-lean to minimize exhaust emissions, are susceptible to self-excited combustion oscillations. These instabilities generally occur when the unsteady combustion process couples with the acoustic modes of the combustion chamber. The resultant flow and structural vibrations can substantially reduce hot section part life. As such, avoiding operating regimes where high dynamics occur often requires operating at lower power outputs and/or higher pollutant emissions than the turbine is otherwise capable. This work demonstrated nonlinearities in the chemiluminescence response at large amplitude velocity oscillations in a turbulent, swirling flame. It is observed that the nonlinear flame response can exhibit a variety of behaviors, both in the shape of the response curve and the forcing amplitude at which nonlinearity is first observed depending on the operating conditions of the combustor. The phase between the flow oscillations and heat release is also seen to have substantial amplitude dependence. In addition, the interactions between the fundamental frequency and the higher and subharmonics of the measured signals can significantly influence the flame as well as the frequency response of the system. The nonlinear flame dynamics are governed by different mechanisms in different frequency and flowrate regimes. Three mechanisms, vortex rollup, unsteady flame liftoff, and parametric instability, are identified to influence the nonlinear flame response in these combustors. Analysis of the results shows that the mechanisms responsible for nonlinearity in the flame response are influenced by the Strouhal number, the mean velocity at the combustor dump plane, and the ratio of the oscillating velocity amplitude to the laminar flame speed.

In the study, we confer with the effect of the circular cylinder for various flow fields, and investigate the phenomenon of the vortex shedding and fluid elastic instabilities. First, in the aspect of the vortex shedding, we observe the wake behind the cylinder after varying the locations of orifices on the cylinder and the forms of momentum addition, and the variation of the lift and drag coefficient can be obtained by using the commercial software STAR-CD. In the further study, we make the type of flow field to be a shear flow and build the database of the aerodynamic coefficients in different shear parameter and Reynolds numbers; furthermore, the database is an important basis for us to conjecture the surface force on the cylinder, and analyze the size of oscillations and the orbit that is caused by the shear parameter, mass ratio and damping factor respectively.

The exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system has been widely used to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission, improve fuel economy and suppress knock by using the characteristics of charge dilution. However, previous studies have shown that as the EGR rate at a given engine operating condition increases, the combustion instability increases. The combustion instability increases cyclic variations resulting in the deterioration of engine performance and increasing hydrocarbon emissions. Therefore, the optimum EGR rate should be carefully determined in order to obtain the better engine performance and emissions. A thermodynamic cycle simulation of the four-stroke spark-ignition engine was used to determine the effects of EGR on engine performance, emission characteristics and second law parameters, considering combustion instability issues as EGR level increases. A parameter, called 'Fuel Fraction Burned,' was introduced as a function of the EGR percentage and used in the simulation to incorporate the combustion instability effects. A comprehensive parametric investigation was conducted to examine the effects of variations in EGR, load and speed for a 5.7 liter spark-ignition automotive engine. Variations in the thermal efficiencies, brake specific NOx emissions, average combustion temperature, mean exhaust temperature, maximum temperature and relative heat transfer as functions of exhaust gas recycle were determined for both cooled and adiabatic EGR configurations. Also effects of variations in the load and speed on thermal efficiencies, relative heat transfers and destruction of availability due to combustion were determined for 0% EGR and 20% EGR cases with both cooled and adiabatic configurations. For both EGR configurations, thermal efficiencies first increase, reach a maximum at about 16% EGR and then decrease as the EGR level increases. Thermal efficiencies are slightly higher for cooled EGR configuration than that for adiabatic configuration. Concentration of nitric oxide emissions decreases from about 2950 ppm to 200 ppm as EGR level increases from 0% to 20% for cooled EGR configuration. The cooled EGR configuration results in lower nitric oxide emissions relative to the adiabatic EGR configuration. Also second law parameters show the expected trends as functions of EGR. Brake thermal efficiency is higher for the 20% EGR case than that for the no EGR case over the range of load (0 to WOT) and speed (600 rpm to 6000 rpm). Predictions made from the simulation were compared with some of the available experimental results. Predicted thermal efficiencies showed a similar trend when compared to the available experimental data. Also, percentage of unused fuel availability increases as the EGR level increases, and it can be seen as one of the effects of deteriorating combustion quality as the EGR level increases.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-91). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Ferroelectric ceramics are broadly used in applications including actuators, sensors and information storage. An understanding of the microstructual evolution and domain dynamics is vital for predicting the performance and reliability of such devices. The underlying mechanism responsible for ferroelectric constitutive response is ferroelectric domain wall motion, domain switching and the interactions of domain walls with other material defects. In this work, a combined theoretical and numerical modeling framework is developed to investigate the nucleation and growth of domains in a single crystal of ferroelectric material. The phase-field approach, applying the material electrical polarization as the order parameter, is used as the theoretical modeling framework to allow for a detailed accounting of the electromechanical processes. The finite element method is used for the numerical solution technique. In order to obtain a better understanding of the energetics of fracture within the phase-field setting, the J-integral is modified to include the energies associated with the order parameter. Also, the J- integral is applied to determine the crack-tip energy release rate for common sets of electromechanical crack-face boundary conditions. The calculations confirm that only true equilibrium states exhibit path-independence of J, and that domain structures near crack tips may be responsible for allowing positive energy release rate during purely electrical loading. The small deformation assumption is prevalent in the phase-field modeling approach, and is used in the previously described calculations. The analysis of large deformations will introduce the concept of Maxwell stresses, which are assumed to be higher order effects that can be neglected in the small deformation theory. However, in order to investigate the material response of soft dielectric elastomers undergoing large mechanical deformation and electric field, which are employed in electrically driven actuator devices, manipulators and energy harvesters, a finite deformation theory is incorporated in the phase-field model. To describe the material free energy, compressible Neo-Hookean and Gent models are used. The Jaumann rate of the polarization is used as the objective polarization rate to make the description of the dissipation frame indifferent. To illustrate the theory, electromechanical instabilities in composite materials with different inclusions will be studied using the finite element methods. / text

We present the results from a series of experimental investigations into the hydrodynamic instabilities that occur in radiative blast waves. In particular, we examine the Vishniac instability in which the perturbation modes oscillate in time and, for certain mode numbers and polytropic index of the medium, can exhibit a growth in their amplitudes. Experiments were conducted on the GHOST laser laboratory in which a source of atomic clusters was irradiated by a 1J-2J, 115fs laser pulse to produce cylindrical blast waves. The thrust of this thesis falls into two categories. First, we analyze the effects radiative cooling has on the evolution of blast waves such as the lowering of the effective polytropic index and consequently the lowering of their deceleration parameter. Radiation from the blast wave surface results in a preheated ionization precursor in the upstream material and is indicated by a gradual decline in the electron density profile of the blast wave rather than a sharp jump. This mechanism, if strong enough, can also create a secondary shock wave to form ahead of the main blast wave. The second set of experiments investigates the temporal evolution of longitudinal perturbations induced on the blast waves by use of a transverse interferometric beam that modifies the cluster medium prior to the onset of the main pump beam. These perturbations are analyzed and compared to theory set forth in Vishniac's mechanism for oscillatory instabilities and their growth rate. / text

In many natural and laboratory conditions, plasmas are often in the non-equilibrium state due to presence of stationary flows, when one particle species (or a special group, such as group of high energy particles, i.e., beam) is moving with respect to the other plasma components. Such situations are common for a number of different plasma applications such as diagnostics with emissive plasma probes, plasma electronics devices and electric propulsion devices. The presence of plasmas flows often leads to the instabilities in such systems and subsequent development of large amplitude perturbations. The goal of this work is to develop physical insights and numerical tools for studies of ion sound instabilities driven by the ion flow in a system of a finite length. The ion sound waves are modified by the presence of ion beam resulting in negative and positive energy modes. The instability develops due to coupling of negative and positive energy modes mediated by reflections from the boundary. It is shown that the wave dispersion due to deviation from quasi-neutrality is crucial for the stability. In finite length system, the dispersion is characterized by the length of the system measured in units of the Debye length. The instability is studied analytically and the results are compared with direct initial value numerical simulations. The numerical tools to simulate these systems are developed based on Godunov and multiple shooting methods. The initial value simulations show the time dependent evolution from which the growth rates were determined for different parameters of the system. The results of the simulations were benchmarked against the analytical results in some limiting cases. In the pursuit of simulation efficiency, the parallelization of the code was investigated for two basic types of parallel systems: shared and distributed memory. The OpenMP and MPI library were used correspondingly.

The kinetic dispersion relation for a magnetized dusty plasma comprising of ions, electrons and massive, charged dust particles is solved for low frequency electrostatic instabilities in the dust plasma frequency regime. The free energy is provided by the drifting ion beam. The effect of varying parameters such as ion drift speed, particle densities, ion temperature and magnetic field strength on the real frequency and growth rate is examined. Initially light and heavy dust species of different charge are separately considered. This procedure is then repeated for a four-component plasma in an attempt to study the effect of the presence of both the dust species on low frequency electrostatic phenomena. Using a different plasma model, instabilities generated by an equal E x B drift of both the magnetized ions and electrons relative to the unmagnetized dust grains of both the heavy and light dust species is also investigated. The latter instabilities are applicable to the planetary ring plasmas of Saturn. Throughout our studies, numerical solutions of the full dispersion relation for the real frequency and growth rate are compared with approximate analytical solutions. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1999.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S. in Applied Physics)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): William L. Kruer, William B. Colson. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43). Also available online.