With strict environmental regulations, gas turbine emissions have been heavily constrained. This requires operating conditions wherein thermo-acoustic flame instabilities are prevalent. During this process the combustor acoustics and combustion heat release fluctuations are coupled and can cause severe structural damage to engine components, reduced operability, and inefficiency that eventually increase emissions. In order to develop an engine without these problems, there needs to be a better understanding of the physics behind the coupling mechanisms of this instability. Among the several coupling mechanisms, the “velocity coupling” process is the main focus of this thesis. The majority of literature has treated axisymmetric disturbance fields which are typical of longitudinal acoustic forcing and axisymmetric excitation of ring vortices. Two important non-axisymmetric disturbances are: (1) transverse acoustics, in the case of circumferential modes of a multi-nozzle annular combustor and (2) helical flow disturbances, seen in the case of swirling flow hydrodynamic instabilities. With significantly less analytical treatment of this non-axisymmetric problem, a general framework is developed for three-dimensional swirl-stabilized flame response to non-axisymmetric disturbances. The dynamics are tracked using a level-set based G-equation applicable to infinitely thin flame sheets. For specific assumptions in a linear framework, general solution characteristics are obtained. The results are presented separately for axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric mean flames. The unsteady heat release process leads to an unsteady volume generation at the flame front due to the expansion of gases. This unsteady volume generation leads to sound generation by the flame as a distributed monopole source. A sound generation model is developed where ambient pressure fluctuations are generated by this distributed fluctuating heat release source on the flame surface. The flame response framework is used to provide this local heat release source input. This study has been specifically performed for the helical flow disturbance cases to illustrate the effects different modes have on the generated sound. Results show that the effects on global heat release and sound generation are significantly different. Finally, the prediction from the analytical models is compared with experimental data. First, a two-dimensional bluff-body stabilized flame experiment is used to obtain measurements of both the flow and flame position in time. This enables a local flame response comparison since the data are spatially resolved along the flame. Next, a three-dimensional swirl-stabilized lifted flame experiment is considered. The measured flow data is used as input to the G-equation model and the global flame response is predicted. This is then compared with the corresponding value obtained using global CH* chemilumenescence measurements.

Pour des raisons évidentes d’opération et de sécurité, l’allumage est un problème essentiel dans les moteurs aéronautiques. La conception d’une chambre de combustion de turbine à gaz intègre de multiples objectifs contradictoires, l’un d’entre eux étant un allumage ou ré-allumage efficace des brûleurs. Parmi les paramètres dont disposent les ingénieurs dans la phase d’optimisation du design, le nombre de systèmes d’injection de carburant et leur espacement sont des points cruciaux qui doivent être fixés dès le début. En effet, de tels choix ont non seulement un impact sur le coût de fabrication et la taille de la chambre mais ils affectent aussi l’efficacité d’un moteur ainsi que ses caractéristiques d’allumage. Afin d’améliorer les connaissances relatives au processus l’allumage dans des moteurs réels, la recherche actuelle combine des expériences fondamentales de plus en plus complexes et des simulations numériques de haute fidélité. Ces actions se concentrent d’une part sur les premiers instants où le noyau de flamme apparaît et d’autre part sur la phase de propagation entre les différents brûleurs. Ces deux phases sont capitales mais restent difficiles à étudier simultanément. Le premier objectif de cette thèse vise à évaluer les modèles SGE sur un seul brûleur expérimental situé au CORIA (France) pour mettre en place une méthodologie fiable afin de réaliser numériquement une séquence d’allumage dans des conditions d’opération réelles et équivalentes aux premiers instants. Une telle étude met en jeu plusieurs phénomènes tels que les écoulement swirlés, l’allumage, l’extinction, la propagation de flamme et les interactions flamme/turbulence. Tous ces processus et mécanismes interagissent et augmentent de façon significative le niveau de difficulté, notamment pour modéliser la combustion turbulente d’un tel allumage. Ces modèles requièrent donc d’être évalués précisément. Ensuite, ce travail examine par la simulation numérique la phase de propagation en utilisant les expériences réalisées sur une chambre composée de plusieurs injecteurs. La comparaison des séquences d’allumage obtenues numériquement avec celles des données expérimentales montre que la SGE reproduit les bonnes tendances et s’avère prédictive. D’un point de vue global, les caractéristiques de propagation du front de flamme en direction des injecteurs voisins sont bien capturées par le numériquemontrant desmodes de propagation identiques à ceux obtenus expérimentalement (radial ou axial) et des temps d’allumage similaires. Pour finir, l’analyse détaillée de ces données numériques a permis d’identifier les mécanismes principaux qui sont à l’origine des différents modes de propagation. / For evident operational and safety reasons, ignition is a key feature of aeronautical gas turbine applications. In fact the design of a gas turbine combustion chamber imposes multiple contradicting objectives one of them being efficient ignition or re-ignition. Among all the parameters available to the engineers, the number of fuel injection systems and their spacing are crucial elements, that must be fixed early on in the design phase. Such choices however not only impact the manufacturing cost and size of the combustor but they also affect the operability of the engine as well as its ignition. To improve knowledge of the ignition process occurring in real engines, current research combines fundamental and increasingly complex experiments complemented by high fidelity numerical simulations. These actions focus on the one hand on the initial instants where the first flame kernel appears as well as the follow-on instants corresponding to the light-around phase or burner to burner flame propagation phase. Both phases are clearly important but are difficult to study simultaneously. The first purpose of this thesis aims at assessing LES models on a single experimental burner located at CORIA (France) to provide a reliable numerical methodology to achieve an ignition sequence in real engines. Indeed, various phenomena are involved in such numerical studies dedicated to real aeronautical combustion chambers and all need to be reproduced by numerics: swirling flows, ignition, quenching, flame propagation, flame/turbulence interactions. All of these processes interact and clearly raise the level of difficulty notably in terms of turbulent combustion modeling of an ignition transient. Having assessed the method on a single burner configuration, the work then investigates the second phase, using a multi-injector experiment simulated by LES to study the flame propagation during ignition. The comparison of numerical fully transient ignition sequences with experimental data shows that LES recovers features found in the experiment. Global events such as the propagation of the flame front to neighboring swirlers are well captured and correct propagation modes (radial or axial) as well as correct overall ignition time delay are obtained. Finally the detailed analysis of LES data allows to identify the driving mechanisms governing each of these propagation modes.

The complex multiphase flow physics of spray-swirl interaction in both reacting and non-reacting environment is of fundamental and applied significance for a wide variety of applications ranging from gas turbine combustors to pharmaceutical drug nebulizers. Understanding the intricate dynamics between this two phase flow field is pivotal for enhancing mixing characteristics, reducing pollutant emissions and increasing the combustion efficiency in next generation combustors. The present work experimentally investigates the near and far-field break-up, dispersion and coalescence characteristics of a hollow cone spray in an unconfined, co¬annular isothermal swirling air jet environment. The experiments were conducted using an axial-flow hollow cone spray nozzle having a 0.5 mm orifice. Nozzle injection pressure (PN = 1 bar) corresponding to a Reynolds number at nozzle exit ReN = 7900 used as the test setting. At this setting, the operating Reynolds number of the co-annular swirling air stream number (Res) was varied in four distinct steps, i.e. Res = 1600, 3200, 4800 and 5600. Swirl was imparted to the co¬axial flow using a guided vane swirler with blade angle of Ф=45° (corresponding geometric swirl number SG = 0.8). Two types of laser diagnostic techniques were utilized: Particle / Droplet imaging analysis (PDIA) and shadowgraph to study the underlying physical mechanisms involved in the primary breakup, dispersion and coalescence dynamics of the spray. Measurements were made in the spray in both axial and radial directions and they indicate that Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) in radial direction is highly reliant on the intensity of swirl imparted to the spray. The spray is subdivided into two zones as function of swirl in axial and radial direction: (1) near field of the nozzle (ligament regime) where variation in SMD arises predominantly due to primary breakup of liquid films (2) far-field of the nozzle where dispersion and collision induced coalescence of droplets is dominant. Each regime has been analyzed meticulously, by computing probability of primary break-up, probability of coalescence and spatio-temporal distribution of droplets which gives probabilistic estimate of aforementioned governing phenomena. In addition to this, spray global length scale parameters such as spray cone angle, break-up length, wavelength of liquid film has been characterized by varying Res while maintaining constant ReN.

[pt] O presente trabalho é um estudo experimental das características de um escoamento de ar em forma de jato espiralado, incidindo ortogonalmente sobre uma placa. Os objetivos do estudo são: avaliar a influência da presença de uma componente circunferencial de velocidade na distribuição dos coeficientes locais de troca de calor, obter campos de velocidade instantâneos no plano axissimétrico assim como informações sobre as características da turbulência no escoamento. Durante os experimentos se investigou a influência da distância jato/placa e da intensidade do escoamento espiralado (número de Swirl). Como etapa preliminar, foi conduzido um experimento de jato livre, para validação das técnicas de medição de velocidade utilizadas. Os resultados foram comparados com os da literartura e uma boa concordância foi obtida. A distribuição espacial dos coeficientes de troca de calor foi avaliada impondo-se um fluxo de calor constante na placa e medindo a distribuição radial de temperatura através de diversos termopares. Coeficientes locais puderam então ser estimados. Os campos de velocidades radial e axial instantâneos foram adquiridos experimentalmente através da utilização da técnica de Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) e perfis de velocidade tangencial (média e flutuações) foram obtidos a partir da técnica Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV). Os resultados mostraram que os padrões de escoamento mudam significativamente quando a componente circunferencial de velocidade é introduzida. Para o valor mais alto do Número de Swirl foram verificadas fortes reversões do escoamento na região de estagnação. / [en] The present work is an experimental study of the characteristics of a swirling impinging air jet. The goals of the study are: to evaluate the influence of the presence of a circumferential velocity component in the distribution of the local heat transfer coefficients, to obtain instantaneous velocity fields in the axisymmetric plane, as well as information about the turbulence characteristics in the flow. During the experiments, the influence of the impingement distance and swirl intensity were investigated. As a preliminary validation of the velocity measurement tecniques, an experimental investigation of an axisymmetric free jet was conducted. The results were compared with literature showing good agreement. The spatial distribution of heat transfer coefficients was evaluated by imposing a constant heat flux condition to the plate and measuring temperature of several points along the radial distance of the plate with thermocouples. Local coefficients could then be estimated. Instantaneous axial and radial velocity fields were obtained with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and tangential velocity profiles (mean and fluctuations) obtained by using Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV). The results showed that the flow patterns change significantly when the tangential component is added. For the highest value of Swirl number, strong recirculation zones were observed in the stagnation region.

[pt] Chamas pré-misturadas em escoamentos turbulentos com rotação são encontradas em diversos sistemas de engenharia, como turbinas a gás e motores a jato. Neste trabalho, regimes de chamas característicos de tais sistemas são estudados numericamente num queimador de escala laboratorial. O estado da arte dos estudos numéricos de tais chamas é revisado, com respeito a simulações de grandes escalas, bem como o de modelos computacionais baseados em médias de Reynolds. Um estudo isotérmico é feito no escoamento turbulento, num domínio computacional que consiste de um swirler radial e uma câmara de combustão. O impacto de diferentes modelos de turbulência, níveis de refinamentos de malha e condições de contorno no número de swirl e na estrutura do escoamento é investigado. Os resultados revelam que os três modelos de turbulência propostos resultam em campos de escoamento e número de swirl similares, enquanto o nível de refinamento de malha e a condição de contorno de parede deslizante alteram o número de swirl significativamente. Utilizando as equações de média de Reynolds, com o fechamento do modelo k − E realizável, acoplado a um modelo de duas equações para chamas pré-misturadas de metano e ar, dois regimes de chamas são analisados. Estes regimes correspondem à chama de recirculação externa (chama tipo M) e um regime de instabilidade, que ocorre na transição entre a chama tipo V e chama tornado. A estrutura do escoamento é caracterizada em termos de velocidade e propriedades de turbulência e combustão. Uma comparação entre variáveis de progresso também é feita, utilizando resultados experimentais prévios, levando a boa concordância qualitativa para os dois regimes estudados. / [en] Lean premixed turbulent swirling flames are found in many engineering systems, such as gas turbines and jet engines. This work aims to numerically study flame regimes, representative of such systems, stabilized in a laboratory scale burner. The state of the art of the numerical studies concerning these types of flames is reviewed, with respect to Reynolds-Averaged NavierStokes and Large Eddy Simulations. A turbulent, isothermal flow study is performed within the radial swirler and the combustion chamber. The impact of different turbulence models (realizable k − E, RNG k − E and SST k−W), mesh refinement levels and boundary conditions on the swirl number and overall flow structure is investigated. The results show that the three tested turbulence models yield similar results, with respect to the obtained flow field, whereas the mesh refinement level and slip wall boundary condition alter the swirl number significantly. Using Reynolds-Averaged NavierStokes transport equations, closed by the realizable k − E model, coupled with a two-equation premixed combustion model for methane/air mixtures, two combustion regimes are analyzed. These regimes correspond to the outer recirculation zone flame (M-shaped flame) and an unstable regime, which occurs at the transition between the V-shaped flame and tornado-flame. The flow structure is characterized in terms of velocity fields, turbulence and combustion properties. A reaction progress variable comparison is also performed, using existing experimental results, yielding qualitatively similar results for both studied regimes.

Continuous caster moulds are the last and most important stage in the steelmaking process, where inclusions can either be generated or removed. With increasing casting speed using conventional immersion nozzles critical problems, such as unstable bulk mould flow have been noticed. Mould flux entrapment due to vortex and shearing action from the oscillating surface waves have become of particular concern. It is therefore necessary to have a calm inlet flow at the entrance of the mould. Recently, it has been acknowledged that a swirl blade placed at the upstream of the immersion nozzle effectively resolves the problems arising from unstable bulk mould flow. Therefore, to increase the knowledge of effect of swirling flow on the flow pattern in the mould, fundamental mathematical models of a billet mould equipped with a swirl blade in the nozzle have been developed. The model was used to study the effect of divergent angle of the immersion nozzle and mould aspect ratio on the flow field and temperature distribution inside billets moulds. Data from water model experiments were used to verify the mathematical model predictions. A fairly good agreement was found between physical modeling data and predictions, which ensured that the numerical model is reliable. Thereafter, the differences between square and round billet moulds were studied. Next, the effect of changing aspect ratio of the rectangular mould on the fluid flow and heat transfer, while keeping mould surface area constant, was studied. Two types of immersion nozzles, bottomless and conventional, were also analyzed during the research. The model moulds were changed gradually from a square billet with an aspect ratio of 1x1 to a rectangular billet with an aspect ratio of 3x1. First, the temperature and velocity distributions were calculated. Later, unsteady calculations were done to determine velocity fluctuations on the meniscus level for two types of nozzles and several moulds geometries. / <p>QC 20101110</p>

Pressure swirl atomizers are commonly used in IC, aero-engines, and liquid propellant rocket combustion. Understanding the atomization process is important in order to enhance vaporization, mitigate soot formation, design of combustion chambers, and improve overall combustion efficiency. This work utilizes non-invasive techniques such as ultra -speed imaging, and Phase Doppler Particle Anemometry (PDPA) in order to investigate the cascade atomization process of pressure-swirl atomizers by examining swirling liquid film dynamics and the localized droplet characteristics of the resulting hollow cone spray. Specifically, experiments were conducted to examine these effects for three different nozzles with orifice diameters .3mm, .5mm, and .97mm. The ultra-speed imaging allowed for both visualization and interface tracking of the swirling conical film which emanated from each nozzle. Moreover, this allowed for the measurement of the radial fluctuations, film length, cone angle and maximum wavelength. Radial fluctuations are found to be maximum near the breakup or rupture of a swirling film. Film length decreases as Reynolds number increases. Cone angle increases until a critical Reynolds number is reached, beyond which it remains constant. A new approach to analyze the temporally unstable waves was developed and compared with the measured maximum wavelengths. The new approach incorporates the attenuation of a film thickness, as the radius of a conical film expands, with the classical dispersion relationship for an inviscid moving liquid film. This approach produces a new long wave solution which accurately matches the measured maximum wavelength swirling conical films generated from nozzles with the smallest orifice diameter. For the nozzle with the largest orifice diameter, the new long wave solution provides the upper bound limit, while the long wave solution for a constant film thickness provides the lower bound limit. These results indicate that temporal instability is the dominating mechanism which generates long Kelvin Helmholtz waves on the surface of a swirling liquid film. The PDPA was used to measure droplet size and velocity in both the near field and far field of the spray. For a constant Reynolds number, an increase in orifice diameter is shown to increase the overall diameter distribution of the spray. In addition, it was found that the probability of breakup, near the axis, decreases for the largest orifice diameter. This is in agreement with the cascading nature of atomization.

No description available.

La trempe à l’air est largement utilisée dans les procédés de production de verre de sécurité. L’obtention d’une distribution de contraintes adéquate requiert un refroidissement intense et homogène à la fois, et ces deux propriétés sont difficiles à obtenir sur la courte durée de la trempe. Les batteries de jets utilisées dans la plupart des systèmes de trempe produisent un refroidissement adéquat mais souffrent d’inhomogénéité, à l’origine de défauts de trempe et de casse durant le processus.L’objectif de cette thèse est d’explorer des nouvelles configurations qui améliorent l’homogénéité du refroidissement en préservant son intensité. L’approche choisie consiste à implanter des jets rotatifs dans les réseaux de manière à accentuer le mélange des jets avant impact. Les études ont été menées principalement par simulation numérique, corroborées par des visualisations par enduit gras sur un banc d’essai dédié, conçu et réalisé dans le cadre de cette thèse.La première phase a été consacrée à la conception des générateurs de jets rotatifs et à l’étude de leur dynamique en mode isolé. Le développement d’une structure tourbillonnaire se formant à l’entrée de chaque lobe du dispositif de mise en rotation a été mis en évidence. L’interaction des jets rotatifs dans le réseau de refroidissement constitue la deuxième phase. Il apparait que la structure cellulaire du schéma d’impact n’est que marginalement perturbée par les jets rotatifs et que la présence de ces derniers n’influe que peu sur la dynamique de l’écoulement. Enfin, la modélisation détaillée des transferts de chaleur sur la plaque d’impact montre que les jets rotatifs ne contribuent que faiblement au refroidissement, mais que l’interférence avec le réseau de jets simples augmente légèrement le transfert de chaleur local au niveau de leur impact. Sans avoir obtenu les résultats escomptés, cette thèse a toutefois montré la complexité du système et le couplage fort entre les phases d’alimentation et d’évacuation de l’air de refroidissement. / Air quenching is widely applied in security glass manufacturing processes. Proper residual stresses distribution requires strong and homogeneous cooling and both are difficult to achieve over the very short time of the tempering process. Jet arrays used in most processes provide with sufficient cooling but suffer from inherent inhomogeneity, leading to quality loss of the glass product and, in extreme cases, to unacceptable breaking numbers during production.The objective of the present study is to investigate ways to improve cooling homogeneity while maintaining efficiency. For this purpose, swirling jets are located inside the jet arrays to enhance jet mixing prior to impingement. Numerical simulation is performed, corroborated by oil flow visualization and a dedicated test bench has been designed and set up within the frame of this thesis.The first part was concerned with the design of swirlers and their dynamic behaviour in standalone mode. It has been shown that a vortex is forming at the inlet of each swirl compartment. Inserting the swirlers within jet arrays constitutes the seconf phase. It turns out that the cellular structure of the impingement pattern is only marginally affected by the swirlers, which have a weak influence on the flow dynamics. Last, the detailed heat transfer modeling on the impingement surface shows that the swirlers themselves do barely contribute to the overall cooling, while the coupling with the simple jet array slightly improves the local heat transfer close to the impingement area. Although the expected outcome was not achieved, this thesis showed the flow complexity as well as the strong coupling between the feeding and the exhaust phases experienced by the cooling air.

This thesis deals with the description and development of two classical turbulent shear flows, namely free jet and flat plate turbulent boundary layer flows. In both cases new experimental data has been obtained and in the latter case comparisons are also made with data obtained from data bases, both of experimental and numerical origin. The jet flow studies comprise three parts, made in three different experimental facilities, each dealing with a specific aspect of jet flows. The first part is devoted to the effect of swirl on the mixing characteristics of a passive scalar in the near-field region of a moderately swirling jet. Instantaneous streamwise and azimuthal velocity components as well as the temperature were simultaneously accessed by means of combined X-wire and cold-wire anemometry. The results indicate a modification of the turbulence structures to that effect that the swirling jet spreads, mixes and evolves faster compared to its non-swirling counterpart. The high correlation between streamwise velocity and temperature fluctuations as well as the streamwise passive scalar flux are even more enhanced due to the addition of swirl, which in turn shortens the distance and hence time needed to mix the jet with the ambient air. The second jet flow part was set out to test the hypothesis put forward by Talamelli &amp; Gavarini (Flow, Turbul. &amp; Combust. 76), who proposed that the wake behind a separation wall between two streams of a coaxial jet creates the condition for an absolute instability. The experiments confirm the hypothesis and show that the instability, by means of the induced vortex shedding, provides a continuous forcing mechanism for the control of the flow field. The potential of this passive mechanism as an easy, effective and practical way to control the near-field of interacting shear layers as well as its effect towards increased turbulence activity has been shown. The third part of the jet flow studies deals with the hypothesis that so called oblique transition may play a role in the breakdown to turbulence for an axisymmetric jet.For wall bounded flows oblique transition gives rise to steady streamwise streaks that break down to turbulence, as for instance documented by Elofsson &amp; Alfredsson (J. Fluid Mech. 358). The scenario of oblique transition has so far not been considered for jet flows and the aim was to study the effect of two oblique modes on the transition scenario as well as on the flow dynamics. For certain frequencies the turbulence intensity was surprisingly found to be reduced, however it was not possible to detect the presence of streamwise streaks. This aspect must be furher investigated in the future in order to understand the connection between the turbulence reduction and the azimuthal forcing. The boundary layer part of the thesis is also threefold, and uses both new data as well as data from various data bases to investigate the effect of certain limitations of hot-wire measurements near the wall on the mean velocity but also on the fluctuating streamwise velocity component. In the first part a new set of experimental data from a zero pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layer, supplemented by direct and independent skin friction measurements, are presented. The Reynolds number range of the data is between 2300 and 18700 when based on the free stream velocity and the momentum loss thickness. Data both for the mean and fluctuating streamwise velocity component are presented. The data are validated against the composite profile by Chauhan et al. (Fluid Dyn. Res. 41) and are found to fulfil recently established equilibrium criteria. The problem of accurately locating the wall position of a hot-wire probe and the errors this can result in is thoroughly discussed in part 2 of the boundary layer study. It is shown that the expanded law of the wall to forth and fifth order with calibration constants determined from recent high Reynolds number DNS can be used to fix the wall position to an accuracy of 0.1 and 0.25 l_ * (l_* is the viscous length scale) when accurately determined measurements reaching y+=5 and 10, respectively, are available. In the absence of data below the above given limits, commonly employed analytical functions and their log law constants, have been found to affect the the determination of wall position to a high degree. It has been shown, that near-wall measurements below y+=10 or preferable 5 are essential in order to ensure a correctly measured or deduced absolute wall position. A  number of peculiarities in concurrent wall-bounded turbulent flow studies, was found to be associated with a erroneously deduced wall position. The effect of poor spatial resolution using hot-wire anemometry on the measurements of the streamwise velocity is dealt with in the last part. The viscous scaled hot-wire length, L+, has been found to exert a strong impact on the probability density distribution (pdf) of the streamwise velocity, and hence its higher order moments, over the entire buffer region and also the lower region of the log region. For varying Reynolds numbers spatial resolution effects act against the trend imposed by the Reynolds number. A systematic reduction of the mean velocity with increasing L+ over the entire classical buffer region and beyond has been found. A reduction of around 0.3 uƬ, where uƬ is the friction velocity, has been deduced for L+=60 compared to L+=15. Neglecting this effect can lead to a seemingly Reynolds number dependent  buffer or log region. This should be taken into consideration, for instance, in the debate, regarding the prevailing influence of viscosity above the buffer region at high Reynolds numbers. We also conclude that the debate concerning the universality of the pdf within the overlap region has been artificially complicated due to the ignorance of spatial resolution effects beyond the classical buffer region on the velocity fluctuations. / QC 20100820