Design for thermo-acoustic stability: Procedure and database

A design for thermo-acoustic stability (DeTAS) procedure is presented, that aims at selecting a most stable burner geometry for a given combustor. It is based on the premise that a thermo-acoustic stability model of the combustor can be formulated and that a burner design exists, which has geometric design parameters that sufficiently influence the dynamics of the flame. Describing the burner and flame dynamics in dependence of the geometrical parameters an optimization procedure involving a linear stability model of the target combustor maximizes the damping and thereby yields the optimal geometrical parameters. To demonstrate the procedure on an existing annular combustor a generic burner design was developed that features two geometrical parameters that can easily be adjusted. To provide the database for the DeTAS procedure static and dynamical properties of burner and flame were measured for three by three configurations at a fixed operation point. The data is presented and discussed. It is found that the chosen design exhibits a significant variability of the flame dynamics in dependence of the geometrical parameters indicating that a DeTAS should be possible for the targeted annular combustor.