Reliable calculation of thermoacoustic instability risk using an imperfect surrogate model

Shuai Guo, Camilo F. Silva, Wolfgang Polifke

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

One of the fundamental tasks in performing robust thermoacoustic design of gas turbine combustors is calculating the modal instability risk, i.e., the probability that a thermoacoustic mode is unstable, given various sources of uncertainty (e.g., operation or boundary conditions). To alleviate the high computational cost associated with conventional Monte Carlo simulation, surrogate modeling techniques are usually employed. Unfortunately, in practice it is not uncommon that only a small number of training samples can be afforded for surrogate model training. As a result, epistemic uncertainty may be introduced by such an “inaccurate” model, provoking a variation of modal instability risk calculation. In the current study, using Gaussian Process (GP) as the surrogate model, we address the following two questions: Firstly, how to quantify the variation of modal instability risk induced by the epistemic surrogate model uncertainty? Secondly, how to reduce the variation of risk calculation given a limited computational budget for the surrogate model training? For the first question, we leverage on the Bayesian characteristic of the GP model and perform correlated sampling of the GP predictions at different inputs to quantify the uncertainty of risk calculation. We show how this uncertainty shrinks when more training samples are available. For the second question, we adopt an active learning strategy to intelligently allocate training samples, such that the trained GP model is highly accurate particularly in the vicinity of the zero growth rate contour. As a result, a more accurate and robust modal instability risk calculation is obtained without increasing the computational cost of surrogate model training.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCombustion, Fuels, and Emissions
PublisherAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
ISBN (Electronic)9780791884126
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020
EventASME Turbo Expo 2020: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition, GT 2020 - Virtual, Online
Duration: 21 Sep 202025 Sep 2020

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ASME Turbo Expo
Volume4A-2020

Conference

ConferenceASME Turbo Expo 2020: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition, GT 2020
CityVirtual, Online
Period21/09/2025/09/20

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