Self-coupling: An Effective Method to Mitigate Thermoacoustic Instability

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple, cost-effective self-coupling method using a hollow tube to suppress thermoacoustic instability in combustors, demonstrated through experiments and modeling on a Rijke tube.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that self-coupling via a hollow tube can effectively suppress thermoacoustic instability, offering an alternative to traditional feedback controls.

Findings

Optimal coupling occurs when the tube length is near an odd multiple of the Rijke tube length.

Self-coupling achieves amplitude death more effectively than mutual coupling.

The optimal coupling tube is positioned near the anti-node of the standing wave.

Abstract

The presence of undesirable large-amplitude self-sustained oscillations in combustors resulting from thermoacoustic instability can lead to performance loss and structural damage to components of gas turbine and rocket engines. Traditional feedback controls to mitigate thermoacoustic instability possess electromechanical components, which are expensive to maintain regularly and unreliable in the harsh environments of combustors. In this study, we demonstrate the quenching of thermoacoustic instability through self-coupling -- a method wherein a hollow tube is used to provide acoustic self-feedback to a thermoacoustic system. Through experiments and modeling, we identify the optimal coupling conditions for attaining amplitude death, i.e., complete suppression of thermoacoustic instabilities, in a horizontal Rijke tube. We examine the effect of both system and coupling parameters on the occurrence of amplitude death. We thereby show that the parametric regions of amplitude death occur when the coupling tube length is close to an odd multiple of the length of the Rijke tube. The optimal location of the coupling tube for achieving amplitude death is near the anti-node of the acoustic standing wave in the Rijke tube. Furthermore, we find that self-coupling mitigates thermoacoustic instability in a Rijke tube more effectively than mutual coupling of two identical Rijke tubes. Thus, we believe that self-coupling can prove to be a simple, cost-effective solution for mitigating thermoacoustic instability in gas turbine combustors.