GROUP - 2

Suppression of Thermoacoustic combustion

instability using a control module

GROUP MEMBERS

ALLEN VARGHESE GEORGE (201603)

FEBIN JOSEPH THOMAS (201623)
MERICK STEVE GEORGE (201624)
JOE NISHIT (201627)

PROJECT GUIDE

NILAJ DESHMUKH

PROJECT CO-GUIDE

AFZAL ANSARI
 ABSTRACT
Thermo-acoustic instabilities can be defined as the combined effect of acoustic-
pressure and heat waves which leads to unstable vibrations in the flame profile. This
leads to structural damage. This phenomenon can be observed in combustion
chambers, gas turbines, jet engines, industrial burners, etc. The combination of
acoustic waves and heat release leads to a high degree of instabilities. Thermo-
acoustic instabilities produce high degrees of vibrations which produces noise the
waves travel in the chamber and reflects from the boundaries and this reflected
waves again gets combined with the heat waves to produce more instabilities. It is
important to suppress these instabilities to improve the thermal efficiency of the
system.

Thermoacoustic Instability can be suppressed using two methods

1. Passive Method
2. Active Method

A certain change in the design of a combustion system associated with passive

control involves modifications to the combustor geometry.
In active control techniques, combustion instabilities are controlled by means of
an external source of energy for actuation either in an open-loop or closed-loop
(feedback) system. An active device is self-adjusting depending on feedback from
the operating conditions. The run time efficiencies of Active control technique are
higher than Passive control techniques.
So, using a closed loop active control technique will enhance the efficiency of the
system. Rijke tube is a combustor model which is extensively employed for research
purpose. Length to diameter ratio for a horizontal tube is taken as 10 in order to keep
the acoustic waves one dimensional in nature. A radial air injection component is
developed for pressure reduction in the tube.

LabView is used as a controller as well as a data acquiring software. An air flow

controller and flow rate measuring sensors are used to control and measure the
compressed air used for suppressing the instability.
A pressure Transducer is used to sense the pressure changes in the tube.
The pressure transducer connected to the LabView via DAQ and air flow rate sensor
and the controller is connected to the LabView which actuates the air flow controller
to vary the air to the air injector reduce the pressure in the tube.

After the completion of the setup, we hope to achieve the following parameters

Increase the response of the system

increase the efficiency of the combustor
Minimize human intervention
To achieve even temperature distribution