Principal Investigator Ahmed Ghoniem
Co-investigator Santosh Shanbhogue
Project Website http://web.mit.edu/rgd/www/CombustionDynamics/combustionDynamics.html
Dynamic instabilities are the main roadblock to developing low-emission, lean-premixed combustors for power generation and aviation applications. Instabilities arise from a positive coupling of the flow dynamics and the premixed flame response. In combustors with swirling geometries, vortex breakdown, vortex shedding, and precessing vortex cores contribute to the periodic coherent structure-flame interactions that govern the dynamics.
Work has shown that dynamic instability in a swirl-stabilized combustor is more strongly correlated with inlet vortex profile than previously thought. Under certain conditions, the modification of the vortex structure itself is sufficient to alter the dynamics and mitigate dynamic instabilities.
Current research in this area is focusing on decomposing the flame response into fundamental modes, and examining how those modes evolve with the change of combustion parameters, primarily flame speed and flame temperature.