Acoustic Flame Transfer Function Measurements in a Liquid Fueled High Pressure Aero-Engine Combustor

This paper describes an experimental approach and study of thermo-acoustic flame transfer functions in a high-pressure liquid-fueled rich burn combustor. The presence of high background flame luminosity in high-pressure sooty flame combustors precludes the application of any direct optical flame transfer function method. Instead, an acoustic method based on multiple microphones was employed to characterize the combustor acoustic pressure and velocity responses to acoustic forcing. A high-pressure siren device was employed to acoustically excite the combustor air flow over a broad range of frequencies from 150–1000Hz and modulate the combustor inlet dynamic pressure amplitudes. The acoustic pressures measured from the microphones located upstream and downstream of the flame were processed to obtain swirler impedances and flame transfer functions. Nonlinear behavior of the liquid fuel flame transfer function was studied by systematically varying the siren excitation pressure amplitudes. A parametric study of varying inlet air pressure, inlet air temperature, and thermal power was performed to study the impact of operating conditions on the measured liquid flame transfer function.