Combustion instabilities are physical phenomena occurring in a reacting flow (e.g., a flame) in which some perturbations, even very small ones, grow and then become large enough to alter the features of the flow in some particular way.[1][2][3]
In many practical cases, the appearance of combustion instabilities is undesirable. For instance, thermoacoustic instabilities are a major hazard to gas turbines and rocket engines.[1] Moreover, flame blowoff of an aero-gas-turbine engine in mid-flight is clearly dangerous (see flameout).
Because of these hazards, the engineering design process of engines involves the determination of a stability map (see figure). This process identifies a combustion-instability region and attempts to either eliminate this region or moved the operating region away from it. This is a very costly iterative process. For example, the numerous tests required to develop rocket engines [4] are largely in part due to the need to eliminate or reduce the impact of thermoacoustic combustion instabilities.
- ^ a b Culick, F. E. and Kuentzmann, P. (2006). Unsteady Motions in Combustion Chambers for Propulsion Systems. NATO Research and Technology Organization.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Lieuwen, T. C. (2012). Unsteady Combustor Physics. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Matalon, M. (2007). "Intrinsic flame instabilities in premixed and nonpremixed combustion". Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. 39 (1): 163–191. Bibcode:2007AnRFM..39..163M. doi:10.1146/annurev.fluid.38.050304.092153.
- ^ Pempie, P. and Vernin, H. "Liquid rocket engine test plan comparison". AIAA Paper 2001-3256.
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