Combustion instabilities of separated stratified swirling flames with different degrees of premixedness

The effects of premixedness degrees on combustion instabilities of separated stratified swirling flames have been investigated experimentally in the Beihang Axial Swirler Independently-Stratified (BASIS) burner. The degree of premixedness is modulated by the fuel split between two injection positions in the outer stream. In the spectra of pressure oscillations, both the dominant frequency and amplitude of partially premixed flames are positively correlated with fuel split ratios. The partially premixed flame is found to feature a large-scale periodic convective motion based on CH* chemiluminescence images, which have been analyzed under different fuel split ratios by a point-to-point Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method. The development of above convective motion is explained by combining the variation of pressure and heat release in the oscillation period. Local Rayleigh index maps show that the driving factor of combustion instability for the partially premixed flame mainly comes from the upstream of the combustor. Finally, thermoacoustic network analysis is applied to predict observed frequencies under both perfectly and partially premixed conditions. The supposed additional convective time due to equivalence ratio fluctuations and the elongated flame region for the partially premixed flame is validated by its longer time delay in the sensitivity analysis of the n-τ flame model.