Numerical investigation of azimuthal thermoacoustic instability in a gas turbine model combustor

Self-excited spinning mode azimuthal instability in an annular combustor with non-swirling flow is investigated using large eddy simulation (LES). Compressible Navier–Stokes equations are solved with a flamelet combustion model to describe the subgrid chemistry-turbulence interactions. Two flamelet models, with and without heat loss effects, are compared to elucidate the non-adiabatic wall effects on the thermoacoustic instability. The azimuthal modes are captured well by both models with only marginal differences in the computed frequencies and amplitudes. By comparing with the experimental measurements, the frequencies given by the LES are approximately 10% higher and the amplitudes are well predicted. Further analysis of the experimental and LES data shows a similar dominant anti-clockwise spinning mode, under which a good agreement is observed for the phase-averaged heat release rate fluctuations. Dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) is applied to shed more light on this spinning mode. The LES and experimental DMD modes reconstructed for their azimuthal mode frequencies agree very well for the heat release fluctuations. The DMD mode structure for the acoustic pressure from the LES shows a considerable non-zero profile at the combustor outlet, which could be essential for azimuthal modes to establish in this annular combustor. Finally, a low-order modelling study was conducted using an acoustic network combined with the flame transfer function extracted from LES. The results show that the dominant mode is associated with the plenum showing a first longitudinal and azimuthal mixed mode structure. By tuning the plenum length to match the effective volume, the predicted frequency becomes very close to the measured value.