Effects of High-harmonic Components on the Rayleigh Indices in Multi-mode Thermo-acoustic Combustion Instability

This paper presents the characteristics of non-fundamental multi-mode combustion instability and the effects of high-harmonic components on the Rayleigh criterion. Phenomenological observations of multi-harmonic-mode dynamic pressure waves regarding the intensity of harmonic components and the source of wave distortion have been explained by introducing examples of second- and third-order harmonics at various amplitudes. The amplitude and order of the harmonic components distorted the wave shapes, including the peak and the amplitude, of the dynamic pressure and heat release, and consequently the temporal Rayleigh index and its integrals. A cause-and-effect analysis was used to identify the root causes of the phase delay and the amplification of the Rayleigh index. From this analysis, the skewness of the dynamic pressure turned out to be a major source in determining whether multi-mode instability is driving or damping, as well as in optimizing the combustor design, such as the mixing length and the combustor length, to avoid unstable regions. The results can be used to minimize errors in predicting combustion instability in cases of high multi-mode combustion instability. In the future, the amount of research and the number of applications will increase because new fuels, such as fast-burning syngases, are prone to generating multi-mode instabilities.