• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.342-350
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• 2008

The effects of combustion instability on flow structure and flame dynamics with the inlet configurations in a model gas turbine combustor were investigated using large eddy simulation (LES). A G-equation flamelet model was employed to simulate the unsteady flame behaviors. As a result of mean flow field, the change of divergent half angle($\alpha$) at combustor inlet results in variations in the size and shape of the central toroidal recirculation (CTRZ) as well as the flame length by changing corner recirculation zone (CRZ). The case of ${\alpha}=45^{\circ}$ show smaller size and upstream location of CTRZ than those of $90^{\circ}$ and $30^{\circ}$ by the development of higher swirl velocity. The flame length in the case of ${\alpha}=45^{\circ}$ is shorter than other cases, while the case of ${\alpha}=30^{\circ}$ yields the longest flame length due to the decrease of effective reactive area with the absence of CRZ. Through the analysis of pressure fluctuation, it was identified that the case of ${\alpha}=45^{\circ}$ shows the largest damping effect of pressure oscillation in all configurations and brings in the noise reduction of 2.97dB, compared to that of ${\alpha}=30^{\circ}$ having the largest pressure oscillation. These reasons were discussed in detail through the analysis of unsteady phenomena related to recirculation zone and flame surface. Finally the effects of flame-acoustic interaction were evaluated using local Rayleigh parameter.