OptTuGen
Cost and power oriented combustor-turbine-technologies for modern turbo-generators

Currently, thermoacoustic instabilities can only be detected at a very late stage of development with considerable effort. In OptTuGen, the STFS will develop a numerical method based on hybrid 3D CFD and CAA, which allows to analyze the combustion chamber simultaneously in terms of fluid mechanics, hydrogen combustion and thermoacoustics.

For future aircraft design, focus is placed on lower pollutant emissions and stable operations over an ever-bigger load of the engine. These developments often go hand in hand with investigations of the thermoacoustic response behaviour, since the appearance of thermoacoustic instabilities can impact the engine operation and lead to noise and, in the worst case, to damage of the system.

Predictive numerical models implemented in the project LaBreVer (opens in new tab) will be applied to a new, small engine. The hydrogen models, developed in the LuFo-VI-2 project WotAn (opens in new tab) , will be used to describe a real configuration in this project. This will be realized in close cooperation with TU Munich.

OptTuGen will combine STFS research in the fields of thermoacoustics, flame-wall interaction, and hydrogen combustion.

Methodology

Hybrid CFD-CAA:Runtime-coupling of low-Mach CFD simulations using PRECISE-UNS for fluid flow, and the Nektar++ CAA solver for acoustics, enables the case-by-case adaptations of different domains to the investigated scenarios. Coupling is realized using an external coupling library.

Key Scientific Takeaways

  • Further validation of the hybrid LES-CAA method with other institutions acoustics tools and investigation of the flame response behaviour of hydrogen flames.
  • Further implementation of so far simplified physical effects into the coupling methodology, such as acoustics sources and sinks, and means for energy dissipation.
  • Increasing importance of flame-wall interaction in downscaled combustors.

Related Projects

LaBreVer (opens in new tab) (2019 – 2022)

Funding and cooperation

OptTuGen is a joint research program in the frame of LuFo VI, Call 3. It is financially supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) under grant number 20M2264B, and Rolls-Royce Deutschland. This project features a close cooperation with TU Munich, Institute Thermo-Fluid Dynamics.

Publications

  • Reinhardt, Hanna; Alanyalioglu, Cetin; Fischer, André; Lahiri, Claus; Nicolai, Hendrik; Hasse, Christian: Towards the Prediction of Flame Transfer Functions: Evaluation of a Hybrid LES-CAA with Compressible LES. In: Symposium on Thermoacoustics in Combustion 2023, Zurich, Switzerland, [Conference]
  • Alanyalioglu, Cetin; Reinhardt, Hanna; Fischer, André; Lahiri, Claus; Nicolai, Hendrik; Hasse, Christian: Comparison of acoustic, optical, and heat release rate based flame transfer functions for a lean-burn injector under engine-like conditions. In: Symposium on Thermoacoustics in Combustion 2023, Zurich, Switzerland, [Conference]