MCS11 Tenerife, Spain, 16-20 June 2019

NUMERICAL MODELLING OF RESONANCE IN PLENUM

CHAMBER OF A GAS TURBINE MODEL COMBUSTOR
Amir Mardani*, Amir A. Beige*, Hosna Bahonar*
amardani@sharif.edu
*Sharif University of Technology- Azadi St.- Tehran- Iran

Abstract
A computational study is performed of flow-excited resonance in plenum chamber of a Gas
Turbine Model Combustor (GTMC). Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is used for turbulence
modelling with wall-adapted local eddy-viscosity (WALE) model to calculate subgrid scale
stress tensor. Structured grid and axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations are used in the flow
solver. The results of the computational study are compared to experimental results found in
literature. It is shown that resonance is coupled to periodic vortex creation at the entrance of
the plenum neck. Numerical results show the same frequency and different amplitudes of
oscillations for different inlet turbulence intensities and higher amplitudes and frequencies of
oscillations for higher flow rates.

Introduction
Gas Turbine Model combustor (GTMC) is a laboratory combustion chamber created in DLR
(The German Aerospace Center) to provide a database for improvement of numerical tools
used in gas turbine combustors. Some investigations have been done on flow and combustion
instabilities of the GTMC and many of them have indicated that the combustion chamber and
the plenum exhibit Helmholtz resonance [1-4]. Chen et al. [2] proposed a reduced order
model to describe the Helmholtz resonance in the GTMC. Their predictions of resonance
frequency and phase differences were close to experimental observations. Acoustic
simulations of Steinberg et al. [4] confirmed Helmholtz resonation to be the dominant mode
of the GTMC. Mardani and Fazlollahi-Ghomshi [5] has shown that the numerical simulation
of the GTMC is highly sensitive to the inlet turbulence boundary conditions and to the grid
resolution on the walls [5]. This paper details a computational study of flow-excited
resonance in the plenum chamber of the GTMC using LES with wall-adapted local eddy-
viscosity (WALE) model.
Helmholtz resonance can be demonstrated with an empty bottle. As air is blown across the
neck, it is forced into and out of the bottle in a cyclic manner and the resonator can be
modelled as a mass-spring-damper system. In the case of a Helmholtz resonator, the overall
dimensions of resonator are much less than an acoustic wavelength and the unsteady pressure
inside the volume can be considered spatially uniform [6-9].
 Figure 1. Grazing flow over a Helmholtz resonator.

The resonator natural frequency is given by f res  c / 2 S / Vleff where S is the area of the
orifice, leff is the effective neck thickness, V is the volume of the cavity, and c is the speed of
sound. A small pressure disturbance near this frequency can produce a large pressure
fluctuation within the resonator. A flow-excited Helmholtz resonator geometry is shown in
figure 1, in which a grazing flow separates at the sharp edge and flows over the resonator
orifice. This forms a shear layer that is unconstrained in the cross-stream direction over the
orifice. This flow is known to be linearly unstable to disturbances at discrete values of the
dimensionless frequency: fL / U . Flow-excited resonance occurs when one of the
hydrodynamic instability frequencies is close to natural frequency of the resonator.
Another type of flow excited resonance is the excitation of flow ducts by wake shedding from
plates parallel to the airstream [10-12]. Parker [10] created this type of resonance by periodic
shedding of vortices in the wake of a flat plate in the centre of a wind tunnel cross section.
The pressure field associated with the wake was considered to be the source of acoustic
excitation. Archibald [12] measured the influence of an externally applied sound field on the
vortex shedding in the wake of the plate to illustrate the conditions necessary for self-
excitation of the resonance.
There are many cases in which the flow processes that appear to be of the three-dimensional
type are controlled by two-dimensional vortex patterns [13]. In two dimensions the formation
of the eddies is a discontinuous process [14]. Figure 2 shows eddy formation and growth in a
wake flow. Application of mathematical methods shows that all two-dimensional vortex
streets are unstable [13].
 Figure 2. Pattern of eddies in a two-dimensional wake flow [14].

The acoustic behaviour of a Helmholtz resonator can be modelled numerically in two ways:
In direct approaches, compressible DNS or LES calculations are used to predict the
resonance. On the other hand, there are hybrid approaches which separate CFD
(Computational Fluid Dynamics) and CAA (Computational Aero-Acoustics) scales. They
provide a possibility for computational savings and optimized methods for each part of the
problem [15]. However, these methods suffer from two difficulties: the modelling of the
source terms from aerodynamic fluctuations and the ability to include complex acoustic flow
interactions [17].
In this work, LES calculations are used to predict the resonance within the plenum chamber of
GTMC directly. This resonance is shown to be created by periodic vortex creation at the
entrance of the plenum neck. The CFD predictions are compared to experimental
measurements available in literature and the existing analytical relations for frequency
prediction. It is shown that periodic vortex creation and acceleration in the plenum neck is
coupled to Helmholtz resonance mode of the plenum. Effect of different flow rates and inlet
turbulence intensities are shown on the frequency and the amplitude of the oscillations.

Physical Geometry
The GTMC combustor is schematically shown in Figure 3. It has two co-axial air inlets which
supply central and co-swirling air to the combustion chamber. The central air nozzle inlet has
an inner diameter of 15 mm and annular nozzle has an inner diameter of 17 mm and outer
diameter of 25 mm . Air flow in the central air inlet is around 40% of the supplied air to the
whole plenum. Combustion chamber has a square cross section of 85  85 mm2 and a height of
114 mm. The cylindrical duct (diameter of 40 mm and length of 50 mm ) connected to the
main chamber acts as the exhaust.
Combustion driven instabilities occur in the GTMC when periodic fluctuations in the heat
release rate couple with one of the acoustic modes. Feed-back loop adds energy to both the
heat release and pressure fluctuations and increases their amplitude, which leads to unsteady
operation of the engine. There are still many questions regarding the mechanisms causing
pressure and heat release fluctuations of the GTMC [4].
 Figure 3. Schematic of the GTMC [1].

Computational Model
CFD calculations are performed using a pressure-based coupled flow solver [18] and the
compressible ideal gas equation of state. Axisymmetric flow solver is used in this study with
second order discretization in both space and time. Large-eddy simulation (LES) [16] is used
for turbulence modelling in the current simulations. To calculate the subgrid scale stress
tensor, wall-adapted local eddy-viscosity (WALE) model is utilized in which the deviatoric
subgrid-stress tensor is approximated by [16]

1
 ijD  2 t  ( Sij  Skk  ij ) . (1)
3

where  t , is the eddy viscosity and Sij , is the resolved shear stress tensor. In this model, we
compute the eddy viscosity as [16]

( Sijd Sijd )3/2

 t  (Cw )2 . (2)
( Sij Sij )5/2  ( Sijd Sijd )5/4
where
1 1
Sijd  ( gij2  g 2ji )   ij g kk2 . (3)
2 3

and
ui uk
gij2  . (4)
xk x j

with
Cw  0.325 . (5)
The plenum chamber is modelled as a cylinder with a length of 6.5cm and a diameter of 8cm .
Similarly, a cylinder of 3.6cm length and 2.4cm diameter is considered for the plenum neck.
Figure 4 shows this configuration and the structured grid used for this study. Velocity and
pressure conditions were specified at the inlet and outlet boundaries of this domain,
respectively. To prevent wave reflections from boundaries, computational domain is extended
far downstream (Figure 4) and a non-reflective outlet boundary type [18] is used for these
studies.

Figure 4. Equivalent geometry of the plenum and the generated grid.

Results
For the axisymmetric geometry of the plenum shown in figure 4, Large Eddy Simulation is
performed using two different grid sizes of 36000 and 61000 cells, for mass flow rates of
5 g/s and 18 g/s , and for inlet turbulence intensities of 5% and 2%. Figure 5 shows the
pressure oscillations of a point in the middle of the plenum for two different grid sizes. Since
the resonator is much smaller than the acoustic wave length, it is assumed that at any instant
of time, the pressure is the same everywhere in the plenum. From this figure, pressure of the
plenum oscillates in a harmonic mode with a dominant frequency.
From Figure 6 which shows the frequency spectra of the plenum oscillations, the dominant
frequency is almost equal to the analytical frequency of the resonance for the considered
plenum (i.e. 280 Hz).
 1000
61000 cells, 5% inlet turbulence intensity
36000 cells, 5% inlet turbulence intensity

500

Pressure (pa)
0

-500

0.045 0.05 0.055 0.06

Time(sec)
Figure 5. Pressure oscillations of the plenum for inlet turbulence intensity of 5%.

LES, WALE

1.5E+06
Amplitude (arbitrary unit)

1E+06

500000

0
0 200 400 600 800
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 6. Frequency spectra of pressure oscillations in plenum.

Figure 7 shows pressure oscillation in the plenum for different inlet turbulence intensities and
mass flow rate of 5 g/s. Different amplitudes and the same frequency of resonance is obtained
for different inlet turbulence intensities. Experimental data of [4] for the plenum is closer to
the case of 5% inlet turbulence intensity. However, Figure 8 shows a higher amplitude and
frequency of oscillation for higher mass flow rate of 18 g/s. This is also reported in
experimental data of [3] for the GTMC and is attributed to the convective-acoustic resonance
concept. The convective-acoustic mode has two timescales for the perturbations, a convective
one and an acoustic one. The frequency of this type of resonance is in inverse proportion to
the sum of these scales. By increasing the flow rate, the convective time scale for the
perturbations decreases and this increases the overall frequency of oscillation. Since these
simulations are done for the case of cold gas flow, combustion may not be the main source for
the initiation of this resonation.

600 Steinberg et al. [4]

2% inlet turbulence intensity
500 5% inlet turbulence intensity
400

300
Pressure (pa)

200

100

-100

-200

-300

-400

0.048 0.0485 0.049 0.0495 0.05 0.0505 0.051 0.0515

Time(sec)
Figure 7. Pressure oscillation in the plenum for different inlet turbulence intensities and
mass flow rate of 5 g / s .

4000
m=18 g/s, 5% inlet turbulence intensity
m=5 g/s, 5% inlet turbulence intensity
3000

2000
Pressure (pa)

1000

-1000

-2000

0.05 0.055
Time(sec)
Figure 8. Pressure oscillation in the plenum for different flow rates and inlet turbulence
intensity of 5%.

Figure 9 shows the sequence of axial velocity distribution in the plenum during one period
of oscillations. The axisymmetric vortex created at the entrance of the plenum neck is
convected downstream periodically with the frequency of resonance. This periodic flow
creates pulses of axial velocity (flow rate) and pressure.
 0.06 Frame 1 0.06 Frame 2

0.04 0.04
Radial coordinate (m)

Radial coordinate (m)

0.02 0.02

0 0

-0.02 -0.02

-0.04 -0.04

-0.06 -0.06
0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1
Axial coordinate (m) Axial coordinate (m)

0.06 Frame 3 0.06 Frame 4

0.04 0.04
Radial coordinate (m)

Radial coordinate (m)

0.02 0.02

0 0

-0.02 -0.02

-0.04 -0.04

-0.06 -0.06

0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1

Axial coordinate (m) Axial coordinate (m)

Figure 9. Axial velocity contours of the plenum showing the interaction of vortex shedding
and resonance during one period of oscillation.

Conclusion
In this paper, flow-excited resonance in the plenum chamber of a Gas Turbine Model
Combustor (GTMC) is studied numerically using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) with wall-
adapted local eddy-viscosity (WALE) model. It is illustrated that the axisymmetric vortex
created at the entrance of the plenum neck is convected downstream periodically with the
frequency of resonance and is coupled to the pressure pulsations in the plenum. The
frequency of oscillations is almost equal to the analytical frequency of the resonance for the
considered plenum, but increases with flow rate. This is explained by convective-acoustic
resonation concept. The same frequency of resonance is present for different inlet turbulent
intensities.

Nomenclature
S orifice area
l length
V cavity volume
c speed of sound
f  frequency
 ijD deviatoric subgrid-stress
 density
Sij resolved shear stress
t eddy viscosity

Subscripts
res resonance
eff effective

References
[1] Weigand, Peter, et al. "Investigations of swirl flames in a gas turbine model combustor:
I. Flow field, structures, temperature, and species distributions." Combustion and flame
144.1 (2006): 205-224.
[2] Chen, Yuntao, and James F. Driscoll. "Experimental Studies and Modeling of Acoustic
Instabilities in a Gas Turbine Model Combustor." 53rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences
Meeting. 2015.
[3] Allison, Patton Manuel. "Experimental Characterization of Combustion Instabilities and
Flow-Flame Dynamics in a Partially-Premixed Gas Turbine Model Combustor." (2013).
[4] Steinberg, Adam M., et al. "Effects of flow structure dynamics on thermoacoustic
instabilities in swirl-stabilized combustion." AIAA journal 50.4 (2012): 952-967.
[5] Mardani, Amir, and Alireza Fazlollahi-Ghomshi. "Numerical Investigation of a Double-
Swirled Gas Turbine Model Combustor Using a RANS Approach with Different
Turbulence–Chemistry Interaction Models." Energy & Fuels 30.8 (2016): 6764-6776.
[6] Nelson, P. A., N. A. Halliwell, and P. E. Doak. "Fluid dynamics of a flow excited
resonance, part I: experiment." Journal of Sound and Vibration 78.1 (1981): 15-38.
[7] Meissner, M. "Excitation of Helmholtz resonator by grazing air flow." Journal of Sound
and Vibration 256.2 (2002): 382-388.
[8] Ghanadi, Farzin, et al. "Understanding of the flow behaviour on a Helmholtz resonator
excited by grazing flow." International Journal of Computational Fluid Dynamics 28.5
(2014): 219-231.
[9] Slaboch, Paul, Ruolong Ma, and Scott Morris. "Vortical-acoustic interactions in a flow-
excited Helmholtz resonator at low Mach numbers." 14th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics
Conference (29th AIAA Aeroacoustics Conference). 2008.
[10] Parker, R. "Resonance effects in wake shedding from parallel plates: some experimental
observations." Journal of Sound and Vibration 4.1 (1966): 62-72.
[11] Cumpsty, Nicholas Alexander, and D. S. Whitehead. "The excitation of acoustic
resonances by vortex shedding." Journal of Sound and Vibration 18.3 (1971): 353-369.
[12] Archibald, F. S. "Self-excitation of an acoustic resonance by vortex shedding." Journal
of Sound and Vibration 38.1 (1975): 81-103.
[13] Wille, R. "Karman vortex streets." Advances in Applied Mechanics 6 (1960): 273-287.
[14] Mallock, Henry Reginald Arnulph. "On the resistance of air." Proc. R. Soc. Lond.
A 79.530 (1907): 262-273.
[15] Denayer, Hervé, et al. "Acoustic characterization of a helmholtz resonator under grazing
flow conditions using a hybrid methodology." 19th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics
Conference. 2013.
[16] Meyers, Johan, Bernard Geurts, and Pierre Sagaut, eds. Quality and reliability of large-
eddy simulations. Vol. 12. Springer Science & Business Media, 2008.
[17] Wagner, Claus, Thomas Hüttl, and Pierre Sagaut, eds. Large-eddy simulation for
acoustics. Vol. 20. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
[18] Manual, Fluent User. "Fluent user’s guide." Fluent Inc, Lebanon 68 (2005).