Identification of Multi-Parameter Flame Transfer Function for a Reheat Combustor

Lean premix technology is widely spread in gas turbine combustion systems, allowing modern power plants to fulfill very stringent emission targets. These systems are however also prone to thermoacoustic instabilities, which can limit the engine operating window. The thermoacoustic analysis of a combustor is thus a key element in its development process. GT24/GT26 reheat combustion system feature a unique technology where fuel is injected into a hot gas stream from a first combustor and auto-ignites in a sequential combustion chamber. Recently, a methodology was successfully developed and validated to analyze the dynamic response of an auto-ignition flame and to extract the Flame Transfer Function using unsteady Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) [GT2015-42622]. The flame was assumed to behave as a Single Input Single Output (SISO) system. The analysis qualitatively highlighted the important role of temperature and equivalence ratio fluctuations, but it was not possible to separate these effects from velocity perturbations. This is the main target of the present work: the flame is treated as a multi-parameter system, and compressible LES are conducted to extract the frequency-dependent flame transfer function. The simulations are forced with uncorrelated broadband signals in order to efficiently calculate the dynamic response over the frequency range of interest. The methodology introduced in this work will help to define stable operation concepts for gas turbines.