Symmetry Breaking in an Experimental Annular Combustor Model With Deterministic Electroacoustic Feedback and Stochastic Forcing

In this study, we use an annular combustor experimental model with electroacoustic feedback to investigate systematically the effect of stochastic forcing and nonuniform flame response distribution on azimuthal thermoacoustic modes. We break the symmetry of a nominally degenerate mode of azimuthal order m by imposing a nonzero 2m Fourier component of the flame gain, $b2m$⁠, and of the time-delay, $ε2m$⁠. Various orientations between the gain and the time-delay staging patterns are considered. In addition, stochastic forcing is introduced. First, all experiments are performed without noise, as well as at the maximum noise intensity. We observe that the mode nature that dominates in the presence of intense noise may be far from the one observed in noise-free conditions. To better understand the effect of noise in the presence of asymmetries, we repeat some of the experiments at various noise intensities. Although our results confirm that for the axisymmetric configuration and some asymmetric configurations pure spinning modes are never reached, we also observe some radically different behaviors. For a noise-free experiment leading to a purely standing mode, the introduction of a sufficient amount of noise can lead to beating. We also observe that, for a mode that is nearly standing in the absence of noise, an increase in the noise intensity leads to the predominance of mixed modes with a clearly favored spinning direction. We explain our experimental results with the aid of low-order models.