Coupled thermoacoustic resolvent analysis of a model two-stream coaxial combustor

Abstract

We derived a resolvent operator to analyze the coupled flame-acoustic effect in a model two-stream coaxial combustor. The theoretical analysis accommodates both the hydrodynamic effect of the active flame and chamber acoustic effect, as well as their coupling effect. Utilizing the coupled thermoacoustic resolvent, we are able to identify the optimal forcing of different mechanisms and their corresponding optimal responses. When this new modeling tool is applied to a two-stream coaxial model combustor, it reveals distinctly different forcing-response characteristics in the coupled system compared to those in a purely hydrodynamic linear system. Acoustic energy peaks, indicative of resonance, are observed. Additionally, it has been found that the acoustic forcing does not maintain a rank-one property. Furthermore, the modes most receptive to the flame-acoustic coupling effect can be identified using a novel sensitivity analysis approach. Interestingly, by employing the coupled thermoacoustic resolvent, we demonstrate that forcing can be designed to negate or counteract perturbations caused by the forcing of another attribute, potentially aiding in the development of effective thermoacoustic control strategies.