In order to investigate the characteristics of heat transfer in oscillating flow, the computational fluid dynamics method was employed to study the effects of pulsating flow on the heat transfer process in a cross-flow heat exchange pipe, and to analyze the underling mechanism which controls the improvement of heat transfer in pulsating flow through the distribution of temperature. Several pulsating frequencies (f=0, 5, 10, 50, 100, 150 Hz) and a wide range of pulsating amplitudes (inlet velocity u=2.0+Asin(2πft) m/s, A=0, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 m/s) were explored to find out the best pulsating parameters for heat transfer. Results showed that pulsating flow with a low pulsating frequency (the magnitude of ~101 Hz) should be selected to obtain large heat transfer coefficient, and that pulsating flow with larger pulsating amplitude results in greater heat transfer coefficient. On the other hand, results revealed that only a limited length of the cross-flow exchange pipe was affected by the pulsating flow compared to the whole length, and that the affected length is longer with lower pulsating frequency and larger pulsating amplitude.

In order to investigate the bending and mixing characteristics in a vertical jet issuing into a swirling cross-flow, large eddy simulation method was employed to simulate the flow field of a jet in swirling cross-flow. Several jet to cross-flow velocity ratios (r=15, 30, 60) were investigated. The numerical results were compared to the experimental data measured from a phase tunable laser and CCD system. The Reynolds number Re based on the characteristic length of the cross-flow tunnel and the jet velocity lies between 22,537 and 90,146. Numerical results showed that the penetration depth of the vertical jet maintains nearly unchanged when the jet to cross-flow velocity ratio is large enough (r>30), which agreed well with the experimental data and was different from the flow field of jet in straight cross-flow. On the other hand, the case of r=60 obtained largest spread width, and the spread width maintains relatively large in a large penetration zone, which is consist with the experimental finding.

In order to study the nonlinearity during the start-oscillation of thermo-acoustic instability, an experimental setup was built. The growing process of nonlinearity during the start-oscillation of thermo-acoustic instability was captured and analyzed. Experimental results revealed that after a suitable resonance mode corresponding to the structural of the combustor was selected, the pressure perturbations inside the combustor grow in amplitude into a very large amplitude and self-excited oscillation in a very short period of time. Then, slowly, the nonlinear effects adjust the shapes of pressure waveforms and amplify the oscillations. Ultimately, a limit-cycle oscillation with smooth and uniform pressure waveforms was obtained, and the acoustic waves exhibit only the main resonance mode, damping other modes of instability.