A novel investigation of the thermoacoustic field inside a Rijke tube

Abstract

In this paper, results proceeding from experimental studies and computational simulations of the time-dependent flowfield inside a Rijke tube are presented and interpreted. A theoretical discussion based on existing speculations and scaling analyses is carried out. The main results include a similarity parameter that appears to play an important role in the heat driven oscillations. This parameter relates heat perturbations to velocity, pressure, and the square of a characteristic length. A simple theory that attributes heat oscillations to the combined effects of pressure and velocity oscillations is discussed via computational, experimental, and scaling considerations. Since previous analytical theories link heat oscillations to either velocity or pressure oscillations, the current analytical model agrees with and reconciles between existing speculations. In compliance with the Rayleigh criterion, it is found that the heat source must be positioned at a critical distance of l/4 from the Rijke-tube lower end for resonance to occur. This observation confirms our proposed interpretation since the critical point where coupling is maximized corresponds to a spatial location where the acoustic intensity, product of both acoustic velocities and pressures, is largest. Numerical simulations show that pressure oscillations inside the Rijke tube grow exponentially with increasing heat input. With a sufficiently small heat input, the acoustic sinks exceed the sources and acoustic damping takes place. When the heat input is augmented beyond a critical threshold, acoustic sinks become insufficient causing rapid acoustic amplification by virtue of internal energy accumulation.