Numerical study of the effect of the corrugated baffle on the acoustic characteristics of the combustion chamber

Abstract

Combustion instability caused by the amplification of sound waves is called acoustic or high-frequency instability, which can cause severe damage to the system. Adding baffles is one of the methods of passive instability control. Depending on the geometry of the chamber and the type of application, different baffles are used. In this research, the effect of the longitudinal corrugated baffle on the acoustic characteristics of the combustion chamber is investigated numerically. The quality of each baffle configuration is determined by examining their influence on the essential parameters such as natural frequency shift and damping factor. Modal and harmonic analyses for the acoustic field are conducted to investigate the effect of baffles installed in the combustion chamber. According to the obtained results, the addition of baffle shifts resonant frequencies. In other words, a combustor with baffles is more effective in controlling the instabilities than that without baffles. In addition, it increases the damping factor in the first–second circumferential (tangential) modes, making the system more stable. Also, a quantitative assessment of the acoustics by adding baffles shows that combustion chamber finds a better condition from stability point of view, and the bandwidth increase affects the combustion stability.