Combustion instability mechanism of a lean premixed gas turbine combustor

Lean premixed combustion has been considered as one of the promising solutions for the reduction of NOx emissions from gas turbines. However, unstable combustion of lean premixed flow becomes a real challenge on the way to design a reliable, highly efficient dry low NOx gas turbine combustor. Contrary to a conventional diffusion type combustion system, characteristics of premixed combustion significantly depend on a premixing degree of combusting flow. Combustion behavior in terms of stability has been studied in a model gas turbine combustor burning natural gas and air. Incompleteness of premixing is identified as significant perturbation source for inducing unstable combustion. Application of a simple convection time lag theory can only predict instability modes but cannot determine whether instability occurs or not. Low frequency perturbations are observed at the onset of instability and believed to initiate the coupling between heat release rate and pressure fluctuations.