Lean Blowout Detection in a Single Nozzle Swirl Cup Combustor

This paper describes work to develop practical, fast diagnostic techniques that can be used to monitor the proximity of a combustor to blowoff using measurements of the flame’s acoustic and chemiluminescence signature. Data was acquired from a commercial single nozzle, swirl cup combustor fueled with Jet-A. High-speed flame images were obtained and analyzed in conjunction with simultaneous acoustic and optic data. These analyses revealed changes in the low frequency acoustic spectrum and increased presence of time-localized and intermittent events in both acoustic and optic data as the combustor approached blowoff. Based upon these observations, spectral, wavelet and thresholding signal-processing schemes were developed for detecting blowout precursors with varying levels of time response, sensitivity and robustness.

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