High Frequency Acoustic Wave Scattering From Turbulent Premixed Flames

This thesis describes an experimental investigation of high frequency acoustic wave scattering from turbulent premixed flames. The objective of this work was to characterize the scattered incoherent acoustic field and determine its parametric dependence on frequency, flame brush thickness, incident and measurement angles, mean velocity and flame speed. The experimental facility consists of a slot burner with a flat flame sheet that is approximately 15 cm wide and 12 cm tall. The baseline cold flow characteristics and flame sheet statistics were extensively characterized. Studies were performed over a wide range of frequencies (1-24 kHz) in order to characterize the role of the incident acoustic wave length. The spectrum of the scattered acoustic field showed distinct incoherent spectral sidebands on either side of the driving frequency. The scattered incoherent field was characterized in terms of the incoherent field strength and spectral bandwidth and related to the theoretical predictions. The role of the flame front wrinkling scale, i.e., flame brush thickness, was also studied. Flame brush thickness was varied independent of the mean velocity and flame speed by using a variable turbulence generator. Results are reported for five flame brush thickness cases, ranging from 1.2 mm to 5.2 mm. Some dependence of scattered field characteristics on flame brush thickness was observed, but the magnitude of the effect was much smaller than expected from theoretical considerations. The spatial dependence of the scattered field was investigated by measuring the scattered field at four measurement angles and exciting the flame at four incident angles. Theory predicts that these variations influence the spatial scale of the acoustic wave normal to the flame, a result confirmed by the measurements. Measurements were performed for multiple combinations of mean velocities and flame speeds. The scattered field was observed to depend strongly on the flame speed. Further analysis suggested that the change in orientation angle distribution with flame speed had a large influence on the scattered field. The scattered field characteristics did not show any appreciable change with mean velocity. This result was expected since flame brush thickness characteristics themselves exhibit a weak velocity dependence.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Dr. Timothy C. Lieuwen; Committee Member: Dr. Jerry M. Seitzman; Committee Member: Dr. Massimo Ruzzene; Committee Member: Dr. Richard Gaeta; Committee Member: Dr. Shivakumar Srinivasa