Active Control of Combustion Instabilities in Low Nox Gas Turbines

DISCLAIMER: " This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. " 1. ABSTRACT This program investigated the causes and active control of combustion driven oscillations in low emissions gas turbines. These oscillations are one of the primary problems encountered in the development of new systems and the availability and maintainability of fielded systems. As a result of this program, significant progress was made in developing capabilities to predict the conditions under which instabilities occur and their amplitudes. In addition, an advanced adaptive, active control system was developed that can rapidly and effectively suppress combustor oscillations. Finally, the results of this program were leveraged in three new programs established with industry that are transitioning the developed technologies and knowledge into instability prediction models and active control capabilities for full scale systems.