Scanned-Wavelength Temperature Sensors for Combustion Instabilities

Motivation Fuel lean combustion is often employed to reduce pollutant emissions (CO, NOx,...) and increase gas turbine lifetime via reduced temperature. However, lean combustion is susceptible to thermoacoustic instabilities and lean blowout (LBO). Thermoacoustic instabilities are due to the coupling of heat release to acoustic oscillations, and lead to reduced combustion efficiency and increased pollutant emissions. LBO can lead to significant safety hazards and riskbased costs. Thus, practical use of lean combustion requires real-time control to suppress acoustic instabilities and avoid LBO.