Experimental investigation on macrostructure and evolution of hydrogen-air micro-mix multi-jet flames

Considering the requirements for developing hydrogen combustion chambers and the application potential of micro-mix combustion, the flame macrostructure and evolution of hydrogen-air multi-microjet flames have been investigated to discover the relationship between flame macrostructure and thermoacoustic instability. A novel burner has been tested under different combustor liner lengths to simultaneously produce stable and unstable combustion under the same operation conditions. A compact conical flame shape without adjacent flame front interference is observed. In comparison with the combustor liner length, the flame temperature variation shows an insignificant effect on the thermoacoustic instability but triggers an oscillation mode transition from low-frequency (∼210–240Hz) to high-frequency (∼400–440Hz) under unstable combustion. Different flame evolutions are revealed for these oscillation modes. DMD analysis and LES simulation show that the high-frequency oscillation mode is mainly controlled by flame front oscillation and flame pinch-off process. However, the low-frequency oscillation mode is characterized by flame extinction on a large scale. Both equivalent ratio and velocity fluctuations contributed to flame and heat release oscillations under low and high flame temperatures. These findings help understand the mechanisms, driving hydrogen-air flame dynamics, and designing hydrogen combustors.