Nonlinear flame response modelling by a parsimonious set of ordinary differential equations

In this work we present a parsimonious set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) that describes with satisfactory precision the linear and non-linear dynamics of a typical laminar premixed flame in time and frequency domain. The proposed model is characterized by two ODEs of second-order that can be interpreted as two coupled mass-spring-damper oscillators with a symmetric, nonlinear damping term. This non-linear term is identified as function of the rate of displacement following x 2 x ˙ . The model requires only four constants to be calibrated. This is achieved by carrying out an optimization procedure on one input and one output broadband signal obtained from high-fidelity numerical simulations (CFD). Note that the Transfer Function (FTF) or describing function (FDF) of the flame under investigation are not known a-priori, and therefore not used in the optimization procedure. Once the model is trained on CFD input and output time series, it is capable of recovering with quantitative accuracy the impulse response of the laminar flame under investigation and, hence, the corresponding frequency response (FTF). If fed with harmonic signals of different frequency and amplitude, the trained model is capable of retrieving with qualitative precision the flame describing function (FDF) of the studied flame. We show that the non-linear term x 2 x ˙ is essential for capturing the gain saturation for high amplitudes of the input signal. All results are validated against CFD data.