Determination of An Acoustic Reflection Coefficient at the Inlet of a Model Gas Turbine Combustor for Power Generation

A phenomenon that potentially influences the reliability of power generation systems is the presence of thermo-acoustic oscillations in the combustion chamber of a land- based gas turbine. To develop specific measures that prevent the instability, it is essential to predict and/or evaluate the underlying physics of the thermo-acoustics, which requires the acoustic boundary condition at the exit of the burner, that is, at the inlet of the combustor. Here we report a procedure for calculating acoustic reflection coefficients at the burner exit by utilizing two microphone method (TMM) for dynamic pressure signals. The procedure has been verified by comparing its results with reported ones and further successfully employed to determine the acoustic boundary condition of the burner of a partially-premixed model gas turbine combustor.