Suppression of vortex core precession in a swirling reacting flow

Abstract

The influence of combustion effect on unsteady vortex structure in the form of precessing vortex core was studied using the non-intrusive method of laser Doppler anemometry and special procedure of extracting the non-axisymmetric mode of flow fluctuations. The studies show that combustion has a significant effect on the parameters of such a core, reducing the amplitude (vortex deviation from the burner center) and increasing precession frequency. At the same time, the acoustic sensors detect almost an order reduction in the level of pressure pulsations generated by the precessing vortex core. Moreover, distributions of tangential velocity fluctuations and cross-correlation analysis show that vortex precession is quite pronounced even under the combustion conditions, bringing a significant coherent component to distributions of velocity fluctuations.