A reduced-order deterministic model describing an intermittency route to combustion instability

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing interest in understanding and characterising intermittent burst oscillations that presage the onset of combustion instability. We construct a deterministic model to capture this intermittency route to instability in a bluff-body stabilised combustor by coupling the equations governing vortex shedding and the acoustic wave propagation in a confinement. A feedback mechanism is developed wherein the sound generated due to unsteady combustion affects the vortex shedding. This feedback leads to a variation in the time of impingement of the vortices with the bluff body causing the system to exhibit chaos, intermittency, and limit cycle oscillations. Experimental validation of the model is provided using various precursor measures that quantify the observed intermittent states.