FWF - Laser-Vibro - Full-field Laser Vibrometry for Combustion Diagnostics

In order to meet the stringent pollutant regulations set by the governments, lowemission concepts have been developed for gas turbines in power plants. Unfortunately, these combustors have a strong tendency towards combustion instabilities. Such unsteady heat release will cause sound radiation and might damage the machine. Thus, a characterization of the flame is important, already during design and construction procedures. Such a characterization is also necessary for turbomachinery in aero-engines. The hypothesis of this project claims that such a haracterization of flames can be done laser-optically and non-intrusive, whenever optical access is granted. This is the case during design and testing of such combustors. The laser-optical sensor developed in this project comes without probes and without the need for tracer particles, so common in the recording of flow velocities. This approach in tracer-free velocity recording also breaks new ground in fluid mechanics. Based on the experience gathered at TU Graz and TU Dresden in previous projects funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, the basics of such a sensor will be developed in this international project between TU Graz (J.Woisetschläger) and TU Dresden (J.Czarske, A.Fischer). This includes complex algorithms for signal processing based in the principles of thermodynamics as well as a fast sensor technique based on modern signal processing and high-speed camera technology. Three European research institutes are willing to participate in the test phase of such a sensor or provide access to a variety of industry relevant combustors, namely TU Munich, DLR Cologne and PTB Braunschweig. Since western society strongly depends on fast transportation and permanent availability of energy, research in the field of turbomachinery always is energy related research, with a strong impact on society.