Couplings in a non-uniform compressible swirling jet with a modelled swirler
Open Access
- 10 May 2026
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Journal of Fluid Mechanics
- Vol. 1034, A61
Abstract
We give evidence of non-modal amplification mechanisms driven by swirl intensity from a bi-global linear analysis of a cold swirling flow representative of a premixed swirl burner: non-uniform, compressible, turbulent, enclosed and subject to vortex breakdown passed the expansion. The monolithic computational approach embeds a realistic axisymmetric swirler model in the computational domain. The amplification mechanisms are identified by stability and resolvent analysis under variations of the length of the annular duct section and combustion chamber, the swirl intensity and the swirler position. While the spectrum is affected by changes in the length only, the gain of the resolvent strongly depends on the swirl intensity. The results suggest an acoustically dominated amplification in the combustion chamber and a non-modal hydrodynamic-dominated process driven by the swirl intensity. Inertial waves carrying swirl fluctuations play a key role in the latter. The results are complemented by a resolvent sensitivity analysis that identifies the tip of the inner recirculation region and the surrounding shear layer as a wavemaker region that drives at high swirl numbers the non-modal amplification. The sensitivity of that region also enables the transfer of azimuthal momentum perturbations to axial momentum, hence activating a longitudinal acoustic resonance from azimuthal fluctuations.Keywords
This publication has 55 references indexed in Scilit:
- An invitation to resolvent analysisTheoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics, 2024
- Resolvent-based modelling of coherent structures in a turbulent jet flame using a passive flame approachCombustion and Flame, 2022
- Mean field coupling mechanisms explaining the impact of the precessing vortex core on the flame transfer functionCombustion and Flame, 2021
- A state-space formulation of a discontinuous Galerkin method for thermoacoustic stability analysisJournal of Sound and Vibration, 2020
- Flame dynamics of a variable swirl number system and instability controlCombustion and Flame, 2013
- Structural sensitivity of spiral vortex breakdownJournal of Fluid Mechanics, 2013
- Effect of base-flow variation in noise amplifiers: the flat-plate boundary layerJournal of Fluid Mechanics, 2011
- Modeling of premixed swirling flames transfer functionsProceedings of the Combustion Institute, 2011
- The combined dynamics of swirler and turbulent premixed swirling flamesCombustion and Flame, 2010
- On the energy transfer to small disturbances in fluid flow (Part I)Acta Mechanica, 1965