Acoustic Instabilities Driven by Slip Between a Condensed Phase and the Gas Phase in Combustion Systems

In the context of gas turbine combustion chambers, this study describes how slip affects the response time of fuel sprays to pressure fluctuations in a gaseous flow field. Slip between the condensed and gas phases is shown to cause fuel vapor mass fraction fluctuations upstream of the reaction zone. A resulting oscillating heat release can drive the pressure fluctuations, depending on the phase difference between them. This generates an acoustic instability. With relevance to previous experimental results, differences are explored in the evaporation characteristics among three different fuel sprays (JP-4, JP-5, and D-2) in relation to their effect on the magnitude of the fuel vapor mass fraction perturbations.