"Combustion Humming in Gas Turbine Based Power Plants"

A one-day short course in conjunction with Turbo Expo 2007

Sunday, May 13, 2007 - Montreal, Canada

Fee: $500
Short Course fee includes lunch, refreshment breaks and course materials.

Click here to register!

Instructor
Tim Lieuwen, Professor, School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

This one-day course introduces students to combustion instabilities, often referred to as "humming." It begins with an overview of development and field experience with combustion instabilities, and will describe case studies from several DLN combustors development efforts. Background is provided on the mechanisms responsible for the occurrence of combustion-driven oscillations. Strategies for treating dynamics problems by combustor tuning are discussed. Also presented are dynamics monitoring approaches, and various issues associated with instrumentation, data analysis and data reduction.

Course Objectives

• Understand why humming occurs and what are the key "knobs" that effect its occurrence
• Understand strategies for taking care of a humming problem
• Be familiar with instrumentation options and tradeoffs for monitoring dynamics
• Know how to implement and interpret dynamic data analysis procedures

Instructor Resume

Prof. Tim Lieuwen

Prof. Lieuwen is one of the world?s leading experts in the area of combustion dynamics in gas turbines. He regularly consults with many gas turbine companies on dynamics problems, is writing a book on the topic (to appear summer, 2005), and is a leading researcher in the area. He received his B.S. (1995) from Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI) and his M.S. (1997) and Ph.D. (1999) from Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Lieuwen joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 1999 where he is actively involved in teaching and research. Dr. Lieuwen supervises the research activities of one research engineer, eight graduate students, and three undergraduate students- almost all exclusively dedicated to various aspects of the combustion dynamics problems. Dr. Lieuwen has made significant contributions to current modeling approaches and understanding of combustion dynamics in gas turbines. He is also involved in a number of projects relating to active control of combustion instabilities, investigation of combustion instability mechanisms, flame-acoustic wave interactions, combustion noise, and engine health/performance monitoring. Dr. Lieuwen has published and presented a number of papers in these areas and is a peer reviewer for several archival journals. Dr. Lieuwen is on the Air Breathing Propulsion technical committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and is a member of AIAA, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, The Acoustical Society of America, and the Combustion Institute. Dr. Lieuwen has served both AIAA and ASME in organizing sessions for the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, the AIAA/ASME/SAE Joint Propulsion Conference, and the ASME/IGTI Turbo Expo.

Selected Recent Publications
Lieuwen, T., "Investigation of the Statistical Characteristics of Pressure Oscillations in an Unstable Gas Turbine Combustor", AIAA Paper #2001-0487, presented at the 39th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV 2001.
Lieuwen T. and Lee, D.H., "Nonlinear Modeling of Unstable Gas Turbine Combustor Dynamics Using Experimental Data", AIAA Paper # 2000-3464, presented at the 36th AIAA/ASME/SAE Joint Propulsion Conference, Huntsville, AL, July 2000.
Lieuwen, T., Neumeier, Y. and Zinn, B.T., "The Role of Unmixedness and Chemical Kinetics in Driving Combustion Instabilities in Lean Premixed Combustors", Combustion Science and Technology, Vol. 135 (1-6), 1998.
Lieuwen, T. and Zinn, B.T., "The Role of Equivalence Ratio Oscillations in Driving Combustion Instabilities in Low NOx Gas Turbines", Proceedings of the 27th Symposium (International) on Combustion, The Combustion Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, 1998, pp. 1809-1816.