Numerical investigations of high-frequency thermoacoustic combustion instabilities in a micro gas turbine

Acoustic; Combustion; Large Eddy Simulations; Micro gas turbine; Stability analysis; Thermoacoustic instabilities; Combustion instabilities; High frequency HF; Large-eddy simulations; Limit-cycle; Micro-gas; Stability analyze; Thermoacoustic; Thermoacoustic combustion; Thermoacoustic instability; Energy Engineering and Power Technology; Mechanical Engineering; Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes; Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Abstract :

[en] The present work proposes joint compressible Large Eddy Simulations and acoustic analyses to study the onset of thermoacoustic combustion instabilities in a micro gas turbine (mGT) for power generation. The reference configuration is the MTT EnerTwin mGT, for which experiments have been performed in the UMARC laboratory of the University of Mons, where the mGT is operated with natural gas. At first, thermoacoustically stable conditions are simulated, revealing the stabilization of a technically premixed V-shape flame burning at very lean conditions. The LES results are then coupled with a Helmholtz solver to calculate the pure acoustic modes of the combustor. The first two acoustic modes are predicted at 900 and 2700 Hz. These are at relatively high frequencies if compared to the values observed in classic gas turbines. Exploiting the acoustic properties of the inlet and outlet boundary conditions, thermoacoustic limit cycles are finally computed in LES. A strong peak is observed in the pressure and heat release rate spectra at a frequency of 2200 Hz, revealing the onset of a strong thermoacoustic coupling around this frequency. Weaker is instead the limit cycle predicted at 900 Hz. Numerical predictions are found to be in line with the experimental recordings performed on the MTT Enertwin, thus validating the proposed numerical procedure.

Disciplines :

Energy

Author, co-author :

Vankelekom, Christophe ; Université de Mons - UMONS > Faculté Polytechnique > Service de Thermique et Combustion

Schiavone, Francesco G. ; Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

Camporeale, Sergio M.; Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

De Paepe, Ward ; Université de Mons - UMONS > Faculté Polytechnique > Service de Thermique et Combustion

Laera, Davide ; Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

Language :

English

Title :

Numerical investigations of high-frequency thermoacoustic combustion instabilities in a micro gas turbine

Publication date :

December 2025

Journal title :

Applied Thermal Engineering

ISSN :

1359-4311

eISSN :

1873-5606

Publisher :

Elsevier Ltd

Volume :

280

Pages :

128119

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S1359431125027115?httpAccept=text/xml

Research unit :

F704 - Thermique et Combustion

Research institute :

R200 - Institut de Recherche en Energie

Funders :

European Regional Development Fund

Funding text :

The authors would like to acknowledge CERFACS for the grant to use the AVBP code, and the European Union for the financial support to C. Vankelekom, through the FEDER 2021\u20132027 program, managed by the Walloon Region, under the DECARBOWAL project. The computing resources and the related technical support used for this work have been provided by CRESCO/ENEAGRID High Performance Computing infrastructure and its staff [68] . CRESCO/ENEAGRID High Performance Computing infrastructure is funded by ENEA, Italy , the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development and by Italian and European research programmes [69] . Part of the numerical simulations presented in this work have been also performed on the Luxembourg national supercomputer MeluXina. The authors gratefully acknowledge the LuxProvide teams for their expert support, and EuroHPC JU for awarding the related high performance computing resources under the Project EHPC-REG-2023R03-184 (PROMETH2EUS).

Available on ORBi UMONS :

since 10 December 2025

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