Technologies for the Suppression of Combustion Instability or Screech

Conduct comprehensive experimental tests using an existing microwave generated plasma igniter (M/W Igniter) that provides a continuously stabilized heat release source to suppress augmentor combustion instability or screech and to reduce the lean blowout (LBO) and light-off (LO) limits in modern/advanced or legacy augmentor flameholders. The test flow environments will include known combustion test cell acoustic resonances and will also use speakers to introduce acoustic forcing from 425 Hz to over 1200 Hz A baseline test data set will be compiled: 1) to: identify/document combustion stabilization results, LBO and LO performance improvements using a single M/W Igniter in conjunction with augmentor bluff body flameholders, 2) to use in developing future computational simulations where analytic tools do not yet exist, and 3) to apply this technology to experimentally evaluate combustion performance improvements in a Phase 2 effort using an existing J85 engine augmentor at AEDC/UTSI.