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The goal of POLKA is to solve serious technical problems, which are unique to hydrogen combustion: thermoacoustic instabilities and flashback. The ultimate vision of POLKA is to create new physical insight and advanced simulation tools, so as to underpin the development of hydrogen-fuelled combustion systems (gas turbines, aero-engines, boilers furnaces, etc). The methods to be used are a combination of experiments, numerical simulations and analytical techniques. Experimental validation of numerical and analytical results is a high priority. POLKA will train a cohort of 15 ESRs, each enrolled in a 3-year doctoral programme. The research project is divided into 15 interlinked sub-projects, each forming an individual PhD project for an ESR.The ¹û¶³´«Ã½ subtask is focused on the problem of instabilities in boilers with complex thermoacoustic properties. The ESR assigned this task will build a laboratory test rig that mimics the combustion chamber of a particular boiler type. The combustion chamber contains a unique burner deck and several rows of finned heat exchanger tubes. The test rig will include a mixing facility so that the hydrogen content can be varied. Other variable parameters are the temperature of the cooling water, and the properties (geometry, spacing, etc.) of the fins. The ESR will take a combined experimental approach (measuring transfer functions using hot wire anemometry and chemiluminescence, and transfer matrices with multiple microphone technique) and numerical approach (using Comsol) to develop a network model for this test rig. This will then be used to perform parameter studies to explore which design modification will guarantee stability. The POLKA Consortium Members are: •University of Keele•Technische Universität München•Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan•Technische Universiteit Eindhoven•University of Genova •University of Pisa •IfTA Ingenieurbüro für Thermoakustik GmbH•Siemens Industry Software NV•Ansaldo Energia AEN •Bekaert Combustion Technology BVThe Partner Organizations are:•Unternehmer-TUM GmbH •Science Museum London •Ioda IODA •Indian Institute of Technology Madras•Katholieke Universiteit Leuven•Siemens Industry •Sontech AB.
People involved in this project: Philip de Goey & Vertika Saxena