An Acoustic Time-of-Flight

Dominik Wassmer1
Chair of Fluid Dynamics,
Approach for Unsteady
Hermann-F€ottinger-Institut,
Technische Universit€at Berlin,
Temperature Measurements:
M€uller-Breslau-Str. 8,
Berlin 10623, Germany
e-mail: dominik.wassmer@tu-berlin.de
Characterization of Entropy
Bruno Schuermans Waves in a Model Gas Turbine
GE Power,
Brown-Boveri-Str. 7,
Baden 5401, Switzerland
Combustor
e-mail: bruno.schuermans@ge.com
Lean premixed combustion promotes the occurrence of thermoacoustic phenomena in
gas turbine combustors. One mechanism that contributes to the flame–acoustic interac-
Christian Oliver Paschereit tion is entropy noise. Fluctuations of the equivalence ratio in the mixing section cause
Chair of Fluid Dynamics,
the generation of hot spots in the flame. These so-called entropy waves are convectively
Hermann-F€ottinger-Institut,
transported to the first stage of the turbine and generate acoustic waves that travel back
Technische Universit€at Berlin,
to the flame; a thermoacoustic loop is closed. However, due to the lack of experimental
M€uller-Breslau-Str. 8,
tools, a detailed investigation of entropy waves in gas turbine combustion systems has
Berlin 10623, Germany
not been possible up to now. This work presents an acoustic time-of-flight based tempera-
e-mail: oliver.paschereit@tu-berlin.de
ture measurement method which allows the measurement of temperature fluctuations in
the relevant frequency range. A narrow acoustic pulse is generated with an electric spark
Jonas P. Moeck discharge close to the combustor wall. The acoustic response is measured at the same
Combustion Dynamics, axial location with an array of microphones circumferentially distributed around the
Hermann-F€ottinger-Institut, combustion chamber. The delay in the pulse arrival times corresponds to the line-
Technische Universit€at Berlin, integrated inverse speed of sound. For the measurement of entropy waves in an atmos-
M€uller-Breslau-Str. 8, pheric combustion test rig, fuel is periodically injected into the mixing tube of a premixed
Berlin 10623, Germany combustor. The subsequently generated entropy waves are measured for different forcing
e-mail: jonas.moeck@tu-berlin.de frequencies of the fuel injection and for different mean flow velocities in the combustor.
The amplitude decay and phase lag of the entropy waves adhere well to a Strouhal num-
ber scaling for different mean flow velocities. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4034542]

Introduction turbine combustor based on a reactive large eddy simulation

(LES). Concerning experimental approaches, Bake et al. [7] were
The operational range of today’s gas turbine combustors is lim-
the first who experimentally proved the linear relation between
ited by their sensitivity toward the interaction between the flame
the temperature amplitude and the subsequent pressure amplitude
and the acoustics in the combustion chamber, well known as ther-
with their entropy wave generator. In their setup, they use a heated
moacoustics. There are two ways the flame could act as source of
mesh as the source for an entropy spot, which is accelerated
sound, either directly by unsteady heat release fluctuations caus-
through a nozzle. A comprehensive overview of the different ana-
ing variations of the acoustic velocity or indirectly by generating
lytical approaches that exist and also of the experimental work
entropy spots. In case of indirect combustion noise, the hot spots
done so far is given by the recent work of Dowling and Mahmoudi
are caused by equivalence ratio fluctuations upstream of the flame
[8].
and are convectively transported to the turbine [1]. Acoustic
An essential aspect of indirect combustion noise is the disper-
waves are then generated due to the acceleration of the entropy
sion of the convectively transported hot temperature spots, the so-
fluctuations that induce fluctuating volume contractions and thus
called entropy waves, which is also affected by diffusion and tur-
pressure oscillations [2]. A part of the acoustic waves is reflected
bulent mixing. Only if the entropy fluctuations are still sufficiently
back to the flame where it in turn affects the heat release fluctua-
strong when reaching the turbine inlet, the aforementioned sound
tions, either constructively or destructively [3]. This might close a
generation takes effect. Keller [9] derived a stability criterion
feedback loop which can lead to massive pressure pulsations,
which implicates that entropy nonuniformities in principle play a
resulting in severe damage of engine components. Marble and
major role, though he found that in case of modern premixed com-
Candel [2] were among the first who investigated the generation
bustors, due to fuel injection at different axial locations, the equiv-
of acoustic waves due to fluctuations in entropy. They analytically
alence ratio fluctuations distinctively smear out and consequently
studied the underlying phenomena for one-dimensional compact
have no perceptible effect. Nevertheless, based on his practical
nozzles. More accurate and comprehensive extensions of this
experiences, he states that for very low frequencies, where the
model can be found in recent publications of Duran and Moreau
flame operates close to the lean extinction limit, the entropy dis-
[4] and Huet and Giauque [5]. Motheau et al. [6] numerically
turbances might play a dominant role regarding the sound genera-
investigated the entropy–acoustic interaction in a realistic gas
tion. Taking into account the fluid mechanic interaction of the
combustor aerodynamics, Sattelmayer [10] set up a spatial disper-
1
Corresponding author. sion model for the equivalence ratio and entropy fluctuations,
Contributed by the Combustion and Fuels Committee of ASME for publication in
the JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER. Manuscript received June
respectively. The response of a scalar to an upstream impulse
29, 2016; final manuscript received July 28, 2016; published online October 18, depends on the radial distribution of the time delays between the
2016. Editor: David Wisler. location where the impulse is generated and the measurement

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C 2017 by ASME
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 plane. It is concluded that the dispersion of an equivalence ratio
fluctuation from the burner inlet to the flame is much less promi-
nent than the dispersion of the entropy wave downstream of the
flame, where not even for low frequencies an effect of entropy
waves as acoustically destabilizing element needs to be consid-
ered. In contrast to this last conclusion and rather supporting
Kellers [9] statements, in a more recent analysis by Morgans et al.
[11], the dissipation of entropy waves is found to be negligible.
Only the shear dispersion, induced by the radial variation of the
mean velocity, is found to be the main driver for the damping of
an entropy wave. Based on a turbulent velocity profile, their
model leads to the conclusion that entropy waves are very likely
to remain considerably strong when reaching the turbine inlet.
Even though these models include many aspects, the lack of
experimental data supporting the assumptions hampers a better
understanding of the complex dispersion process [8]. In the pres-
ent work, a measurement technique being capable of quantita-
tively detecting the amplitude and phase of entropy waves in real
combustor test rigs is presented. This allows the transfer function
between equivalence ratio fluctuations and entropy waves to be
obtained and thus enables the modeling and the prediction of the
strength of entropy waves with respect to the frequency, the axial
location, and the mean flow velocity. Not considering isentropic
temperature fluctuations associated with acoustic pressure oscilla-
tions and linearizing the second law of thermodynamics lead to an
expression for the fluctuation in entropy [3]
 
s0 ffi cp T 0 =T (1)
For a constant specific heat capacity cp, the entropy fluctuation
scales linearly with the temperature fluctuation T 0 . It is important
to note that, as pointed out by Dowling and Stow [1] and recently
by Strobio Chen et al. [12], fluctuations in the heat release rate do
not necessarily imply entropy fluctuations. Entropy waves are only
generated by fluctuations in heat release rate per unit mass. These
are solely associated with fluctuations in the equivalence ratio.
Thus, to measure entropy waves in gas turbine combustors, a
sufficiently fast high-temperature measurement probe is required.
One approach, which has been applied to model gas turbine com-
bustors by Eckstein [13], is based on two thermocouples of differ-
ent diameters that are located very close to each other. Employing
the energy balance and assuming the same gas velocity at each of
the thermocouples allow the reconstruction of the dynamic tem-
perature without knowing the absolute values of the heat transfer
numbers (their ratio is proportional to the ratio of the diameters).
However, as this approach is limited by the response time of the
thermocouples and provides the temperature only in one point, in
this work another temperature measurement technique is used, the
Fig. 1 Principle setup of the TOF method (here: combustion
rig setup)
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so-called time-of-flight method (TOF). The TOF method is well
known as a tool for the measurement of temperatures in harsh
environments like boilers, combustors, or exhaust systems (e.g.,
see Refs. [14] and [15]) and in literature often referred to as
acoustic pyrometry. It is distinguished between passive acoustic
pyrometry, where the correlated noise of the system measured at
two or more locations is used for temperature estimation, and the
active method [16]. The latter employs an actively driven source
of sound that is detected by transmitters at different positions with
respect to the acoustic emitter. In the present work, a novel active
pyrometry approach is introduced and applied to measurements of
entropy waves in a model gas turbine combustor.
Measurement Technique: The Time-of-Flight Approach
Theory. The TOF method makes use of the elementary
relation between the temperature and the speed of sound in an
ideal gas
M 2
T¼ c (2)
cR
Here, T is the gas temperature, M is the molar mass, c is the ratio
of specific heats, R is the universal gas constant, and c is the speed
of sound. The specific heat capacity ratio c is assumed to remain
constant for a given gas mixture and within a reasonable tempera-
ture range. Assuming that the acoustic wave propagates on a
straight ray l, the time of flight t0 of an acoustic wave traveling a
distance L from an emitter to a receiver allows to derive a line-
averaged temperature T between emitter and receiver as
  ðL
M L 2 1
T¼ with t0 ¼ dl (3)
cR t0 0 cðlÞ
Note that only the very first maximum of the arriving acoustic
pulse is considered; the measurement is thus not affected by reflec-
tions from the up- or downstream side of the measurement plane.
Figure 1 shows a principle sketch of the application of the TOF
method, using seven microphones distributed along the circumfer-
ence at one axial location of a duct.
For simplification of the temperature estimation, a homogene-
ous temperature distribution is assumed in a first approximation,
which allows to write the time of flight t0 as t0 ¼ L/c. The determi-
nation of the temperature requires knowledge of the exact distance
between emitter and receiver, but, as can be seen in Eq. (3), an
error in the distance would propagate with its square. Because the
distance can only be estimated within a certain tolerance due to
thermal expansion, an absolute temperature estimate might be
noticeably inaccurate. However, in this analysis, the dynamic
behavior and the amplitudes of the temperature fluctuations are of
major concern. As the mean temperature of the gas can be pro-
vided by thermocouple measurements, the temperature of a
sequence of measurement points can be reconstructed via an opti-
mization method. For this purpose, the differences in the arrival
times between the different microphones, further referred to as the
relative arrival times s, are defined as s ¼ ti  tj , where ti and tj
refer to the arrival times of two different microphones i and j,
respectively. The numberPof relative arrival times Ns can then be
derived via Ns ¼ Nm2  Nn¼1 m
n with Nm being the number of
microphones. Thus, for the evaluation of one acoustic pulse (say,
one measurement of the radially line-integrated temperature), we
obtain a set of Ns linear equations of the form
s1 =d1 ¼ 1=c
s2 =d2 ¼ 1=c
(4)
⯗
sNs =dNs ¼ 1=c
In case the relative distances df1;2;…;Ns g ¼ jLi  Lj j are known, a
solution of this overdetermined system of equations can be
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 obtained by means of a least-square approach. As already men-
tioned above, the estimation of the relative distances would be
prone to errors. However, we now take advantage of the fact that
we are not interested in an estimation of the absolute temperature
but in temperature values relative to each other. This is the case if
we consider the temperature evolution within one period of an
entropy oscillation. The latter is divided into Ns different phase
angles. Hence, the set of equations in Eq. (4) is extended by
ðNs  1Þ additional sets of equations, corresponding to the other
phase angles. Consequently, a Ns  Ns matrix s can be defined as
0 1
s1;1    sNs ;1
B .. C The acoustic signals are recorded with 1=4 in: G.R.A.S. con-
s¼@ ⯗ . ⯗ A (5)
s1;Ns  sNs ;Ns
If a temperature Tref is known for one of the Ns measurements (for
example, obtained from measurements of the mean temperature),
the temperatures of the remaining measurement points can be
obtained in a total least square sense by means of the singular
value decomposition (SVD). The SVD of matrix s as defined in
Eq. (5) reads [17]
s ¼ UDVT (6)
U is a Ns  Ns unitary matrix containing the scaled reciprocal
speed of sound, D is a Ns  Ns diagonal matrix with the singular
values of s sorted in descending order on the diagonal, and V is a
Ns  Ns matrix related to the relative distances df1;2;…;Ns g . The
first column U of the matrix U provides the temperatures of all Ns
measurements via
 2
Ur
Tf1;2;…;Ns g ¼ Tref (7)
Uf1;2;…;Ns g
where Ur represents the rth element of U (with r 2 f1; 2; …; Ns g).
The rth entry of the vector corresponds to the measurement at
which Tref is defined. By introducing the known temperature Tref
for one of the Ns measurements, we solve one set of equations as
shown in Eq. (4) and thus obtain one set of relative distances
df1;2;…;Ns g . This, in turn, is used to estimate the solutions of the
reciprocal speed of sounds in the remaining sets of equations. The
advantage of this method is its self-calibrating character where an
explicit specification of the microphone locations is not required.
Hardware and Data Processing. In contrast to other TOF
approaches, where coherent sinusoidal pulse sequences [18], con-
tinuous wide band audio signals [19], or chirp pulses [20] are
employed, in this work a short acoustic pulse is used for excita-
tion. The arrival time of the acoustic signal is thus estimated via a
threshold-based detection of the first pressure maximum of the
microphone signal; no cross-correlation technique is required. The
pulse signal should feature a high sound pressure level in order to
be detectable in the loud environment of a combustor, and the
pulse should be operable with a repetition rate of sufficiently high
frequency. As a source for such a sharp acoustic pulse, an electric
discharge is utilized [21]. The high-voltage pulse is provided by a
60 kV ignition coil embedded in an electric circuit together with a
metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). A
triggering of the spark with more than 50 Hz can be achieved. The
electrodes are embedded in an adapter made of polyoxymethylene
or an aluminum oxide ceramic to prevent electric conduction and,
in case of ceramic, ensure a high thermal resistance.
Figure 2 shows the tips of the electrodes installed in the ceramic
adapter for the combustion test rig setup. The distance between
the two electrodes can be adjusted by changing the penetration
depth of the capillaries the electrodes are enclosed with. For a
constant high-voltage level, the likelihood of the spark discharge
to occur is a function of the distance between the electrodes and
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the gas density [22]. So, given that the thermodynamic pressure
level is constant, the gap size has to be increased for increasing
temperatures. For lower temperatures, the gap size has to be
reduced, as otherwise the resistance between the electrodes is too
high, and the discharge takes place within the ignition coil. During
the experiments, it could be observed that multiple discharges of
two or more sparks within only a few microseconds occur if the
gap distance between the electrodes is too small. However, within
the range of temperature fluctuations that were investigated in this
work, a fixed electrode distance is adequate without a noticeable
number of spark formation failures or the occurrence of multiple
discharges.
denser microphones in combination with Br€uel&Kjær Type 2610
pre-amplifiers. The data are acquired with a sampling rate of
3 MHz to ensure a high accuracy for the prediction of the relative
arrival times. Exemplary time traces of two microphone signals
after spark excitation are depicted in Fig. 3. As the dominant fre-
quency of the first arriving pressure oscillations is in the range of
about 30–40 kHz, and thus well separated from the much lower
frequencies associated with turbulent flow and combustion noise
in the combustion chamber and from any resonance frequencies
of the system, a zero-phase high-pass filter can be applied. This
allows to distinctly trace the acoustic signal generated by the
spark, even though the sound pressure level of the background
noise exceeds the spark-generated response by approximately two
orders of magnitude in the combustion test rig.
Experimental Setups
Results from two different measurement setups are presented in
this work. For validation purposes of the measurement technique,
an experimental arrangement was designed, where a well defined
temperature fluctuation is generated and an alternative tempera-
ture measurement technique as reference can be employed. Addi-
tionally, measurements were performed in an atmospheric
combustion test rig to verify the operating mode of the measure-
ment technique in high-temperature environments and to charac-
terize the formation of entropy waves.
Validation Setup. For the validation of the measurement tech-
nique, an experimental setup was designed that provides well
defined temperature fluctuations with a peak-to-peak amplitude of
up to 50 K and frequencies of up to 40 Hz. Constant-current hot-
wire anemometry serves as reference measurement technique,
since this method provides sufficiently fast response times [23]
and withstands temperatures of up to 550 K. As the basic TOF
technique provides the line-integrated inverse speed of sound over
the cross section of a duct, a radially homogeneous distribution of
Fig. 2 Ceramic adapter and tips of the electrodes as seen from
inside the exhaust tube
APRIL 2017, Vol. 139 / 041501-3

Fig. 3 High-pass filtered microphone signals showing the arrival
time of the acoustic signal of microphone 3 and microphone 4
the temperature has to be ensured if no further tomographic meth-
ods are applied. Experimental approaches for entropy wave gener-
ation found in literature [7,24] do not meet all requirements
because they might lack high-temperature amplitudes or cause too
strong dispersion of the entropy waves. A schematic representa-
tion of the setup is shown in Fig. 4. Air of up to 570 K delivered
by a preheater enters the measurement duct (diameter D ¼ 0.08 m)
and passes an axial location where 12 Bosch injection valves,
evenly distributed along the circumference, inject cold air into the
preheated main air flow. Vortex generators downstream of the
injection plane provide sufficient radial and circumferential mix-
ing to allow the assumption of a one-dimensional temperature
wave. At the measurement plane further downstream, four micro-
phones are flush mounted around the circumference. An adapter
with the electrodes for the spark generation is installed at the
same axial location. The position of the four microphones regard-
ing their angle with respect to the spark is according to micro-
phone 1, 3, 4, and 6 in Fig. 1. The electrode adapter can be
replaced by a hot-wire using the same access hole.
The dispersion of the temperature fluctuation depends on the
convective wavelength kc ¼ u=fv , which is defined as the ratio
between the mean flow velocity u in the duct and the excitation
frequency of the injection valve fv. kc should clearly exceed the
duct’s diameter and any turbulent length scales that cause axial
mixing and consequently lead to an attenuation of the amplitude
of the temperature fluctuation. For a given frequency range of
fv ¼ 20–30 Hz, a mass flow of 56 g/s leads to kc  0.5 m, which
allows to detect a peak-to-peak temperature amplitude of 50 K for
a temperature of the preheated air of approximately 410 K and a
cold injection air temperature of 290 K.
Fig. 4 Schematic of the experimental setup for validation
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Combustion Test Rig. To generate and detect entropy waves
in a combustion environment, the TOF measurement technique is
installed downstream of a swirl-stabilized premix burner in an
atmospheric combustion test rig operated with natural gas. Figure
5 shows the arrangement of the setups’ main components.
The axial location of the measurement segment, where a
ceramic electrode adapter is installed, can be varied with respect
to the burner. For the detection of the arrival time of the acoustic
pulse, seven water-cooled microphones are distributed along the
circumference at the axial location of the electrode adapter, as
depicted in Fig. 1. The entropy wave is generated via a Bosch
injection valve modulating a part of the injected total fuel mass
flow. The modulated fuel and the steady main fuel are both
injected into a swirler (swirl number 0.7), where they are mixed
with the main air. A quartz glass mixing tube downstream of the
swirler allows for the measurement of the equivalence ratio fluctu-
ations /0 by means of tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy
(TDLAS). This nonintrusive measurement technique makes use of
the fixed-wavelength laser absorption of methane and allows for a
real-time detection of the equivalence ratio along an optical path
at one axial position in the mixing tube [25,26].
Results
Validation Measurements. To determine the performance and
accuracy of the temperature measurement with the TOF method,
steady temperature measurements are first performed at different
output temperatures of the preheater. The temperature was
recorded simultaneously with two type K thermocouples plugged
at the measurement plane of the TOF method. Figure 6 shows a
comparison of the two different temperature measurement meth-
ods. The relative deviation between the thermocouples’ results
and the TOF approach is of the order of 1% and thus shows that
the TOF method serves as a reliable temperature measurement.
Note, in this case, the measurement of 300 K was used as refer-
ence, where the temperature Tref of the TOF method corresponds
to the thermocouples’ temperature (see Eq. (7)).
For the tests with temperature fluctuations, thermocouples are
also installed as reference, for the hot-wire measurement as well
as for the TOF measurement. The valves are operated at 20 Hz
and an opening time of 15 ms. Upstream of the valves, the cold air
is pressurized at 8 bar which corresponds to an air mass flow of
approximately 3 g/s per valve if fully open. For a steady mass
flow of 56 g/s provided by the preheater, the ratio between the
steady mass flow and the mass flow injected amounts to 1.5,
which leads to peak-to-peak temperature fluctuations of up to
50 K. The effectiveness of the vortex generator between the injec-
tion plane and the measurement plane was checked by radially tra-
versing the hot wire along the measurement cross section plane.
As can be seen in Fig. 7, the variation in temperature along the
Fig. 5 Schematic of the combustion chamber setup
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 Fig. 6 Comparison of the steady temperature measurements
with thermocouples and the TOF method (top); corresponding
relative deviations (bottom)
diameter is less than 5 K, and the qualitative dynamic behavior of
the temperature is the same at all radial locations.
The dynamic temperature measurement employing the TOF
method was carried out as follows: while the valves are operated
at a certain frequency, the frequency of the pulse for the spark
ignition is chosen such that multiple phase angles of the valve sig-
nal are covered. In the postprocessing, each spark ignition can
then be allocated to a bin according to its phase with respect to the
valve injection. This allows phase averaging which is required to
achieve less noisy temperature distributions over one period of
cold air injection. In Fig. 8, the temperature over one 20 Hz-
period of the cold air injection is plotted for the hot-wire and the
TOF measurement. As reference temperature for the TOF method,
the mean temperature of the two thermocouples is used. The TOF
temperature in this case is reconstructed at 75 phase angles of the
valve period, and the arrival times at each of these phase angles
are based on the average of 100 shots. The absolute temperature
values as well as the dynamic temperature distribution match well
for both measurement techniques. This confirms that the TOF
method is an appropriate measurement tool to experimentally
characterize temperature fluctuations regarding their amplitude,
frequency, and phase angle. Also note that while the fundamental
frequency of the temperature fluctuation is only 20 Hz, the TOF
Fig. 7 Hot-wire temperature measurements of one valve injec-
tion cycle at 20 Hz at different radial locations; corresponding
mean value of thermocouple measurements at different radial
locations (horizontal lines)
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Fig. 8 Temperature fluctuation over a 20 Hz period of the injec-
tion valve; measured via hot-wire (solid line) and TOF method
(dashed line)
method reproduces also the faster time scales within the oscilla-
tion period well.
Combustion Chamber Measurements. The experimental
setup described in this work allows to measure the transfer func-
tion between the equivalence ratio fluctuations downstream of the
swirl generator and the temperature fluctuations downstream of
the flame in the exhaust duct. The transfer function between the
injection valve, which modulates a part of the fuel mass flow via
periodic pulses, and the equivalence ratio fluctuation in the mixing
tube, detected via the TDLAS method, is determined first. The
valve is operated at a duty cycle of 50% and, in this study, con-
trols with m_ mod ¼ m_ steady =3 a quarter of the total fuel mass flow
m_ tot ¼ m_ mod þ m_ steady . The mean equivalence ratio is kept con-
stant at / ¼ 0:6. Figure 9 shows the resulting fluctuations in
equivalence ratio for two different mass flows of air and two valve
frequencies. The higher frequency components in the signal are
higher harmonics due to the sharp pulse characteristic of the fuel
injection valve. The corresponding transfer function between the
valve signal and the equivalence ratio fluctuations is shown in
Fig. 10. The amplitude of the equivalence ratio fluctuation /0 at
one frequency is defined as the magnitude of the Fourier coeffi-
cient at the fundamental frequency evaluated over one period of
valve injection. For frequencies up to about 40 Hz, which are of
interest for the observation of entropy waves in this study, the
Fig. 9 Equivalence ratio measured in the mixing tube for differ-
ent valve frequencies and main air mass flows
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Fig. 10 Absolute value (top) and phase (bottom) of the transfer
function between the valve signal and the equivalence ratio in
the mixing tube
amplitude of /0 remains approximately at a constant level
between 30% and 40% of the mean equivalence ratio. The linear
decay of the phase is very similar for the different air mass flows.
It is observed that although only 25% of the total fuel mass flow is
sent through the valve, the amplitude of the equivalence ratio fluc-
tuation is higher than the expected 25%. This is due to the mass
flow control mechanism, which acts with a lower frequency than
the valve frequency. When the valve is completely open, a higher
amount of fuel than initially specified is injected. However, as the
actual equivalence ratio fluctuations in the mixing tube are simul-
taneously measured when the temperature fluctuations are meas-
ured, the transfer function is always evaluated based on the
effective equivalence ratio fluctuations.
The temperature fluctuation downstream of the flame is meas-
ured for three different air mass flows and at a distance
Dx ¼ 400 mm downstream of the combustion chamber inlet plane.
The frequency of the fuel modulation with 25% of the fuel going
through the valve has a lower limit at about 5 Hz. For frequencies
below this limit, the flame exhibits strong axial movement and
occasionally extinguishes and reignites. In Fig. 11, the tempera-
ture fluctuation within one period of the valve modulation is plot-
ted for three different valve frequencies, 5 Hz, 32 Hz, and 44 Hz.
The air mass flow is kept constant at 33 g/s. As expected due to
higher dispersion for shorter convective wavelengths kc, the
amplitude of the temperature fluctuation decreases for higher
Fig. 11 Phase-averaged TOF measurements over one period
of fuel modulation for three different valve frequencies
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valve frequencies. The temperature is evaluated at 25 phase angles
within one period of valve oscillation and it has been found that a
number of 50 shots per phase angle are sufficient for phase
averaging.
Based on these temperature measurements via the TOF method,
the transfer function
T 0 =T
F ¼  (8)
/0 =/
between the equivalence ratio fluctuations in the mixing tube and
the temperature fluctuations at the axial location Dx ¼ 400 mm
can be evaluated. Again, the amplitude T 0 is the fundamental Fou-
rier coefficient calculated from the phase-averaged temperature
oscillation period. The transfer function is measured for three
mass flows of air, 22 g/s, 28 g/s, and 33 g/s. Although the absolute
mass flow of fuel is adapted so that the mean equivalence ratio is
kept constant, the mean temperature of the exhaust gas at the mea-
surement plane measured with type K thermocouples is different
for the three air mass flows due to heat loss. The absolute value
jF j and the unwrapped phase /F of the transfer function are plot-
ted in Fig. 12. The absolute value strongly decays toward higher
frequencies, and a noticeable difference can be observed for the
three different air mass flows. For lower air mass flows, i.e., lower
bulk flow velocities, the temperature fluctuations are strongly
damped due to a shorter convective wavelength. However, even
for the lowest air mass flow, the temperature fluctuations can be
detected up to about 25 Hz. The effect of a variation in the bulk
flow velocity is also apparent in the transfer function’s phase; a
lower bulk velocity results in a steeper slope.
It is now interesting to assess a Strouhal number scaling of the
transfer function measurements. The Strouhal number is defined
as
f Dx
St ¼ (9)
u
where Dx is the distance of the measurement plane with respect to
the combustion chamber inlet, and u is the bulk flow velocity at
the measurement plane. The same data shown in Fig. 12 are plot-
ted in Fig. 13 as function of the Strouhal number defined in Eq.
(9). The results from the three different mass flows collapse onto
one curve with very little scatter. It is important to note here that
the maximum flow velocity in this experimental investigation is
approximately 3.7 m/s, whereas in gas turbine combustors the
bulk flow velocity reaches values which are one order of
Fig. 12 Absolute value (top) and phase (bottom) of the transfer
function between the equivalence ratio fluctuation in the mixing
tube and the temperature fluctuations at the measurement
plane
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 profile at the measurement plane, tomographic reconstruction can
be applied on the measured data.

Acknowledgment
The investigations were conducted as part of the joint research
programme AG Turbo 2020 in the frame of AG Turbo. The work
was supported by the Bundesministerium f€ur Wirtschaft und
Technologie (BMWi) as per resolution of the German Federal
Parliament under Grant No. 03ET2012P. The authors gratefully
acknowledge AG Turbo and GE Power for their support and per-
mission to publish this paper. Additionally, the authors would like
to thank Richard Bl€umner for his cooperation regarding the
TDLAS measurements and Heiko Stolpe for his valuable assis-
tance regarding the high-voltage spark generation technique.

Nomenclature
c¼ speed of sound (m/s)
Fig. 13 Absolute value (top) and phase (bottom) of the transfer cp ¼ specific heat capacity at constant pressure (J/(kg K))
function between the equivalence ratio fluctuation in the mixing
d¼ relative distance between two microphones (m) (Li-Lj)
tube and the temperature fluctuation at the measurement plane
plotted against the Strouhal number
D¼ diameter (m)
fv ¼ valve frequency (Hz)
HV ¼ high-voltage
l¼ distance along path (m)
magnitude higher. Based on the Strouhal number scaling evident L¼ distance between acoustic source and microphone
in Fig. 13, it can then be estimated that the temperature response (m)
remains significant up to frequencies that are an order of magni- M¼ molar mass (kg/mol)
tude higher than observed in the present work. m_ ¼ mass flow (g/s)
MOSFET ¼ metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor
Nm ¼ number of microphones
Conclusion Ns ¼ number of phase angles per oscillation period
Ns ¼ number of relative arrival times
In this paper, a TOF based measurement technique is presented,
R¼ universal gas constant (J/(mol K))
capable of quantitatively determining entropy waves generated in
s¼ specific entropy (J/(kg K))
atmospheric combustion rigs. For a comprehensive validation of
t¼ time of flight (s)
the method, a nonreacting temperature wave generation setup was
T¼ temperature (K)
designed, providing peak-to-peak temperature amplitudes of up to
TC ¼ thermocouple
50 K at frequencies of up to 40 Hz, with homogeneous transverse
TDLAS ¼ tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy
temperature distribution. The temperature fluctuations obtained
TOF ¼ time-of-flight
from a constant-current hot-wire anemometer are in excellent
x¼ axial coordinate (m)
agreement with results from the TOF technique. It is shown that
c¼ heat capacity ratio
with this measurement approach, steady as well as dynamic tem-
kc ¼ convective wavelength (m) ðkc ¼ ðu=fv ÞÞ
peratures in the relevant frequency range can be accurately meas-
s¼ relative time of flight between two microphones (s)
ured. Provided that the entropy fluctuation can be triggered (e.g.,
s¼ matrix of relative times of flight (s)
by a microphone or a photomultiplier signal), phase averaging
/¼ equivalence ratio
allows for the detection of temperature fluctuations of frequencies
that are independent of technical limitations in the spark repetition
rate. Furthermore, the robust extraction algorithm of the arrival References
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