System and method to predict and control blowout in combustion systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12435875-B2
Application number	US-202318029757-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 14, 2023
Priority date	Feb 14, 2022
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

The invention discloses systems and methods for predicting and controlling lean blowout in combustion systems such as turbines, engines and combustors. The system 100 is configured to detect and predict time of occurrence of blowout using a computer 105 and to take control action by a controller 110 through actuators 103 , to prevent the blowout. The method 200 involves acquiring time series data ( 202 ) of combustion in the combustion system, including acoustic pressure amplitude, chemiluminescence intensity, or global heat release rate, fitting a log periodic power law equation to the time series data ( 208 ), computing a time of impending blowout using the fit equation ( 210 ), and controlling the combustion unit ( 212 ) to move away from impending blowout and prevent the blowout. The invention provides for predicting exact blowout times significantly earlier, and to control the combustion unit to prevent blowout, thus enabling reduction in emissions.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system to detect and control lean blowout in a combustion unit, the system comprising:
a combustion unit having one or more sensors for measuring one or more variables including acoustic pressure amplitude, chemiluminescence intensity, or global heat release rate, generating time series data, and one or more control actuators;
a computer unit configured to receive the sensor data, identify impending blowout within a time interval, and fit a log periodic power law equation to the data to predict a time of blowout within the time interval; and
a controller configured to receive the time of blowout information and to issue control instructions to the one or more actuators to prevent the blowout.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a signal conditioner and a digital to analog converter configured to provide sensor data input to the computer and an analog to digital converter configured to process and provide output from the computer to the controller.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the sensor may be one of a microphone, a piezoelectric transducer, a photomultiplier or a camera.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one or more actuators include an air valve, a fuel valve, a secondary injector or a pilot flame.

5. A method of predicting and preventing lean blowout in a combustion unit by controlling the unit away from the lean blowout, comprising:
i. acquiring time series data of combustion in the combustion system, wherein the time series data is one of acoustic pressure amplitude, chemiluminescence intensity, or global heat release rate;
ii. identifying a time interval having a beginning time t 1 and an end time t 2 , in which the prediction is to be performed, by observing change in one or more of RMS value of the variable, Hurst exponent, or recurrence quantification measures;
iii. identifying log-periodic oscillations by observing a power law variation in the data to identify impeding blowout;
iv. fitting a log periodic power law equation to the time series data;
v. computing a time of impending blowout using the fit equation; and
vi. controlling the combustion unit to move away from impending blowout to prevent the blowout.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the identifying the time interval includes identifying a consistent increase or decrease in the variable beyond a threshold, or identifying the presence of log periodic oscillations in the time series data.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the step of computing the time of impending blowout using the fit equation includes computing the coefficients of the fit equation.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the log periodic power law equation is given by:

y
⁡
(
t
)

=

A
+

B
⁡
(
x
)

(

-
1

m
-
1

)

+

C
1

(
x
)

(

-
1

m
-
1

)

⁢

(

ω
⁢

cos
⁡
(

log
⁡
(
x
)

)

)

+

C
2

(
x
)

(

-
1

m
-
1

)

⁢

(

ω
⁢

sin
⁡
(

log
⁡
(
x
)

)

)

(
3
)

wherein,
y is the variable represented by the time series data
t is instantaneous time
t c is the estimated time of blowout
x=t c =t> 0,

ω is the frequency of the log-periodic oscillations,
A, B, C 1 , C 2 are linear parameters,
t c , m, and ω are nonlinear parameters,
wherein the linear and nonlinear parameters are determined by minimizing the cost function

z
=

Assignees

• Indian Institute Of Tech Madras
• Indian Inst Tech Madras

Inventors

• Nair Sujith Raman Pillai Indusekharan
• Banerjee Ankan
• Pavithran Induja

Classifications

• F23N5/242

  using electronic means · CPC title

• F23N2225/04

  pressure · CPC title

• F23N5/16 Primary

  using noise-sensitive detectors · CPC title

• F23N5/082

  using electronic means · CPC title

• F23N5/022

  using electronic means (F23N5/04 - F23N5/14 take precedence) · CPC title