Dynamical states and bifurcations in coupled thermoacoustic oscillators

Abstract

The emergence of rich dynamical phenomena in coupled self-sustained oscillators, primarily synchronization and amplitude death, has attracted considerable interest in several fields of science and engineering. Here, we present a comprehensive theoretical study on the manifestation of these exquisite phenomena in a reduced-order model of two coupled Rijke tube oscillators, which are prototypical thermoacoustic oscillators. We characterize the dynamical behaviors of two such identical and non-identical oscillators by varying both system parameters (such as the uncoupled amplitudes and the natural frequencies of the oscillators) and coupling parameters (such as the coupling strength and the coupling delay). The present model captures all the dynamical phenomena—namely, synchronization, phase-flip bifurcation, amplitude death, and partial amplitude death—observed previously in experiments on coupled Rijke tubes. By performing numerical simulations and deriving approximate analytical solutions, we systematically decipher the conditions and the bifurcations underlying the aforementioned phenomena. The insights provided by this study can be used to understand the interactions between multiple cans in gas turbine combustors and develop control strategies to avert undesirable thermoacoustic oscillations in them.