Thermo-acoustic instability: Theory and experiments

This article deals with thermo-acoustic instability (TAI) on a simple Rijke tube, an extensively studied combustion test platform. We revisit the mathematical model of the dynamics and show that when linearized it falls into the class of linear time-invariant neutral time delay systems. In order to analyze its stability characteristics, we implement a recent mathematical paradigm called the cluster treatment of characteristic roots (CTCR). It can reveal the stable operating regions in the space of the operational parameters, such as the geometric dimensions of the Rijke tube. The results of this prediction mechanism are very favorably compared with experimental findings.