Lean Premixed Flame Stability Investigations

Fellowship Experience Throughout my twelve-week fellowship at Pratt & Whitney I had the opportunity to interact with numerous engineers and managers as well as to be exposed to a variety of disciplines and areas of engineering. My mentor, Bill Proscia, is an expert in the field of combustion instability analysis and modeling. I gained valuable experience working on a combustion project under his guidance. The project involved studying combustor aerodynamics and static stability of lean-premixed flames for two combustor geometries as a function of swirl number and fuel type. Having an almost non-existent background in the field of combustion, this was a challenging, but very rewarding project to work on. The first few weeks consisted of meeting with engineers and managers to decide on what kind of study I could conduct that would be useful to Pratt & Whitney. During this time I also was able to learn about the business side of engineering and gain a small insight into the overall infrastructure of Pratt & Whitney. In addition to these meetings much of my time was spent reading published literature as well as textbooks on combustion, methods used for modeling combustion, combustion stability, and other related topics. These resources were a tremendous aid in understanding the challenges involved in flame stability, particularly in dry low NOx applications. While my understanding of combustion principles is still far from that needed to work in this area of engineering, I have learned a tremendous amount since my first day thanks to the patience and help of my mentor. Throughout the fellowship I was able to make multiple visits to Pratt & Whitney’s manufacturing and testing facility. These trips allowed me the opportunity to see parts of the engine that I was working with as well as many other parts that I was familiar with from my university studies, but had never seen. I also was given the opportunity to watch an aero-engine test and see the challenges involved in testing a complex machine such as