A Forced Response Method for Annular Combustors Excited by Traveling Acoustic Pressure Waves

Recent progress in the development of an industry level tool for computing forced response of annular combustors is presented. Hereby, in addressing productivity issues caused by huge finite element model of full-wheel combustor, the theoretical framework of cyclic symmetry is introduced. The complex-variable theory, which originated for capturing natural frequency and mode shape characteristics of rotationally periodic structure, was extended for real-number-based finite element analysis (FEA) to solve forced response problem; specifically, a systematic method was developed to create cyclic domain replica of traveling pressure wave loading on full-wheel combustor. In this paper, theoretical descriptions of the physics-based, practical forced response analysis technique will be provided, and its implementation into building the tool of industrial level will be discussed. The technology developed herein will be verified using a simple cylindrical structure that is excited by acoustic pressure wave that travels in circumferential direction with a certain number of nodal diameter. In the end, a practical application to forced response prediction of a combustor component will be presented.