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book Review
Unsteady Combustor Physics
Author: Tim C. Lieuwen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 978-1107015999
Pages: 424 (with 333 illustrations and 12 tables) Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: February 26, 2013
Price: $125.00
This single authored text offers excellent readability, a consistent approach to the presentation of material, and an adherence to the overarching goal of providing a sys- tematic treatment of the complex topic of unsteady combustion. By necessity, prob- lems involving unsteady combusting must incorporate combustion chemistry, fluid mechanics, and acoustics. The author avoids the easy path of treating each of these aspects in isolation. Instead, the material is organized in such a way to allow the reader to understand how each of these aspects interacts in a dynamic combustion environ- ment.
The author claims to achieve something remarkable by offering the first ever, system- atic treatment of the subject. Indeed, a student or researcher approaching this topic would generally be required to comb through a vast sea of journal publications to compile the knowledge presented succinctly in this text. The author’s task would
have been impossible had he attempted to address all possible combustion scenarios encountered in today’s combustion based energy conversion applications. Modern systems can involve advanced fuels, solid additives, and enhanced oxidizing agents.
To keep the approach tractable, the author restricts the discussion to air-breathing systems and thus neglects molar production throughout. The primary aim is to pres- ent the threefold coupling of acoustics, flame dynamics, and hydrodynamic stability in order to gain an improved understanding of the time-averaged and unsteady features of combustion dynamics.
Acoustics, fluid dynamics (stability), and physical chemistry are all mature subjects in their own right. Those subjects bring to mind texts by Pierce, Batchelor, Landau & Lifshitz, and Engel & Reid. This text fills a significant gap in the available reference literature by bringing these topics together in a balanced framework; not trying to recapitulate but focusing on the interactions between their characteristic disturbances.
Continued on page 59
REVIEW bY
Nathan E. Murray
National Center for Physical Acoustics University of Mississippi University, MS 38677
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