Combustion Processes Environmental Impact and Aeroacoustics

The fields in which the research activities developed within the scope of the Research Topic in question fall are:

  • Experimental Aeroacoustics This line of research focuses primarily on the study of side-channel blowers and low-speed fans used in HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) systems. The current need for increasingly compact and high-performance devices clashes with the need to reduce noise emissions. As a result, noise reduction becomes as important a goal as improving aerodynamic performance. Experimental work aims to understand the mechanisms of noise generation and develop geometric solutions that allow for its mitigation without compromising device efficiency. The research group has solid expertise in the advanced processing of high-resolution experimental and numerical data, aimed at building reduced-order models of the fluid dynamics of fans and blowers. These models allow us to describe the link between unsteady flow characteristics and noise generation, with the aim of improving the prediction of acoustic emissions and supporting the optimized design of devices.
  • Design and performance verification of fans and blowers. This activity integrates the skills acquired in aeroacoustics with the aerodynamic design of turbomachinery, aiming to develop 1D and 2D calculation codes for the design of fans and blowers. CFD simulation tools based on RANS and URANS models are also used to support the design phase and performance validation.
  • Experimental Combustion Diagnostics. This research topic involves the use of the experimental infrastructure available at the laboratory's Savona site and is aimed at performing functional and performance tests, including the measurement of pollutant emissions, of gas turbine and industrial burners (steel and glass industries), measurements aimed at detecting and characterizing combustion instabilities, and local, detailed, and non-intrusive characterization of the combustion phenomenon using Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) diagnostic techniques for the acquisition of concentration maps of chemical species of interest (OH, NO, CH, H2, etc.) and Rayleigh Thermometry for the acquisition of planar flame temperature fields.
  • Experimental Aerodynamics of Gas Turbine Combustors. This research topic involves the use of experimental infrastructure available at the laboratory's two sites (Genoa and Savona) and is aimed at the detailed characterization of the internal aerodynamics of gas turbine and industrial burners using measurement techniques. Laser-based methods such as Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV), Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA), and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The same techniques are also applied to the fluid dynamics characterization of phenomena not necessarily related to burners.
  • Numerical study of machine components and combustion processes. This research topic represents the theoretical-numerical counterpart to the experimental research topics and concerns the development and application of numerical models, using CFD tools, for the solution of flow fields involved in chemical combustion reactions. The research topic is developed using RANS and URANS solvers.

Laboratories 

  • Combustion, Aeroacoustics and Numerical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory - Genova
  • Combustion, Aeroacoustics and Numerical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory – Savona

Publications 

  • C. Cravero, D. Marsano, G. Milanese, A CFD Model for the Direct Coupling of the Combustion Process and Glass Melting Flow Simulation in Glass Furnaces, Energies 2025, 18, 1792.https://doi.org/10.3390/en18071792;
  • C. Cravero, D. Marsano, Numerical Simulation of Melted Glass Flow Structures Inside a Glass Furnace with Different Heat Release Profiles from Combustion, Energies 2023, 16(10), 4187. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16104187
  • Canepa, E., & Nilberto, A. (2019). Experimental Flame Front Characterisation in a Lean Premix Burner Operating with Syngas Simplified Model Fuel. Energies, 12(12), 2377.
  • Cattanei, A., Mazzocut Zecchin, F., Di Pasquali, A., Lazari, A., Effect of the uneven blade spacing on the noise annoyance of axial-flow fans and side channel blowers Applied Acoustics, 177, 107924, 2021
  • Carassale, L., Cattanei, A., Mazzocut Zecchin, Moradi, M., Leakage flow flutter in a low-speed axial-flow fan with shrouded blades Journal of Sound and Vibration, 475, 115275

 

 

 

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