Abstract

Linearized methods provide a versatile framework for the analysis of complex reacting flows. By describing the evolution of small perturbations around a reference state, they offer a complementary perspective to nonlinear simulations and experiments and can help identify the mechanisms governing flow instabilities, amplification processes, and coherent structures.

In this seminar, I will give an overview of linearized approaches for reacting flows and discuss their potential for the analysis of combustion systems. Different methodological perspectives and representative applications will be considered, with emphasis on the physical insight that can be gained from reduced linear descriptions of otherwise highly complex dynamics.

The seminar will also address some of the challenges associated with applying linear methods to reacting flows and outline recent developments that extend their applicability to increasingly realistic combustion problems.

Biography

Thomas Ludwig Kaiser is an Emmy Noether research group leader at the Technische Universität Berlin, where he leads the IGNITION group on the dynamics and instabilities of hydrogen flames. His research combines computational fluid dynamics with linear stability, resolvent and adjoint methods to identify and predict the physical mechanisms governing complex reacting flows. He is also the lead developer of FELiCS, an open-source framework for the linear analysis of reacting and non-reacting flow systems. Before joining TU Berlin, he completed his doctoral research at IMFT and CERFACS in Toulouse, focusing on large-eddy simulation, combustion dynamics and thermoacoustic instabilities.