The very successful 2016 event definitely called for a repeat, but Covid-19 put a major obstacle in our way. So we were particularly pleased that we finally managed to organise the second Symposium on Thermoacoustics in Combustion and that 170 registered participants took part this year.
The starting point for the Symposia on Thermoacoustics in Combustion in Munich were discussions with Bruno Schuermans, Post Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) at the TU Munich. Its target is to bring the gas turbine and rocket engine communities closer together and bridge the gap between high-flying academic research and down-to-earth engineering reality.
The organisation of this year's symposium was a collaboration of Mirko Bothien and Luca Magri, the current IAS Fellows, with the Thermodynamics Institute, supported by a Scientific and an Organising Committee and with contributions from the EU Training Networks MAGISTER and ANNULiGhT.
Of course, we would have much preferred to meet in person at TU Munich, as we did in 2016, but the current situation still only allows for a virtual event. Despite this limitation, the symposium again attracted considerable interest from the technical and scientific community working in the field of combustion instabilities: We are particularly happy that the 2021 program included about 64 paper presentations from 12 countries, which is a 20% increase compared to 2016. Like in 2016, the Symposium was probably again the event with the largest coverage of combustion instabilities in 2021.
We enjoyed a week of interesting presentations on current research in the field of combustion instabilities in gas turbines and rocket engines that was inspiring and useful for the future research and development work of the participants. Since almost all presentations were held live and the opportunity for networking in the virtual “coffee” room with its discussion rooms was actively used, there was a very open and communicative atmosphere throughout the entire week, which at times made one forget the virtual format.
We would like to thank all authors, who have contributed a paper to the Symposium, and especially our 5 Invited Speakers
- Bruno Schuermans, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- Aimee Morgans, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
- Marco Zedda, Rolls-Royce plc, United Kingdom
- Thierry Poinsot, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, France
- Jonas Moeck, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
who provided us with their specific views and experiences on combustion instabilities.
In these difficult times for the turbomachinery industry, I very much appreciate the sponsorship of GE AVIATION and SIEMENS ENERGY. My special thanks go to IfTA and LaVision, who were already sponsors in 2016 and are supporting us again this year, and last but not least many thanks to COMBUSTION BAY ONE as the first SME among our sponsors.
In the future, the symposium will be held every two years. SoTiC 2023 is planned to take place in Zurich, Switzerland.