We present a phenomenological reduced-order model to capture the transition to thermoacoustic instability in turbulent combustors. The model is based on the framework of synchronization and considers the acoustic field and the unsteady heat release rate from turbulent reactive flow as two nonlinearly coupled sub-systems. Previous experimental studies have reported a route from low amplitude chaotic oscillation (i. e. combustion noise) to periodic oscillations through intermittency in turbulent combustors. By varying the coupling strength, our proposed model can replicate the route that is observed in experiments. Instead of assessing combustion noise as background noise to the system, the model considered a coupled oscillator system that produces multifractal chaotic oscillations to represent the combustion noise. This set of coupled oscillators is then nonlinearly coupled to a linear oscillator representing the acoustic field. As the coupling strength increases, the system loses its multifractality and exhibits large-amplitude periodic oscillations in a manner consistent with the dynamics observed in experimental studies.
