GAS TURBINE ENGINE WITH ACTIVE PROTECTION FROM PULSATIONS AND A METHOD OF OPERATING A GAS TURBINE ENGINE

A gas turbine engine includes a combustor assembly (3), having a plurality of combustor units (8), and a control system (3), configured to control air supply and fuel supply to the combustor assembly (3). The control system (3) includes pulsation sensors (12) coupled to respective combustor units (8) to provide pulsation signals (P(t)) and a processing unit (13) coupled to the pulsation sensors (12) to receive the pulsation signals (P(t)). The processing unit (13) determines an azimuthal component (PM(t)) of the pulsation signals (P(t)) defined by PM(t) = 1 NC ∑ N = 1 NC P N t e iMθ N , where NC is a number of can combustors (8) in the combustor assembly (3), θ N = 2 π N − 1 NC is an azimuthal angle of a N-th of the can combustors (8) and M is an order of the at least one azimuthal component (PM(t)) in the range [-ceil(NC/2) + 1; floor(NC/2)]. The processing unit determines working time series (TSW) of spectral parameters (A; A, A; F) from the pulsation signals (P(t)) and selectively activates protecting measures based on the working time series (TSW) and activation criteria. The control system (3) modifies air supply and/or fuel supply to the combustor assembly (3) in response to activation of the protecting measures.