F. L. Sacomano Filho

LES-BASED NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF DROPLET VAPORIZATION PROCESS IN LEAN PARTIALLY PREMIXED TURBULENT SPRAY FLAMES

The focus of this article is to assess the ability of a spray combustion modeling technique based on the Eulerian–Lagrangian approach to compute droplet evaporation and dispersion close to the reaction zone of lean partially premixed flames. To meet this objective, the flamelet generated manifold (FGM) chemical reduction mechanism coupled with the presumed β-PDF is used to model the turbulent combustion. The modeling includes the two-way coupling between the phases, where the evaporating droplets are tracked using a Lagrangian procedure. Comparisons of numerical simulation results and experimental data in terms of mean droplets diameters, velocities, and volumetric flux are presented. An overall good agreement is achieved. The insensitivity of the droplet size distribution with the increase of the amount of fuel injected into the flame zone observed experimentally is especially verified numerically. A qualitative study regarding the flame position and structure is also provided.