G. Troiani

Dynamics of inertial particles in free jets

Turbulent mixing of small and diluted inertial particles presents many peculiar and unexpected features such as preferential segregation at small scales, i.e. clustering or, in wall flows, preferential wall accumulation, i.e. turbophoresis, which are induced by the multi-scale features of the turbulence in the carrier fluid. In the context of multi-phase flows, the effect of turbulence on particle distributions was commonly addressed in simplified geometries as in homogeneous or channel flows. The present paper discusses the dynamics of suspensions with different inertia in the far field of turbulent axisymmetric jets by means of direct numerical simulations. The jet is a well-known constant Reynolds number flow where the characteristic length scale grows linearly with distance from the jet origin, while the characteristic velocity decays in inverse proportion. These features, combined with the finite inertia, induce peculiar non-equilibrium effects on the spatial distribution of the particles. They range from spatially developing small-scale clustering, due to the multi-scale nature of the turbulent fluctuations, to self-similarity of the mean particle velocity profile, presumably collapsing on a one-parameter family of shapes parameterized in terms of the local large-scale Stokes number. The properties presented here are the most evident features of this most interesting system, where intermittency and spatial inhomogeneity interact to induce even subtler effects of spatial segregation, which certainly deserve further investigation.

Curvature effects in turbulent premixed flames of H2/Air: A DNS study with reduced chemistry

Data from a three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulation of a turbulent premixed Bunsen flame at a low global Lewis number are analyzed to address the effects of the curvature on the local flame front. For this purpose, the chemical kinetics is modeled according to a reduced scheme, involving 5 reactions and 7 species, to mimic a H2/Air flame at equivalence ratio ϕ=0.5. An increase of the local temperature and reaction rate is found for fronts elongated into the fresh gases (concave), while local quenching is observed for fronts elongated in the opposite direction (convex), i.e. towards the burnt mixture. Data show that the occurrence in the reaction region of these super-reactive (concave fronts) and quenched zones (convex fronts) is predominant compared to a behavior compatible with the corresponding unstretched laminar flame. In particular, well inside the reaction region, the probability density function of the OH radical concentration shows a bi-modal shape with peaks corresponding to negative (concave) and positive (convex) curvatures, while a locally flat front is less frequently detected. The two states are associated with a higher and lower chemical activity with respect the laminar case. Additional statistics conditioned to the local hydrogen concentration provide further information on this dual-state dynamics and on the differences with respect to the corresponding laminar unstretched flame when moving from the fresh to the burnt gas regions. Finally we discuss the effects of the turbulence on the thermo-diffusive instability showing that the turbulent fluctuations, increasing the flame front corrugations, are essentially responsible of the local flame quenching.

Direct Numerical Simulation of Hydrogen-Carbon Monoxide Turbulent Premixed Flame

Environmental issues and new regulations for pollutant emissions lead to consider alternative fuels for the new generation of power generators such as hydrogen, syngas, green diesel, or biodiesel.

Transport of inertial particles in a turbulent premixed jet flame

The heat release, occurring in reacting flows, induces a sudden fluid acceleration which particles follow with a certain lag, due to their finite inertia. Actually, the coupling between particle inertia and the flame front expansion strongly biases the spatial distribution of the particles, by inducing the formation of localized clouds with different dimensions downstream the thin flame front. A possible indicator of this preferential localization is the so-called Clustering Index, quantifying the departure of the actual particle distribution from the Poissonian, which would correspond to a purely random spatial arrangement. Most of the clustering is found in the flame brush region, which is spanned by the fluctuating instantaneous flame front. The effect is significant also for very light particles. In this case a simple model based on the Bray-Moss-Libby formalism is able to account for most of the deviation from the Poissonian. When the particle inertia increases, the effect is found to increases and persist well within the region of burned gases. The effect is maximum when the particle relaxation time is of the order of the flame front time scale. The evidence of this peculiar source of clustering is here provided by data from a direct numerical simulation of a turbulent premixed jet flame and confirmed by experimental data.

Darrieus-Landau induced regime of propagation of turbulent premixed flames in Bunsen configurations

Hydrodynamic or Darriues-Landau (DL) instabilities in weakly turbulent Bunsen flames are numerically investigated under low-Mach number assumptions and a simplified deficient reactant thermochemistry. The DL instabilities are responsible for the formation of sharp folds and cusps in the flame front. Varying the ratio between the flame thickness and the Bunsen diameter the cut-off wavelength is modified and the instabilities induced. It is shown that stability criteria developed in the framework of asymptotic theory for planar flames can adequately predict the behavior of turbulent premixed flames in Bunsen configurations. A statistical characterization of flame morphology in the presence/absence of hydrodynamic instability is given in terms of flame curvature. Similar flame conformations were obtained in a recent experimental work. The statistical analysis highlight that the skewness of the flame curvature probability density function is a consistent marker of the instability presence and two different turbulent modes of flame propagation are identified.

Inertial Particles in a Turbulent Premixed Bunsen Flame

Many fields of engineering and physics are characterized by reacting flows seeded with particles of different inertia and dimensions, e.g. solid-propellant rockets, reciprocating engines where carbon particles form due to combustion, vulcano eruptions. Particles are also used as velocity transducers in Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) of turbulent flames. The effects of combustion on inertial particle dynamics is still poorly understood, despite its relevance for its effects on particle collisions and coalescence, phenomena which have a large influence in soot formation and growth [1]. As a matter of fact, the flame front induces abrupt accelerations of the fluid in a very thin region which particles follow with different lags depending on their inertia. This phenomenon has a large impact on the particle spatial arrangement. The issuing clustering is here analyzed by a DNS of Bunsen turbulent flame coupled with particle Lagrangian tracking with the aim of evaluating the effect of inertia on particle spatial localization in combustion applications. The Eulerian algorith is based on Low-Mach number expansion of Navier-Stokes equations that allow arbitrary density variations neglecting acoustics waves, for detail see [4].