Laszlo Fuchs

Physiological responses to mixing in large scale bioreactors

Escherichia coli fed-batch cultivations at 22 m3 scale were compared to corresponding laboratory scale processes and cultivations using a scale-down reactor furnished with a high-glucose concentration zone to mimic the conditions in a feed zone of the large bioreactor. Formate accumulated in the large reactor, indicating the existence of oxygen limitation zones. It is suggested that the reduced biomass yield at large scale partly is due to repeated production/re-assimilation of acetate from overflow metabolism and mixed acid fermentation products due to local moving zones with oxygen limitation. The conditions that generated mixed-acid fermentation in the scale-down reactor also induced a number of stress responses, monitored by analysis of mRNA of selected stress induced genes. The stress responses were relaxed when the cells returned to the substrate limited and oxygen sufficient compartment of the reactor. Corresponding analysis in the large reactor showed that the concentration of mRNA of four stress induced genes was lowest at the sampling port most distant from the feed zone. It is assumed that repeated induction/relaxation of stress responses in a large bioreactor may contribute to altered physiological properties of the cells grown in large-scale bioreactor. Flow cytometric analysis revealed reduced damage with respect to cytoplasmic membrane potential and integrity in cells grown in the dynamic environments of the large scale reactor and the scale-down reactor.

Large eddy simulation of the proximal region of a spatially developing circular jet

Large eddy simulations (LES) of spatially developing circular jets were carried out. The subgrid scale (SGS) model was of a dynamic type and was based on an assumed asymptotic behaviour of the SGS‐stress. This assumption is valid only for adequate spatial and temporal resolutions. The effects of the SGS‐model were studied by comparing simulations with and without SGS‐model. LES with different spatial resolutions were performed to study the effects of the spatial resolution on the numerical solution. The numerical results were compared with experimental data. Simulations were performed for the Reynolds numbers 1⋅104, 5⋅104 and 50⋅104 to study the Reynolds numbers effects in the proximal region of the jet. The turbulent intensity increases from a low initial level, given by a low amplitude white noise disturbance in the inlet, to a high level in the studied proximal region of the jet. For the lower Reynolds numbers certain amplified frequencies were found, at Strouhal numbers about 0.3 and the corresponding...

Large eddy simulations of a forced semiconfined circular impinging jet

Large eddy simulations (LES) of a forced semiconfined circular impinging jet were carried out. The Reynolds number was 104 and the inflow was forced at a Strouhal number of 0.27. The separation between the jet inlet and the opposing wall was four jet inlet diameters. Four different simulations were made. Two simulations were performed without any explicit sub-grid-scale (SGS) model using 1283 and 963 grid points, respectively. Two simulations were performed with two different SGS-models using 963 grid points; one with a dynamic Smagorinsky based model and one with a stress-similarity model. The simulations were performed to study the mean velocity, the turbulence statistics, the SGS-model effects, the dynamic behavior of the jet with a focus on the near wall region. The existence of separation vortices in the wall jet region was confirmed. These secondary vortices were found to be related to the radially deflected primary vortices generated by the circular shear layer of the jet. It was also shown that th...

Experimental and numerical study of flameless combustion in a model gas turbine combustor

Flameless combustion is an attractive solution to address existing problems of emissions and stability when operating gas turbine combustors. Theoretical, numerical and experimental approaches were used to study the flameless gas turbine combustor. The emissions and combustion stability were measured and the limits of the flameless regime are discussed. Using experimental techniques and Large Eddy Simulation (LES), detailed knowledge of the flow field and the oxidation dynamics was obtained. In particular the relation between the turbulent coherent structures dynamics and the flameless oxidation was highlighted. A model for flameless combustion simulations including detailed chemistry was derived. The theoretical analysis of the flameless combustion provides 2 non-dimensional numbers that define the range of the flameless mode. It was determined that the mixture that is ignited and burnt is composed of ∼ 50% of fresh gases and ∼ 50% vitiated gases.

Large Eddy Simulation of a H2/N2 Lifted Flame in a Vitiated Co-Flow

A lifted turbulent H2/N2 flame in a vitiated co-flow is studied using Large Eddy Simulation together with a closure based on perfectly stirred reactors. A part of the closure, chemical look-up tables, are generated to close the filtered temperature equations and to compute local radical concentrations throughout the computational domain. The approach has been used to simulate a lifted turbulent flame. The results have been found to be insensitive to the combustion model employed and to the grid resolution. However, the results are very sensitive to the temperature of the co-flow stream and this result is well in line with previous findings. The numerical predictions were further compared to detailed experimental data obtained by Cabra et al. (2002). The agreement between the two sets of data is very good, indicating that the present approach predicts successfully the combustion process including the OH mass fractions. Finally, the LES data were used to study the flame dynamics and stabilization mechanisms.

Large eddy simulation of vortex breakdown/flame interaction

The dynamics of a swirl-stabilized premixed flame is studied using large eddy simulation (LES). A filtered flamelet model is used to account for the subgrid combustion. The model provides a consistent and robust reaction-diffusion expression for simulating the propagation of turbulent premixed flames correctly. The numerical results were found to be relatively insensitive to small changes in the inflow boundary conditions and to the numerical mesh employed. Furthermore, the results were found to agree well with the available experimental data both for velocity and scalar fields. In addition, unsteady flame features [i.e., precessing vortex core (PVC)] were identified and compared with experimental data. The agreement between LES results and experimental data, in terms of flame dynamics, was also good. Increasing swirl did not affect the flame strongly but a decrease of swirl number was shown to change the flame shape and suppress the PVC. The PVC and flame dynamics were studied using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) allowing us to identify and isolate the PVC from smaller-scale turbulence. The POD results indicate that the PVC corresponds to a helical wave consisting of two counter-rotating helices. A dynamical reduced model was also derived do describe the flame response to the PVC.

Modeling of Liquid Fuel Injection, Evaporation and Mixing in a Gas Turbine Burner Using Large Eddy Simulations

The interaction of turbulence, temperature fluctuation, liquid fuel transport, mixing and evaporation is studied by using Large Eddy Simulations (LES). To assess the accuracy of the different components of the methods we consider first isothermal, single phase flow in a straight duct. The results using different numerical methods incorporating dynamic Sub-Grid-Scale (SGS) models are compared with DNS and experimental data. The effects of the interactions among turbulence, temperature fluctuation, spray transport, evaporation and mixing of the gaseous fuel are studied by using different assumptions on the temperature field. It has been found that there are strong non-linear interactions among temperature-fluctuation, evaporation and turbulent mixing which require additional modeling if not full LES is used. The developed models and methods have been applied to a gas turbine burner into which liquid fuel is injected. The dispersion of the droplets in the burner is described.

A local mesh-refinement technique for incompressible flows

Abstract As part of a Multi-Grid scheme for the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations in primitive variables, we introduce a local mesh refinement procedure. New cartesian sub-grids are introduced into regions where the estimated truncation errors are too large. Through the Multi-Grid processing, informations is transferred among the grids in a stable and efficient manner. A simple pointer system allows the storage of the dependent variables, without increasing in the required computer memory. Two computed examples of incompressible flow problems are discussed.

STUDY OF FLAME STABILIZATION IN A SWIRLING COMBUSTOR USING A NEW FLAMELET FORMULATION

ABSTRACT The dynamics in a swirl-stabilized flame is studied using large eddy simulation (LES). We account for the effect of turbulence on the flame through a model based on a filtered flamelet technique. The model provides a consistent and robust reaction-diffusion expression for simulating the correct propagation of premixed flames. The filtered flamelet formulation has been implemented into a high-order-accurate LES code and used to study the flame stabilization and the combustion dynamics in a gas-turbine combustion chamber. The effects of inlet boundary conditions, in terms of velocity and equivalence ratio radial profiles, have been studied. The flow is found to be very sensitive to small changes in terms of flame shapes and anchoring position. The sensitivity of the results to the subgrid-scale flame thickness has also been investigated. The influence on the flame position is not significant. However, a too-large subgrid-scale flame thickness leads to different flame dynamics.

Effects of thermal radiation on airflow with displacement ventilation: an experimental investigation

Abstract Various wall surface emissivities are used to examine the radiative effects on the vertical air temperature profile and gravity current in a full-scale model of a room ventilated by displacement. The vertical temperature stratification is a combined effect of convection, conduction and radiation. The radiative effects are to heat the floor surface and alter the flow rate in the thermal plumes, which weakens the gravity current and lowers the stratification level. The intermittance at the upper edge of the gravity current is illustrated by studying its turbelent structure. The data gathered in this work are suitable for validating flow and radiation models.