Paul G. Arias

Direct Numerical Simulations of Statistically Stationary Turbulent Premixed Flames

ABSTRACT Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent combustion have evolved tremendously in the past decades, thanks to the rapid advances in high performance computing technology. Today’s DNS is capable of incorporating detailed reaction mechanisms and transport properties of hydrocarbon fuels, with physical parameter ranges approaching laboratory scale flames, thereby allowing direct comparison and cross-validation against laser diagnostic measurements. While these developments have led to significantly improved understanding of fundamental turbulent flame characteristics, there are increasing demands to explore combustion regimes at higher levels of turbulent Reynolds (Re) and Karlovitz (Ka) numbers, with a practical interest in new combustion engines driving towards higher efficiencies and lower emissions. The article attempts to provide a brief overview of the state-of-the-art DNS of turbulent premixed flames at high Re/Ka conditions, with an emphasis on homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flow configurations. Some important qualitative findings from numerical studies are summarized, new analytical approaches to investigate intensely turbulent premixed flame dynamics are discussed, and topics for future research are suggested.

Development of High Fidelity Soot Aerosol Dynamics Models using Method of Moments with Interpolative Closure

The method of moments with interpolative closure (MOMIC) for soot formation and growth provides a detailed modeling framework maintaining a good balance in generality, accuracy, robustness, and computational efficiency. This study presents several computational issues in the development and implementation of the MOMIC-based soot modeling for direct numerical simulations (DNS). The issues of concern include a wide dynamic range of numbers, choice of normalization, high effective Schmidt number of soot particles, and realizability of the soot particle size distribution function (PSDF). These problems are not unique to DNS, but they are often exacerbated by the high-order numerical schemes used in DNS. Four specific issues are discussed in this article: the treatment of soot diffusion, choice of interpolation scheme for MOMIC, an approach to deal with strongly oxidizing environments, and realizability of the PSDF. General, robust, and stable approaches are sought to address these issues, minimizing the use of ad hoc treatments such as clipping. The solutions proposed and demonstrated here are being applied to generate new physical insight into complex turbulence-chemistry-soot-radiation interactions in turbulent reacting flows using DNS. Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research

Dynamics of flow–soot interaction in wrinkled non-premixed ethylene–air flames

A two-dimensional simulation of a non-premixed ethylene–air flame was conducted by employing a detailed gas-phase reaction mechanism considering polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, an aerosol-dynamics-based soot model using a method of moments with interpolative closure, and a grey gas and soot radiation model using the discrete transfer method. Interaction of the sooting flame with a prescribed decaying random velocity field was investigated, with a primary interest in the effects of velocity fluctuations on the flame structure and the associated soot formation process for a fuel-strip configuration and a composition with mature soot growth. The temporally evolving simulation revealed a multi-layered soot formation process within the flame, at a level of detail not properly described by previous studies based on simplified soot models utilizing acetylene or naphthalene precursors for initial soot inception. The overall effect of the flame topology on the soot formation was found to be consistent with previous experimental studies, while a unique behaviour of localised strong oxidation was also noted. The imposed velocity fluctuations led to an increase of the scalar dissipation rate in the sooting zone, causing a net suppression in the soot production rate. Considering the complex structure of the soot formation layer, the effects of the imposed fluctuations vary depending on the individual soot reactions. For the conditions under study, the soot oxidation reaction was identified as the most sensitive to the fluctuations and was mainly responsible for the local suppression of the net soot production.

Direct Numerical Simulation of Non-Premixed Flame Extinction by Water Spray

The interaction of turbulent nonpremixed flames with fine water spray is studied using direct numerical simulations (DNS) with detailed chemistry. The study is of practical importance in fire safety devices that operate in the mist regime, as well as an inexpensive temperature control mechanism for gas turbines. The implemented computational methods for the Lagrangian particle-in-cell spray droplet representation and modified characteristic boundary conditions for spray-laden reacting flows are briefly described. The model configuration is a two dimensional ethylene-air counterflow diffusion flame at moderate strain rate. Laminar and turbulent flame simulations are performed with various water loading conditions. Comparison of various simulation cases highlights the flame weakening characteristics due to fluid dynamic strain and water spray evaporation. A modified mixture fraction variable defined in our earlier study [1] is applied to provide correct physical description of the flame response by accurately capturing the flame locations. Findings from this study provide a better understanding of interaction between thermal and aerodynamic quenching in turbulent flame dynamics.

Direct numerical simulation of bluff-body-stabilized premixed flames

To enable high fidelity simulation of combustion phenomena in realistic devices, an embedded boundary method is implemented into direct numerical simulations (DNS) of reacting flows. One of the additional numerical issues associated with reacting flows is the stable treatment of the embedded boundaries in the presence of multicomponent species and reactions. The implemented method is validated in two test configurations: a premixed hydrogen/air flame stabilized in a backward-facing step configuration, and reactive flows around a square prism. The former is of interest in practical gas turbine combustor applications in which the thermo-acoustic instabilities are a strong concern, and the latter serves as a good model problem to capture the vortex shedding behind a bluff body. In addition, a reacting flow behind the square prism serves as a model for the study of flame stabilization in a micro-channel combustor. The present study utilizes fluid-cell reconstruction methods in order to capture important flame-to-solid wall interactions that are important in confined multicomponent reacting flows. Results show that the DNS with embedded boundaries can be extended to more complex geometries without loss of accuracy and the high fidelity simulation data can be used to develop and validate turbulence and combustion models for the design of practical combustion devices.

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent nonpremixed flame extinction by water spray

This paper presents a brief overview of our INCITE 2007 project on the direct numerical simulation of nonpremixed flames subjected to turbulent flows and water spray evaporation. The simulation is a culmination of our recent developments in advanced physical submodels associated with radiative heat transfer and Lagrangian spray dynamics. One of the main objectives is to identify and verify a unified extinction criterion based on the flame weakness factor built on the excess enthalpy variable concept. The results from two-dimensional turbulent ethylene-air flames suggest that the proposed diagnostic tool provides a correct measure of flame weakening. Further work is under way to extend the analysis over a wide range of parametric conditions.

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent counterflow nonpremixed flames

This paper presents our recent progress in terascale three-dimensional simulations of turbulent nonpremixed flames in the presence of a mean flow strain and fine water droplets. Under the ongoing university collaborative project supported by the DOE SciDAC Program [1] along with the INCITE 2007 Project [2], the study aims at bringing the state-of-the-art high-fidelity simulation capability to the next level by incorporating various advanced physical models for soot formation, radiative heat transfer, and lagrangian spray dynamics, to an unprecedented degree of detail in high-fidelity simulation application. The targeted science issue is fundamental characteristics of flame suppression by the complex interaction between turbulence, chemistry, radiation, and water spray. The high quality simulation data with full consideration of multi-physics processes will allow fundamental understanding of the key physical and chemical mechanisms in the flame quenching behavior. In this paper, recent efforts on numerical algorithms and model development toward the targeted terascale 3D simulations are discussed and some preliminary results are presented.