Contrast between steady and time-averaged unsteady combustion simulations

Abstract

Time-averaged predictions from unsteady solutions of the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations are contrasted with Reynolds-averaged results for a reacting flow problem in a high pressure combustor. The goal is to determine whether the two-dimensional unsteady approximation can be useful as an engineering analysis in problems for which time-averaged quantities are of primary interest. The conditions are taken from an experiment in which non-premixed gaseous oxygen and hydrogen were injected into a combustion chamber through coaxial channels. The resulting flowfield is dominated by a large recirculation zone arising from the back-step created by the injector. The results of steady and time-averaged, unsteady solutions are strikingly different. The unsteady simulation produces strong unsteady structures whose time-averaged results lead to a much wider flame zone, a different recirculation zone structure, and a substantially different wall heat flux than those obtained with a steady RANS procedure. The time-averaged calculations yield the correct combustor chamber pressure and compare considerably more favorably with heat flux measurements than do the RANS results. The two-dimensional approximation, however, overstates the unsteady vortex roll up and precludes large scale mixing across the axis of symmetry, thereby giving deficient predictions near the centerline. Overall, the present results indicate that capturing large-scale unsteady characteristics can provide more accurate predictions of recirculation dominated reacting flows and suggest that two-dimensional, time-averaged solutions represent a potentially useful engineering tool for problems of this nature while also serving as a precursor for full three-dimensional simulations.