Direct numerical simulations of the double scalar mixing layer: Part II: Reactive scalars

Abstract

The reacting double scalar mixing layer (RDSML) is investigated as a canonical multistream flow and a model problem for simple piloted diffusion flames. In piloted diffusion flames, the reacting fuel and oxidizer streams are initially separated by a central pilot stream at stoichiometric composition. The primary purpose of this pilot is to delay the mixing of the pure streams until a stable flame base can develop. In such multistream systems, the modeling of turbulent scalar mixing is complicated by the multiple feed streams, leading to more complex fine-scale statistics, which remain as yet an unmet modeling challenge compared to the simpler two-feed system. In Part I we described how multimodal mixture fraction probability density functions (PDFs) and conditional scalar dissipation rates can be modeled with a presumed mapping function approach. In this work we present an efficient and robust extension of the modeling to a general multistream reacting flow and compare predictions to three-dimensional direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the RDSML with a single-step reversible chemistry model and varying levels of extinction. With high extinction levels, the interaction with the pilot stream is described. Additionally, state-of-the-art combustion modeling calculations including conditional moment closure (CMC) and stationary laminar flamelet modeling (SLFM) are performed with the newly developed mixing model. Excellent agreement is found between the DNS and modeling predictions, even where the PDF is essentially a triple-delta shape near the flame base, so long as extinction levels are moderate to low. The suggested approach outlined in this paper is strictly valid only for flows that can be described by a single mixture fraction. For these flows the approach should provide engineers with fine-scale models that are of accuracy comparable to those already available for binary mixing, at only marginally higher complexity and cost.