Effects of confinement on premixed turbulent swirling flame using large Eddy simulation

Abstract

This paper utilises large eddy simulation (LES) to study swirling reacting flows by comparison with experimental observations. The purpose is to provide further insights in engineering designs, as well as to improve modelling. A reduced-scale swirl burner has been developed for the experiments. Comparison of particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements with LES results using finite rate chemistry shows that LES captures all the salient features of an unconfined flame including velocity and temperature distributions. However, when the flame is confined within a cylindrical combustor, the simulated flame shape is initially not consistent with experimental observation. Investigations show that the discrepancy is caused by the often practised assumption of adiabatic wall temperature. With the use of an assumed wall temperature distribution guided by laboratory observation, results of LES are consistent with experiments. Although the latter LES approach requires more computational resources, the improvement is found to be justified.