Identification of local extinction topology in axisymmetric bluff-body diffusion flames with a reactedness-mixture fraction presumed probability density function model

Abstract

The effects of finite-rate chemistry, such as partial extinctions and re-ignitions, are investigated in turbulent non-pre-mixed reacting flows stabilized in the wake of an axisymmetric bluff-body burner. A two-dimensional large-eddy simulation procedure is employed that uses a partial equilibrium/two-scalar reactedness mixture fraction probability density function (PDF) combustion sub-model, which is applied at the sub-grid scale (SGS) level. An anisotropic sub-grid eddy–viscosity and two equations for the SGS turbulence kinetic and scalar energies complete the SGS closure model. The scalar covariances required in the joint PDF formulation are obtained from an extended scale-similarity assumption between the resolved and the sub-grid fluctuations. Extinction due to strong turbulence/chemistry interactions is recognized with the help of a ‘critical’, locally variable, turbulent Damkohler number criterion, while transient localized extinctions and re-ignitions are treated with a Lagrangian transport equation for a reactedness progress variable. Comparisons with available experimental data suggested that the formulated approach was capable of identifying the effects of large-scale vortex structure activity, which were inherent in the reacting wake and dominant in the counterpart isothermal flows that otherwise would have been obscured if a standard time-averaged procedure had been used. Additionally, the post-extinction and re-ignition behaviour and its time-varying interaction with the large-scale structure dynamics were more appropriately addressed within the context of the present time-dependent method. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.