Investigation of Radiative Heat Transfer and Three Thermal Radiation Models in a Turbulent Non-Premixed Methane/Air Flame

Abstract

A numerical simulation of a turbulent non-premixed flame as a two-dimensional problem is carried out to assess the performance of three thermal radiation models, namely, discrete transfer radiation model (DTRM), P-1 radiation model, and discrete ordinates method (DOM). A finite volume staggered grid approach is employed to solve the governing equations. The SIMPLEC algorithm is used to handle the velocity and pressure coupling. The eddy dissipation/finite rate model is employed to predict the heat release and the realizable κ − ε model is applied to simulate the flow behavior. Computational results with and without thermal radiation effects are compared with the available experimental data and the three radiation models are evaluated in terms of the computational efficiency and prediction accuracy. With the consideration of thermal radiation using all the presented models, the predicted radial temperatures of flame at different locations along the combustor are noticeably closer to the existing experimental data. The use of DTRM involves a relatively high computational cost from the time consumption viewpoint. The P-1 radiation model overpredicts the wall heat flux strongly. However, the DOM is a relatively useful and accurate model with acceptable time consumption.