Large eddy simulation based multi-environment PDF modelling for mixing processes of transcritical and supercritical cryogenic nitrogen jets

Abstract

Turbulent cryogenic nitrogen jets at transcritical and supercritical conditions are numerically investigated by LES-based multi-environment probability density function method together with the tabulated thermodynamic properties. To account for the non-ideal thermodynamic effects, the mixture properties are calculated by using Soave-Redlich-Kwong equation of state. The effect of sub-grid scale fluctuations of thermodynamic properties is modelled by the multi-environment PDF. Numerical results indicate that the present multi-environment PDF approach has the prediction capability to capture the essential features of cryogenic nitrogen jets under the supercritical pressure. Comparing with the supercritical jet, the transcritical jet features the longer and denser core which is relatively resilient to core destruction caused by turbulence. It is also found that the stronger pseudo-boiling strength and the larger density difference are directly tied with the longer cold-core length. In terms of the sub-grid scale scalar fluctuation, the transcritical jet shows the larger magnitude than the supercritical jet. In the transcritical nitrogen jet, it is identified that the strong sub-grid fluctuations of density and isobaric specific heat are closely tied with the pseudo boiling process. These numerical results suggest that the high-fidelity numerical modelling for transcritical flows must have the capability to realistically represent the combined effects of turbulence and thermodynamic nonlinearities, sub-grid scale fluctuations, and scalar conditional statistics.