One-dimensional turbulence-based closure with extinction and reignition

Abstract

Scalar statistics from stand-alone one-dimensional turbulence (ODT) simulations are constructed to develop a doubly conditioned table based on the mixture fraction and temperature for the prediction of extinction and reignition in piloted methane–air jet diffusion flames. The ODT-based closure approach is formulated to predict scalar statistics coupled with the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) approach. Comparison with experimental correlations of reactive scalars with the two conditioning variables show that double conditioning may be adequate to prescribe scalar statistics in the jet diffusion flames. The results also show that the ODT model may be used to construct these statistics. The 2D conditioning table is coupled with RANS to compute Sandia flames D, E, and F, which exhibit increasing rates of extinction followed by reignition as the Reynolds numbers are increased. The coupling also requires the transport of the means and variances of the mixture fraction and temperature. Closure terms in the temperature mean and variance equations are obtained by using the 2D table for reaction source terms and by assuming a presumed PDF shape for the temperature PDF. Comparisons show adequate predictions of axial and radial profiles of the mixture fraction, the streamwise velocity, and the reactive scalars for flames D and E and mixed results for flame F. Nonetheless, qualitative trends of increasing the jet Reynolds numbers resulting in more pronounced extinctions are obtained with the RANS-ODT approach. The discrepancy between computation and experiment may be attributed primarily to the closure for the temperature and its variance and to the presumed PDF shape for the temperature.