Understanding the diesel-like spray characteristics applying a flamelet-based combustion model and detailed large eddy simulations

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This investigation analyses the structure of spray A from engine combustion network (ECN), which is representative of diesel-like sprays, by means of large eddy simulations and an unsteady flamelet progress variable combustion model. A very good agreement between modelled and experimental measurements is obtained for the inert spray that supports further analysis. A parametric variation in oxygen concentration is carried out in order to describe the structure of the flame and how it is modified when mixture reactivity is changed. The most relevant trends for the flame metrics, ignition delay and lift-off length are well-captured by the simulations corroborating the suitability of the model for this type of configuration. Results show that the morphology of the flame is strongly affected by the boundary conditions in terms of the reactive scalar spatial fields and Z–T maps. The filtered instantaneous fields provided by the simulations allow investigation of the structure of the flame at the lift-off length, whose positioning shows low fluctuations, and how it is affected by turbulence. It is evidenced that small ignition kernels appear upstream and detached from the flame that eventually merge with its base in agreement with experimental observations, leading to state that auto-ignition plays a key role as one of the flame stabilization mechanisms of the flame.