Flame-wall Interaction Research Articles

Effects of elevated pressure on thermochemical states of turbulent flame-wall interaction studied by multi-parameter laser diagnostics

Effects of increased pressure on the thermochemistry of turbulent flame-wall interaction (FWI) were investigated within this study. Quantitative, pointwise measurements of three state parameters, i.e., gas-phase temperature, CO2 and CO mole fraction, were performed by means of dual-pump coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) and two-photon laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of CO. The flame front was simultaneously tracked by planar OH-LIF imaging. The measurements were carried out in a fully premixed methane-air flame in an enclosed side-wall quenching burner test rig under atmospheric and pressurized conditions (3 bar absolute pressure). An evaluation of near wall flame front topologies showed that the interaction of the flame with the wall is predominantly characterized by one single, extended reaction zone, similar to a so-called head-on quenching configuration. The dominance of this quenching scenario occurred most likely due to the confined burner configuration preventing an unhindered expansion of the hot exhaust gases. Thermochemical states were studied using pairwise correlations of temperature, CO2 and CO mole fraction. Regarding the measurements at atmospheric pressure, an overall good agreement with other studies on atmospheric FWI in a similar unconfined burner was observed considering differences concerning the flow field and the burner configuration. For the thermochemistry measurements at elevated pressure, similar trends as for the atmospheric measurements were identified. A comparison of both operating cases suggested that FWI processes were more strongly affected by heat losses at elevated pressure, but differences are moderately pronounced. To the authors’ best knowledge, these experiments are the first attempt to explore the near-wall thermochemistry of FWI processes at elevated pressure using multi-parameter measurements. As the near-wall measurements were further complicated by effects arising with increasing pressure, e.g., intensified beam steering and reduced length scales, implications on the application of the laser diagnostics are reported.

Effect of hydrogen addition on CO emission and thermo-chemical state near wall during head-on quenching of laminar premixed methane/air flame

A computational model for premixed methane-air flame under the flame-wall interaction was established based on CFD software and experimentally verified. The head-on quenching process of premixed methane-air flame under different hydrogen additions was simulated. The changes in CO emission, quenching distance, and the distribution of CO near the wall under different hydrogen additions were obtained. With the increase of H2 addition, the mass fraction of HCO and the generation of CO increase. Moreover, the consumption of OH in R79: OH+H2=H+H2O increases, resulting in the weakening of the oxidation of OH to CO in R94: OH+CO=CO2+H, and the EICO increases. With the increase of H2 addition, the heat release rate increases, the quenching distance decreases, and the Peclet number (Pe) increases. With the increase of hydrogen addition, the mole fraction of CO in Region A gradually decreases, the mole fraction of CO in Region B first increases and then decreases, and the mole fraction of CO in Region C increases. The temperature drops first and then rises. Near the wall (y < 0.3 mm), the convection term and diffusion term dominate, and the heat transfer time is less than the generation time and oxidation time of CO, and the generation branch and oxidation branch of CO move to the low-temperature region. Far from the wall (y ≥ 0.3 mm), the reaction source term dominates, the heat transfer time is greater than the generation time of CO, less than the oxidation time of CO, and the oxidation branch of CO moves to low temperature. With the increase of hydrogen addition, the chemical time scale of CO decreases, and the generation branches and oxidation branches of CO move to higher temperatures.

Correlation of wall heat loss with quenching distance for premixed H2/Air flames during unsteady Flame-Wall interaction

Flame-wall interaction (FWI) of a laminar, premixed hydrogen/air flame perturbed by a pulsating inflow with excitation frequency (f) is investigated using fully resolved simulations employing finite-rate chemistry and detailed molecular diffusion. The setup is a two-dimensional (2D) V-shaped flame interacting with an isothermal wall on one side and a freely propagating flame on the other side, exhibiting a side-wall quenching and a freely-propagating mode. The impact of unsteady flame stretch on flame dynamics is characterized by the Damköhler number (Da), which is defined by the ratio of the turnover time of the oscillating inflow to the flame transit time. Da is found to directly describe the degree of flame deformation during flame propagation. During FWI, flame pocket formation is suppressed at conditions with Da close to unity. The correlation between wall heat flux (WHF) and quenching Peclet number (Peq) shows a time delay that depends on Da. A negative linear correlation can be recovered between time-averaged wall heat flux (WHF¯) with the quenching Peclet number (Peq¯), and its slope depends on the fuel equivalence ratio. For the lean hydrogen flame, the flame stretch near the quenching point leads to a decrease in flame intensity during FWI and therefore different slope of the correlation of WHF vs. Peq.

Laminar premixed hydrogen/air flame dynamics with/without sidewall interactions

This paper investigates laminar premixed hydrogen/air flame-wall interactions (FWI) subject to flame stretch (curvature and strain rate). Direct numerical simulations of finite-rate chemical reactions and in-depth molecular diffusion are used to numerically study two-dimensional (2D) V-shaped flames, with one side functioning as an isothermal cold wall that interacts with the flame and the other as a symmetrical center for free-propagating flame. An isometric grid with a grid resolution of 10 μm is used to resolve the FWI zone. It is discovered that the wall at the flame tip experiences increased negative stretching and enhanced local preferential diffusion which reduces the intensity of local combustion. This effect is especially noticeable at low equivalent ratios. Additionally, there is a close relationship between quenching behavior and flame dynamics. The present results show that the Markstein numbers for both the sidewall quenching flame and the freely propagating flame (MaSWQ and MaFF) are negative in lean hydrogen flames and positive in rich hydrogen flames. Cold wall has less impact on Ma. Furthermore, an intersection in the equivalence ratio is observed in the lean-fuel hydrogen/air flame, located at Φ = 0.8–1.0, with a change in the sign of Ma.

Effect of Pressure and Turbulence Intensity on the Heat Flux During Flame Wall Interaction (FWI)

Combustion applications such as internal combustion engines are a major source of power generation. Renewable alternative fuels like hydrogen and ammonia promise the potential of combustion in future power applications. Most power applications encounter flame wall interaction (FWI) during which high heat losses occur. Investigating heat loss during FWI has the potential to identify parameters that could lead to decreasing heat losses and possibly increasing the efficiency of combustion applications. In this work, a study of FWI (CH4-air mixture) in a constant volume chamber, with a head-on quenching configuration, at high pressure in both laminar and turbulent conditions is presented. High-speed surface temperature measurement using thin junction thermocouples coupled with high-speed flow field characterization using particle image velocimetry (PIV) are used simultaneously to investigate the effect of pressure during FWI (Pint) and turbulence intensity (q) on the heat flux peak (QP). In laminar combustion regimes, it is found that QP is proportional to Pint0.35. The increase in q is shown to affect both Pint and QP. Finally, comparing QP versus Pint for both laminar and turbulent combustion regimes, it is found that an increase in q leads to an increase in QP (b = 0.76).

Radiative flamelet generated manifolds for solid fuel flame spread in microgravity

Recently, U-shape flammability maps have been constructed showing minimal oxygen concentration vs. flame strain for opposed flame spread in microgravity. Due to the absence of buoyancy in microgravity, flammability experiments require a microgravity environment and are costly to perform. Alternatively, detailed numerical simulations can be conducted to explore the flammability maps if sufficiently detailed chemistry mechanisms and radiation models are available. The purpose of this study is to develop such an approach and to explore the viability of using flamelet modeling descriptions. For this effort, a detailed two-dimensional (2D) flame spread model is developed that includes multi-step complex chemistry and fully coupled radiation heat transfer. The model is validated against measurements using the NASA BASS data and is shown to predict reasonable flame spread rates over a range of far-field oxygen levels. Next, newly developed coupled radiative flamelet generated manifolds (CR-FGM’s) are created using a simplified one-dimensional (1D) descriptions that include a quasi-coupled, fuel boundary that is shown to be critically important for capturing the spatially dependent variation of mixture fraction on fuel surfaces. Differences between the 2D model data and the CR-FGM’s are then identified to be from flame-wall interactions and curved flame structure effects. These differences are addressed using an a-priori error analysis conducted for various intermediate species comparing detailed 2D simulations with the CR-FGM. Results show the CR-FGM’s are capable in predicting the wide range of chemical states for most of the flow regions.

Statistical Behaviour and Modelling of Variances of Reaction Progress Variable and Temperature During Flame-Wall Interaction of Premixed Flames Within Turbulent Boundary Layers

The statistical behaviour of the transport of reaction progress variable variance, c″2~,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\widetilde{{c^{^{\\prime\\prime}2} }},$$\\end{document} and non-dimensional temperature variance, T″2~,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\widetilde{{T^{^{\\prime\\prime}2} }},$$\\end{document} have been analysed using three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) data of turbulent premixed flame-wall interaction with isothermal inert walls within turbulent boundary layers for (i) an unsteady head-on quenching of a statistically planar flame propagating across the boundary layer, and (ii) a statistically stationary oblique wall quenching of a V-flame. It has been found that the reaction rate contribution acts as a leading order source term to the transport of both reaction progress variable variance, c″2~,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\widetilde{{c^{^{\\prime\\prime}2} }},$$\\end{document} and non-dimensional temperature variance, T″2~,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\widetilde{{T^{^{\\prime\\prime}2} }},$$\\end{document} whereas the molecular dissipation term remains the leading order sink term for both configurations analysed here. With the progress of flame wall interaction, the magnitude of all the source terms for the transport equations of both reaction progress variable and non-dimensional temperature variances vanish in the near-wall region with the onset of flame quenching. However, the molecular dissipation term continues to act as a sink term. The performances of the existing models for turbulent scalar flux, reaction rate and scalar dissipation rate contributions have been assessed for both flame-wall interaction configurations based on a priori DNS analysis. The existing available models for scalar dissipation rate for temperature and the reaction rate contribution in the variance transport equations even with the previously proposed wall corrections do not adequately predict the behaviour in the near-wall region. Modifications have been suggested to the existing closure models for the scalar dissipation rate and the reaction rate contribution to the scalar variance transport equations to improve the predictions in the near-wall region. Furthermore, the recommended closures for the unclosed terms of both reaction progress variable variance, c″2~,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\widetilde{{c^{^{\\prime\\prime}2} }},$$\\end{document} and non-dimensional temperature variance, T″2~,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\widetilde{{T^{^{\\prime\\prime}2} }},$$\\end{document} are shown to accurately capture the corresponding variations obtained from DNS data for both near to and away from the wall.

Influence of Flow Configuration and Thermal Wall Boundary Conditions on Turbulence During Premixed Flame-Wall Interaction within Low Reynolds Number Boundary Layers

The influence of flow configuration on flame-wall interaction (FWI) of premixed flames within turbulent boundary layers has been investigated. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of two different flow configurations for flames interacting with chemically inert isothermal and adiabatic walls in fully developed turbulent boundary layers have been performed. The first configuration is an oblique wall interaction (OWI) of a V-flame in a turbulent channel flow and the second configuration is a head-on interaction (HOI) of a planar flame in a turbulent boundary layer. These simulations are representative of stoichiometric methane-air mixture under atmospheric conditions and the non-reacting turbulence for these simulations corresponds to the friction velocity based Reynolds number of Re_{tau }=110. It is found that the mean wall shear stress, mean wall friction velocity and the mean velocity statistics are affected during FWI and the behaviour for these quantities varies under the different flow configurations as well as for the different thermal wall boundary conditions. The behaviour of the quenching distance and mean wall heat flux under isothermal wall conditions is found to be significantly different between the two flow configurations. The variation of the non-dimensional temperature in wall units for cases with isothermal walls suggests that the temperature in the log-layer region is significantly altered by the evolving wall heat flux in both flow configurations. Statistics of the mean Reynolds stresses and turbulence dissipation rate show that the flame significantly alters the behaviour of turbulence due to thermal expansion effects and flow configuration plays an important role.

Assessment of flamelet manifolds for turbulent flame-wall interactions in large-eddy simulations

A turbulent side-wall quenching (SWQ) flame in a fully developed channel flow is studied using Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) with a tabulated chemistry approach. Three different flamelet manifolds with increasing levels of complexity are applied: the Flamelet-Generated Manifold (FGM) considering varying enthalpy levels, the Quenching Flamelet-Generated Manifold (QFM), and the recently proposed Quenching Flamelet-Generated Manifold with Exhaust Gas Recirculation (QFM-EGR), with the purpose being to assess their capability to predict turbulent flame-wall interactions (FWIs), which are highly relevant to numerical simulations of real devices such as gas turbines and internal combustion engines.The accuracy of the three manifolds is evaluated and compared a posteriori, using the data from a previously published flame-resolved simulation with detailed chemistry for reference. For LES with the FGM, the main characteristics such as the mean flow field, temperature, and major species can be captured well, while notable deviations from the reference results are observed for the near-wall region, especially for pollutant species such as CO. In accordance with the findings from laminar FWI, improvement is also observed in the simulation with QFM under turbulent flow conditions. Although LES with the QFM-EGR shows a similar performance in the prediction of mean quantities as LES with QFM, it presents significantly better agreement with the reference data regarding instantaneous thermo-chemical states near the quenching point. This indicates the necessity to take into account the mixing effects in the flamelet manifold to correctly capture the flame-vortex interaction near the flame tip in turbulent configurations. Based on the findings from this study, suitable flamelet manifolds can be chosen depending on the aspects of interest in practical applications.

OH-PLIF study on the mechanism regulating flame-wall interaction with catalytically active CeO2-ZrO2 coatings

Technically, using catalytically active coatings regulate flame-wall interactions to enhance flame stability in small-scale burners, such as the common ZrO2-based ceramics with doping CeO2 which benefit to improve the high-temperature mobility and reactivity of lattice oxygen as an oxygen source to promote gas phase combustion. Probing by OH-PLIF laser diagnosis, the aim of this study was to investigate the dopant content effect (0–20 wt.% CeO2) on the flame characteristics of methane-air mixtures of varying equivalence ratio (0.9, 1.0, and 1.2) in an adjustable-gap narrow channel (2–12 mm) at a wall temperature range of 373 K to 973 K, including the dynamic flame morphology, flame quenching performance, and near-wall spatial distribution of OH radicals. Results show that the flame-wall distances are strongly correlated with wall temperature, equivalence ratio, and channel scale. After doping CeO2, the measured quenching distances can significantly drop, but do not show a linear downward trend with increasing CeO2 content. The case of 5%CeO2-ZrO2 coating demonstrates a small critical quenching Peclet number at high wall temperatures. The maximum OH fluorescence intensity in flame core areas increases with CeO2 doping into CeO2-ZrO2 at 973 K when the channel clearance is less than 4 mm. However, the absolute concentration of near-wall surviving OH radicals in the presence of 20%CeO2-ZrO2 coating is substantially lower than in the 5%CeO2-ZrO2 case due to differences in the redox properties. In situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transformations spectroscopy tests further indicate that the adsorption quantities of C2H4 and C2H6 species on the coating surface also show a non-monotonous CeO2 dependence, as they are important intermediates in the low-temperature C2 chain reaction of methane.

A One-Dimensional Numerical Model for High-Performance Two-Stroke Engines

Computer software that simulates the thermodynamic and gas dynamic properties of internal combustion engines can play a significant role in the design and optimization of internal combustion engines. In the present work, a quasi-dimensional numerical model for two-stroke engines is presented. Particular attention was paid to reporting in-cylinder models, combustion (turbulent with flame development and flame–wall interaction), and turbulence (K-k-ϵ model), with the addition of tumble- and squish-generated turbulence that is quite common in such engines. The aim was to reduce the role of the calibration constants, which are fundamental for correlating the models with the experiments, and relations for calculating the tumble ratio and turbulent scales were reported. A one-dimensional model for manifolds is also presented (solving the Euler equations), using the second-order Roe Riemann solver with some improvements, paying particular attention to the source terms, such as area variation. Additionally, a new approach to the end-pipe boundaries, which would reduce the mass conservation error, is reported. The engines tested were two kart two-stroke engines, used for racing purposes: the IAME X30 engine and the IAME Screamer III KZ engine. A comparison between the model results and the experimental data was made, and good accordance was observed, with a root mean square error of about 0.5 kW and providing good accuracy in evaluating changes, such as the combustion chamber squish area and the exhaust pipe length.

Analysis of the quenching behavior in impinging flame: Flow and thermal characteristics

Considering the complex phenomenon of in-cylinder flame impingement occurring in internal combustion engines, flame-wall interaction in different impinging distance cases is presented for the non-premixed impinging flames. In this article, the quenching mechanism of impinging flame is focused on using experiments and numerical simulations. The quenching information on the flow and thermal field is obtained in the experiment. Large Eddy simulation is used to provide the details in the flow characteristics. In the wall jet region, multiple vortexes are formed accompanied by strong turbulence and large wall shear stress, which becomes more significant with the increase of the impinging distance. The low-temperature region corresponds to a large wall heat flux and Nusselt number, and this non-positive correspondence between temperature and heat transfer leads to excessive heat loss and weakens the flame stability. The quenching behavior in the impinging flame is analyzed in terms of the flow field and thermal characteristics.

Quenching modes of local flame–wall interaction for turbulent premixed methane combustion in a constant volume vessel

The quenching mode of local flame–wall interaction (FWI) is investigated for its response to different levels of turbulence intensity as well as its effect on quenching distance, wall heat flux, and near-wall reaction. For that, direct numerical simulations of turbulent premixed methane combustion in a constant volume vessel are carried with initial Karlovitz numbers (Ka) of 1.0, 10.0, and 30.0. Local flame–wall quenching positions are identified based on the local fuel consumption speed during the turbulent combustion process, and the local FWI events have been classified into four quenching modes according to the flame–wall geometric relationships of quenching positions, namely head-on quenching (HOQ), oblique-wall quenching, side-wall quenching (SWQ), and back-on quenching (BOQ). The results show that in the case with higher initial Ka, the flame surface shows a more complicated wrinkled structure due to the flame–turbulence interaction. Meanwhile, the local quenching distance defined based on the identified quenching position is strongly influenced by the near-wall flow, and the range of the local quenching mode extends further to BOQ. However, for all three cases, HOQ and near-HOQ modes account for the majority of local FWI. Wall heat flux and heat release rate (HRR) of near-wall reaction yield high values for the FWI under HOQ or BOQ and are low for SWQ. In addition, there is a discrepancy in the near-wall transportation of some species under different quenching modes, which further leads to the difference in FWI-induced near-wall reaction regarding its total and elementary HRR.

Effects of Fuel Lewis Number on Wall Heat Transfer During Oblique Flame-Wall Interaction of Premixed Flames Within Turbulent Boundary Layers

The influence of fuel Lewis number {mathrm{Le}}_{F} on the statistical behaviour of wall heat flux and flame quenching distance has been analysed using direct numerical simulation (DNS) data for the turbulent V-shaped flame-wall interaction in a channel flow configuration corresponding to a friction velocity-based Reynolds number of 110 for fuel Lewis number, {mathrm{Le}}_{F}, ranging from 0.6 to 1.4. It has been found that the maximum wall heat flux magnitude in turbulent V-shaped flame-wall interaction increases with decreasing {mathrm{Le}}_{F} but just the opposite trend was observed for 2D laminar V-shaped flame-wall interaction and 1D laminar head-on quenching cases. This behaviour has been explained in terms of the correlation of temperature and fuel reaction rate magnitude with local flame surface curvature for turbulent flames due to the thermo-diffusive effects induced by the non-unity Lewis number. The wall heat flux magnitude and wall shear stress magnitude are found to be negatively correlated for all cases considered here. Moreover, their mean variations in the streamwise direction are qualitatively different irrespective of {mathrm{Le}}_{F}, although the magnitudes of wall heat flux and wall shear stress increase with decreasing {mathrm{Le}}_{F}. Furthermore, the flame alignment relative to the wall also affects the wall heat flux and it has been found that local occurrences of head-on quenching can lead to higher magnitudes of wall heat flux magnitude. It has been found that {mathrm{Le}}_{F} also affects the evolution of the flame quenching distance in the streamwise direction with the progress of flame quenching for different flame normal orientations with respect to the wall. This analysis shows that the effects of fuel Lewis number on flame orientation, correlations of reaction rate and temperature with local flame curvature and coherent flow structures within the turbulent boundary layer ultimately affect the wall heat transfer and flame quenching distance. Thus, the thermo-diffusive effects arising from the non-unity Lewis number need to be taken into account for accurate modelling of wall heat transfer during flame-wall interaction in turbulent boundary layers.

Effects of turbulence–heat loss interactions on detonation development in end gas and its resulting knock intensity

The main objective of the present work is to investigate the end-gas autoignition and detonation development in a confined space with the presence of wall heat loss by two-dimensional numerical simulations with a hydrogen/air mixture. The effects of turbulence–heat loss interactions, initial temperature, equivalence ratio, and wall temperature on end-gas combustion modes are analyzed in detail. The results show that with the presence of wall heat loss, end-gas autoignition takes place in the hot core regions away from the walls, and the autoignition fronts touching the wall can lead to a much larger wall heat flux than that induced by main flame–wall interactions. In the base cases, increasing the turbulence intensity promotes the end-gas autoignition mode transition from thermal explosion-detonation to thermal explosion-deflagration and finally to no-autoignition, whereas detonation takes place in all cases regardless of the turbulence intensity after the initial temperature or equivalence ratio is raised. However, in these cases with a low equivalence ratio, the detonation propagation is unstable, which can be easily decoupled spontaneously after it encounters the cold flow. It is further found that for the cases with unstable detonation propagation, the burned mass fraction (BMF) dominates the knock intensity, whereas for the cases with stable detonation propagation, the maximum pressure in a chamber will extremely depend on the local and instantaneous interactions between the pressure/shock waves, but the effect of BMF becomes minor.

Influence of CO addition on the flame structure and temperature of a micro-jet methane diffusion flame

ABSTRACT Although the micro-jet flame has received a lot of attention, there is a lack of studies on the influence of the composition variation of the CO/methane blended fuels. The present work reveals the impact of CO addition on the combustion characteristics of the micro-jet methane flame so as to improve the combustion stability for the practical utilization of the MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System). It is found that the flame height decreases with the increase of CO, which means that the increase of flame height with the increased inlet velocity can be inhibited by the addition of CO. The flame structures are similar for different CO addition fraction. Interestingly, the flame temperature increases first and then decreases with the increased CO because the present flame temperature is mainly determined by the physical effect of CO addition on the chemical reaction. The addition of CO also affects the flame-wall thermal interaction. Due to the competitive relationship between the flame position and temperature, the heat loss of the flame through the wall will increase first and then decrease with the increase of CO. Similarly, the preheating heat of fresh fuel also shows the similar trend with the heat loss and the preheating temperature of the new fuel reaches the highest in the case of 10%CO-90%CH4. All in all, the addition of CO can significantly affect the position, temperature, and behavior of the micro-jet flame.

Application of dense neural networks for manifold-based modeling of flame-wall interactions

Artifical neural networks (ANNs) are universal approximators capable of learning any correlation between arbitrary input data with corresponding outputs, which can also be exploited to represent a low-dimensional chemistry manifold in the field of combustion. In this work, a procedure is developed to simulate a premixed methane-air flame undergoing side-wall quenching utilizing an ANN chemistry manifold. In the investigated case, the flame characteristics are governed by two canonical problems: the adiabatic flame propagation in the core flow and the non-adiabatic flame- wall interaction governed by enthalpy losses to the wall. Similar to the tabulation of a Quenching Flamelet-Generated Manifold (QFM), the neural network is trained on a 1D head-on quenching flame database to learn the intrinsic chemistry manifold. The control parameters (i.e. the inputs) of the ANN are identified from thermo-chemical state variables by a sparse principal component analysis (PCA) without using prior knowledge about the flame physics. These input quantities are then transported in the coupled CFD solver and used for manifold access during simulation runtime. The chemical source terms are corrected at the manifold boundaries to ensure bounded- ness of the thermo-chemical state at all times. Finally, the ANN model is assessed by comparison to simulation results of the 2D side-wall quenching (SWQ) configuration with detailed chemistry and with a flamelet-based manifold (QFM).

The impinging wall effect on flame dynamics and heat transfer in non-premixed jet flames

The impinging jet flame is studied experimentally and numerically accounting for the complex flame-wall interactions in practical combustion devices. Flame dynamics and heat transfer with the effect of impinging wall are analyzed. The 3-D large eddy simulation coupled with detailed chemical reaction mechanism and particle image velocimetry experiment based on cross-correlation measurement principle are performed for verification and further analysis. Results show that vortices are generated due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability originated from velocity gradient. The 3-D vortex interactions involving vortex rings and spirals are also indicated by vorticity and the convection of streamwise vorticity is responsible for the effect of vortex spirals associated with turbulent flow transition. In addition, results calculated from four wall thermal conditions are compared and analyzed. Dirichlet condition is inferred to be more suitable for the case of wall materials with higher thermal conductivity. It is indicated that wall thermal condition mainly affects the heat transfer in the near-wall region, but has little effect on the momentum transfer. This study provides references for the adoption of wall conditions in numerical simulation and near-wall treatment in combustion systems.

Influence of primary reference fuels on isobaric combustion in a heavy-duty optical diesel engine

Previous studies on isobaric combustion achieved using n-heptane/diesel fuel have shown the potential for higher engine efficiency compared to conventional diesel combustion. This was due to the lower heat transfer losses thanks to the lower rate of heat release and in-cylinder temperature, along with exhaust losses when coupled with a split cycle concept. However, the close-coupled injections implemented in isobaric combustion led to spray-flame interactions resulting in higher soot emissions. Potential ways to reduce the soot emissions are either employing multiple injectors, which helps to avoid the spray-flame interaction, or, as investigated in this study, burning higher octane or low reactivity fuels to increase the pre-combustion mixing time. This study investigated the effect of fuels on isobaric combustion in both all-metal and optical configurations of a heavy-duty optical diesel engine. Isobaric combustion was achieved using multiple injections from a single central injector; the engine performance, exhaust emissions, particle size distributions, and in-cylinder flame and soot distributions have been compared for three different primary reference fuels (PRFs) i.e., PRF0 (n-heptane), PRF50 (volumetric mixture of 50 % n-heptane and 50 % isooctane), and PRF100 (isooctane). High-speed combustion luminosity, OH* chemiluminescence, and planar laser-induced incandescence of soot (soot-PLII) have been performed at a fixed air-excess ratio and peak cylinder pressure for all three fuels. The results demonstrated that PRF100 being the least reactive fuel out of the three tested fuels led to longer ignition delay resulting in more premixed combustion. PRF100 resulted in 4 % higher gross indicated efficiency, 48.8 % lower heat transfer losses, 17.6 % lower exhaust losses, and 87.4 % lower soot emission than PRF0; however, isobaric combustion using PRF100 was difficult to achieve. PRF50 is a promising candidate for isobaric combustion with slightly lower gross indicated efficiency than PRF100 but lower uHC/CO/soot/NOx emissions. Overall, PDI of Soot-PLII indicates initial soot is formed near the nozzle holes, and grow along the flame direction, until they hit the bowl-wall and flow along it due to flame-wall interactions. The soot PDI values are comparatively lower as we move axially away from the top of the cylinder.

Soot formation in asymmetrical ethylene jet flame-wall interactions

Soot from asymmetrical flame-wall interactions in inclined ethylene jet diffusion impinging flames was studied. The soot morphology, nanostructure and oxidation reactivity were acquired via transmission electron spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analyzer. Effects of oblique burner angles (θ), Reynolds numbers (Re) and nozzle to plate distances (H) on soot formation and evolution were analyzed. The results showed soot from downhill position presented the higher crystallization degree and the lower oxidation reactivity than soot from uphill position due to the asymmetrical FWI. With θ increased, the promoting effect of the plate on combustion was enhanced at the downhill side and was impaired at the uphill side. The oxidation reactivity of soot with lower crystallization degree from uphill position was improved, while the opposite variation trend was observed from downhill position. Soot from both uphill and downhill positions has the higher carbonization degree and the lower reactivity when Re increased. Soot particles had the shorter fringe length and larger fringe tortuosity and presented the higher reactivity with the augment of H. The reduction of the velocity perpendicular to the wall with the extension of free jet region suppressed soot formation and evolution at uphill and downhill sides.