High Karlovitz Number Research Articles

Mechanisms Leading to Stabilization and Incomplete Combustion in Lean CH4/H2 Swirling Wall-Impinging Flames

Abstract In gas turbines, confined highly turbulent flames unavoidably propagate in the vicinity of a relatively cool combustor liner, affecting both the local flame structure and global operation of the combustion system. In our recent work, we demonstrated, using simultaneous [OH] × [CH2O] planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and stereo-particle image velocimetry (stereo-PIV), that lean CH4/H2 flames at a high Karlovitz number can present a highly broken structure near wall, highlighted by a diffuse CH2O cloud, which suggests local quenching and incomplete oxidation. Such high Karlovitz numbers were achieved using an inclined plate, which substantially extended the lean flammability of the low swirl flames. Yet, how a cooled wall acting as a heat sink played a conducive role in stabilizing high Ka flames remains unanswered. In addition, the origin of the CH2O cloud is also unclear. Hence, in this work, we look to better understand the stabilization mechanisms for lean and ultralean flames on the same configuration, and how they may change with a parametric variation of plate incident angle, plate-nozzle distance, and bulk velocity up to the critical values that lead to flame blow off. The results show that the impinging swirling flow creates a low speed region that helps hold the flame, while the wall prevents mixing with ambient cold air. The production of diffuse CH2O, which indicates the occurrence of local quenching, is associated with a mean strain rate K beyond the extinction strain rate (ESR) Ke. For CH4 flames, most of the reaction zones reside within |K|/Ke<1; for 70% H2 flames at ϕ=0.4, the reaction zones are highly broken and scattered in a large area, where |K|/Ke<8, the interspace of which is fully filled by CH2O. In other words, high H2 fraction flames appear to be more robust to persistent strain rate, thus extending their stability envelope. However, these flames can subsist as highly broken flames featuring strong incomplete combustion.

Data-based instantaneous conditional progress variable dissipation rate modeling for turbulent premixed combustion

Manifold-based turbulent combustion modeling reduces computational cost considerably by projecting the thermochemical state onto a lower-dimensional space of a few manifold variables and reconstructing the state from a set of manifold equations. In turbulent premixed combustion, a one-dimensional space is defined by the progress variable, and the progress variable dissipation rate appears as a parameter in the resulting one-dimensional manifold equations. Closure of the manifold equations requires a model for the dependence of this dissipation rate on the progress variable. Existing models for these profiles are often ad hoc, derived analytically with crude assumptions, and assumed to be spatially and temporally ‘universal’ — yet the resulting thermochemical state can be sensitive to these profiles. To evaluate the assumptions in traditional models, instantaneous conditional progress variable dissipation rate profiles are extracted from DNS databases of turbulent premixed jet flames. At low Karlovitz number, the instantaneous conditional progress variable dissipation rate profiles exhibit some variance but are relatively well-characterized by a ‘universal’ model. However, a large variance in the instantaneous conditional progress variable dissipation rate profiles is observed at high Karlovitz number, indicating the form of the conditional dissipation rate is certainly not ‘universal’. To capture this variation at high Karlovitz number, a data-based model for the instantaneous conditional progress variable dissipation rate profiles is generated, and the resulting model predictions demonstrate excellent agreement with profiles extracted from DNS and far less error than ‘universal’ models. The sensitivity of the solutions of the one-dimensional premixed manifold equations to the dissipation rate profile is demonstrated a priori, and the error associated with the observed variance in the instantaneous conditional progress variable dissipation rate profiles (i.e., relative to the DNS mean) indicates that an instantaneous modeling approach is necessary. A variable importance study is conducted, and the conditional velocity gradient is identified as the critical quantity that characterizes the observed variance in the instantaneous conditional progress variable dissipation rate profiles, providing further motivation for a data-based modeling approach.

Transition from turbulence-dominated to instability-dominated combustion regime in lean hydrogen-air flames

To explore the importance of thermodiffusive and hydrodynamic instabilities of laminar flames in turbulent flows, previously generated direct numerical simulations of statistically one-dimensional complex-chemistry lean hydrogen-air flames in forced turbulence were continued by switching-off turbulence forcing. Three sets of flames characterized by different ratios of initial root-mean-square velocity to laminar flame speed, i.e., (A) u′/SL=2.2, (B) u′/SL=4.0, and (C) u′/SL=8.3, were addressed. Moreover, new complementary simulations of unstable laminar flames were performed. Analyses from the obtained numerical results indicate (but do not prove) that laminar flame instabilities play a minor role at sufficiently high Karlovitz numbers Ka. This supposition is supported, first, in cases B and C, where the initial value of turbulent burning velocity UT is significantly higher than burning velocity evaluated during non-linear stage of laminar flame instability development in the same computational domain. Second, regular large-scale perturbations of instantaneous flame surface are prominent in the unstable laminar flame but are not observed at high Ka. Third, Karlovitz numbers associated with appearance of such perturbations as the turbulence decays are scattered between 4 and 10 and are consistent within an order of magnitude to a recently proposed criterion (Chomiak and Lipatnikov, Phys. Rev. E 107: 015102, 2023) of importance for laminar flame instabilities in turbulent flows. Fourth, at such transition instants, a ratio of potential and solenoidal turbulent kinetic energies, averaged over the flame-brush leading edge, is close to 2.0 in 11 studied cases and a ratio of UT/SL varies between 3.0 and 3.5. Fifth, the maximum fuel consumption rate (over the computational domain) decreases as the turbulence decays. Thus, the initial maximum rates are significantly higher than the counterpart rate in the unstable laminar flame. Together these results show that the hypothesis that laminar flame instabilities play only a minor role at high Ka deserves further study.

Evolution of Flame Displacement Speed Within Flame Front in Different Regimes of Premixed Turbulent Combustion

A transport equation for the flame displacement speed evolution in premixed flames is derived from first principles, and the mean behaviours of the terms of this equation are analysed based on a Direct Numerical Simulation database of statistically planar turbulent premixed flames with a range of different Karlovitz numbers. It is found that the regime of combustion (or Karlovitz number) affects the statistical behaviour of the mean contributions of the terms of the displacement speed transport equation which are associated with the normal strain rate and curvature dependence of displacement speed. The contributions arising from molecular diffusion and flame curvature play leading order roles in all combustion regimes, whereas the terms arising from the flame normal straining and reactive scalar gradient become leading order contributors only for the flames with high Karlovitz number values representing the thin reaction zones regime. The mean behaviours of the terms of the displacement speed transport equation indicate that the effects arising from fluid-dynamic normal straining, reactive scalar gradient and flame curvature play key roles in the evolution of displacement speed. The mean characteristics of the various terms of the displacement speed transport equation are explained in detail and their qualitative behaviours can be expounded based on the behaviours of the corresponding terms in the case of 1D steady laminar premixed flames. This implies that the flamelet assumption has the potential to be utilised for the purpose of any future modelling of the unclosed terms of the displacement speed transport equation even in the thin reaction zones regime for moderate values of Karlovitz number.

Investigation of Entrainment and its Effect on Flame Stabilization in a Turbulent High Karlovitz Number Premixed Jet Flame using Direct Numerical Simulation

Investigation of Entrainment and its Effect on Flame Stabilization in a Turbulent High Karlovitz Number Premixed Jet Flame using Direct Numerical Simulation

Closure modeling for the conditional pressure gradient in turbulent premixed combustion

In turbulent premixed combustion, turbulence is affected by both the influence of combustion heat release and turbulent shear effects. At low Karlovitz number, heat release effects are more dominant than turbulent shear effects, but, at high Karlovitz number, turbulent shear effects dominate the turbulence dynamics. Closure models for the velocity and scalar fields that only account for one of those effects are incapable of generally describing combustion-turbulence interactions at any finite Karlovitz number. A manifold-based turbulence model that solves the conditional mean momentum transport equation conditioned on a progress variable has the potential to provide such a general description, but closure models for the equation are required. Among the unclosed terms, the conditional mean pressure gradient is significant at both low and high Karlovitz numbers but has fundamentally different behaviors in each regime. In this work, a general closure model is developed to capture the conditional pressure gradient in both Karlovitz number regimes by considering heat release and turbulent shear effects. The deviation of the conditional pressure gradient from the unconditional pressure gradient is modeled with two components. One represents the pressure decrease across the flame due to combustion heat release, and the other represents the hydrodynamic pressure fluctuations due to turbulent shear. The heat release component depends on the heat release rate and the flame-normal vector, and the turbulent shear component depends on the conditional Reynolds stresses and the gradient of the progress variable probability density function. The model is validated against Direct Numerical Simulations of spatially-evolving turbulent premixed hydrogen/air planar jet flames at low and high Karlovitz numbers. The proposed model well captures the conditional pressure gradient at both Karlovitz numbers and shows a natural transition of its dominant term: the heat release component at low Karlovitz number and the turbulent shear component at high Karlovitz number.

Effects of thermal expansion on moderately intense turbulence in premixed flames

This study aims at analytically and numerically exploring the influence of combustion-induced thermal expansion on turbulence in premixed flames. In the theoretical part, contributions of solenoidal and potential velocity fluctuations to the unclosed component of the advection term in the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are compared, and a new criterion for assessing the importance of the thermal expansion effects is introduced. The criterion highlights a ratio of the dilatation in the laminar flame to the large-scale gradient of root mean square (rms) velocity in the turbulent flame brush. To support the theoretical study, direct numerical simulation (DNS) data obtained earlier from two complex-chemistry, lean H2–air flames are analyzed. In line with the new criterion, even at sufficiently high Karlovitz numbers, the results show significant influence of combustion-induced potential velocity fluctuations on the second moments of the turbulent velocity upstream of and within the flame brush. In particular, the DNS data demonstrate that (i) potential and solenoidal rms velocities are comparable in the unburnt gas close to the leading edge of the flame brush and (ii) potential and solenoidal rms velocities conditioned to unburnt gas are comparable within the entire flame brush. Moreover, combustion-induced thermal expansion affects not only the potential velocity but even the solenoidal one. The latter effects manifest themselves in a negative correlation between solenoidal velocity fluctuations and dilatation or in the counter-gradient behavior of the solenoidal scalar flux. Finally, a turbulence-in-premixed-flame diagram is sketched to discuss the influence of combustion-induced thermal expansion on various ranges of turbulence spectrum.

A computational assessment of flame speed correlation in an ultra-lean pre-chamber engine

Predictive modeling of pre-chamber combustion engines relies primarily on the correct description of laminar and turbulent flame speeds. For engineering applications, the correlations of the flame speeds with physical variables involve empirical constants that are valid for a limited range of operating conditions. The current work aims at assessing the significance of laminar flame speed prediction in the simulation of ultra-lean pre-chamber engine combustion operated with methane. Gülder’s empirical correlation for laminar flame speed was chosen as a reference and was further modified for equivalence ratio, pressure and temperature ranges beyond what it was originally derived for, in order to confirm the original hypothesis; the pressure and temperature dependence were adopted as a power-law correlation. Based on the computational results using the skeletal reaction mechanism, the correlation was modified better represent the flame speeds at ultra-lean engine conditions, using GRI 3.0 as a reference. The modified correlation for methane was implemented in CONVERGE, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver, and the results were validated against the experimental data. In all cases, the original formulation of Peters’s turbulent flame speed correlation was used and was found to have insignificant effect on the conditions under study, confirming the importance of the accurate determination of the laminar flame speed that dominates over any turbulence corrections for high Karlovitz number effects. The flame topology was also investigated to provide insights into the observed pressure behavior among the tested cases. Finally, the relevant turbulent combustion regimes encountered in the pre-chamber combustion engine conditions were examined in the Borghi-Peters diagram, further confirming the findings of the study.

The effects of flame orientation and mean shear on flame stretch in highly turbulent premixed flames using DNS

In the present work, direct numerical simulation data of a laboratory-scale high Karlovitz number (Ka) jet flame with a strong mean shear and a high Ka freely propagating planar flame without a mean shear were analyzed to explore the influence of flame orientation and mean shear on flame stretch in highly turbulent flames. Three flame fronts, i.e. the leading, in-plane and trailing front, were identified for the jet flame. The leading and trailing front is defined as the flame normal being facing the downstream and upstream regions, respectively, while the flame normal of the in-plane front is near the cross-stream plane. It was found that the flame stretch is positive in the leading front, and is negative in the trailing front of the jet flame. As for the planar flame, the statistics of the flame stretch are similar in various flame fronts. The components of the flame stretch are analyzed. The normal vector of the leading front is aligned with the most compressive strain rate in the jet flame, resulting in a large tangential strain rate, while the tangential strain rate of the trailing front is significantly lower. In contrast, the alignment characteristics and the strain rates of the planar flame are not sensitive to the flame orientation. The value of the stretch due to curved propagating flame front is large and negative in the trailing front of the jet flame due to the negative correlation between the displacement velocity and curvature, which is weak in the leading and in-plane front. The correlation between the displacement velocity and curvature is, however, similar in various fronts of the planar flame. Overall, it is suggested that the effects of flame orientation and mean shear should be accounted for in understanding turbulence-flame interactions in practical combustion devices.

Turbulent burning velocity and its related statistics of ammonia‐hydrogen‐air jet flames at high Karlovitz number: Effect of differential diffusion

To clarify the role of differential diffusion in highly turbulent premixed flames, a series of turbulent premixed ammonia/hydrogen/air flames were investigated using the NH-PLIF diagnostics. The investigated flames have almost the same laminar burning velocity, SL, but are characterized by different Lewis number, Le, from 0.56 to 1.77. The Karlovitz number, Ka, of these flames ranges from 11 to 1052, and the turbulence intensity, u’/SL, covers from 10 to 156. It is observed that the global consumption speed, ST,GC/SL, of sub-unity Le flames is much larger than that of super-unity Le flames at high Ka, indicating that the differential diffusion plays a significant role in highly turbulent flames. The flame surface density and the area ratio of turbulent flames with different Le are, however, similar under wide turbulent conditions. The stretch factor of sub-unity Le flames is estimated to be significantly larger than that of super-unity Le cases. The enhanced ST,GC of sub-unity Le flames is suggested to be attributed to the promotion of local burning rates by the couple effect of differential diffusion and turbulent flame stretch within the flame brush, rather than the enlargement of flame surface area at high Ka. Furthermore, three correlations for the ST,GC were developed based on Damkohler's second hypothesis with consideration of the Le effect. The correlation of ST,GC/SL ∼ (ReT·Le-2)0.5 is further validated by using small-scale methane/air and large-scale ammonia/air flames at high Ka, where ReT is turbulent Reynolds number. It suggests that the ST,GC is roughly inversely proportional to the Le, and the differential diffusion effect should be included in the theoretical analysis and numerical simulation of highly turbulent flames.

Predictive Data-Driven Model Based on Generative Adversarial Network for Premixed Turbulence-Combustion Regimes

ABSTRACT Premixed flames exhibit different asymptotic regimes of interaction between heat release and turbulence depending on their respective length scales. At high Karlovitz number, the dilatation caused by heat release does not have any relevant effect on turbulent kinetic energy with respect to non-reacting flow, while at low Karlovitz number, the mean shear is a sink of turbulent kinetic energy, and counter-gradient transport is observed. This latter phenomenon is not well captured by closure models commonly used in Large Eddy Simulations that are based on gradient diffusion. The massive amount of data available from Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) opens the possibility to develop data-driven models able to represent physical mechanisms and non-linear features present in both these regimes. In this work, the databases are formed by DNSs of two planar hydrogen/air flames at different Karlovitz numbers corresponding to the two asymptotic regimes. In this context, the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) gives the possibility to successfully recognize and reconstruct both gradient and counter-gradient phenomena if trained with databases where both regimes are included. Two GAN models were first trained each for a specific Karlovitz number and tested using the same dataset in order to verify the capability of the models to learn the features of a single asymptotic regime and assess its accuracy. In both cases, the GAN models were able to reconstruct the Reynolds stress subfilter scales accurately. Later, the GAN was trained with a mixture of both datasets to create a model containing physical knowledge of both combustion regimes. This model was able to reconstruct the subfilter scales for both cases capturing the interaction between heat release and turbulence closely to the DNS as shown from the turbulent kinetic budget and barycentric maps.

Flame structure and burning velocity of ammonia/air turbulent premixed flames at high Karlovitz number conditions

This paper presents experimental studies of the structures and burning velocities of premixed ammonia/air jet flames at high Karlovitz (Ka) number conditions. Simultaneous planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) imaging of imidogen (NH) and hydroxyl (OH) radicals was performed to investigate the local flame structure and Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) measurements were employed for extracting complement relevant turbulent quantities from the flow field. All the selected cases are located in the regime of distributed reaction zones (DRZ) in the Borghi-Peters diagram, with a maximum Karlovitz (Ka) number and turbulent intensity (u′/SL) up to 1008 and 240, respectively. The OH- and NH-PLIF data were used to determine the flame surface density, flame-surface area ratio, and turbulent burning velocity (ST). The main findings include: (a) The NH layer remains thin and continuous over the investigated range of turbulent intensity and Karlovitz number, and the thickness keeps constant statistically without any significant broadening by turbulent eddies; (b) Spatial correlations of the NH and OH radicals show that overlap of NH and OH layers always exists in a thin region where OH has a weaker signal intensity; (c) The ratio of turbulent to laminar burning velocity (ST/SL) shows a nearly linear increase with turbulent intensity, while the ratio of wrinkled flame surface area to that of ensemble-averaged flame surface area increases only slightly with turbulent intensities. The slower increase of wrinkled flame surface area with turbulent intensity can be attributed to under-resolution in the current state-of-the-art PLIF experiments, the neglection of 3D flame wrinkles in 2D experiments, and the increase in flame stretch factor at high turbulent intensities.

Enhanced burning rates in hydrogen-enriched turbulent premixed flames by diffusion of molecular and atomic hydrogen

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of fuel-lean turbulent premixed hydrogen-enriched flames are analyzed to improve understanding of local effects of molecular diffusion of fast-diffusing, low-Lewis-number hydrogen species (H2 and H) on the overall burning rates of reactant mixtures. Although it is often assumed that the importance of molecular diffusion decreases with increasing turbulence intensity, our analysis reveals that, on the contrary, diffusion of molecular and atomic hydrogen can remain the rate-controlling processes even at high Karlovitz numbers (Ka≫1). Three-dimensional DNS with detailed chemical kinetics and species transport of turbulent premixed hydrogen-air and hydrogen/ammonia-air flames in the regimes of thin and distributed reaction zones are performed and analyzed at different reactant temperatures and pressure levels. The DNS data reveal a significant impact of H2 and H diffusion in all flames analyzed. In particular, the magnitude of H2 diffusion, occurring from low progress variable near the flame elements of the turbulent reaction front that exhibit convex (positive) curvature towards the fresh mixture, is greatly enhanced at high pressure through increased spatial gradients, resulting in localized equivalence-ratio enrichment and super-adiabatic conditions that accelerate and strengthen the flame front. Moreover, for higher reactant temperatures, back diffusion of atomic hydrogen, transported from the reaction zone into unburnt regions from negatively curved reaction layers surrounding them, facilitates the occurrence of localized spontaneous ignition events at the trailing edges of reaction fronts. For certain conditions these events, induced by differential diffusion, can become the dominant process controlling the overall rate of reactants consumption.

Machine learning assisted modeling of mixing timescale for LES/PDF of high-Karlovitz turbulent premixed combustion

Accurate modeling of mixing in the transported probability density function (PDF) method remains a great challenge, especially for turbulent premixed combustion under extreme conditions such as high Karlovitz number Ka. Recently, a power-law based mixing timescale model was developed (Zhang et al., Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 2021, 38(2): 2917–2927) for the large-eddy simulations (LES)/PDF modeling of high-Ka number turbulent premixed flames. It is found in this work that the power-law mixing timescale model is highly sensitive to the model parameters. It is thus critically needed to develop accurate calibration of these model parameters. The empirical specification of the model parameters developed in Zhang et al. is found to be inadequate for accurate modeling of the mixing timescale. Machine learning is introduced as an attractive alternative in this work for the specification of the model parameters. A high-Ka number DNS jet flame is used as the training and validation of the machine learning models. The choices of the input parameters are discussed and compared for the machine learning models. The effect of differential molecular diffusion on mixing is examined by including the effect of the Lewis number in the training of the machine learning models. The performance of different machine learning algorithms is compared for the specification of the mixing model parameters. Overall, excellent performance of the machine learning models is observed for assisting the mixing modeling. The feasibility, interpretability, applicability, generality, and portability of using machine learning are discussed in general to provide a perspective on applying data-driven machine learning for turbulent combustion modeling studies.

Direct Numerical Simulations of high Karlovitz number premixed flames for the analysis and modeling of the displacement speed.

An a priori model for premixed turbulent flame combustion in the thin reaction zone (TRZ) regime is presented. This a priori model is deduced from the analysis of data from a series of direct numerical simulations (DNS) of stoichiometric (ϕ=1.0) premixed turbulent iso-octane flames, with Karlovitz number ranging from 2.9 to 46.2. For each case two flames are considered: one with unity Lewis numbers to isolate the effect of turbulence on the flame, and one with non-unity Lewis numbers to study the influence of differential diffusion. First the reaction zone is shown to remain thin for each flame, leading to focus this study on a specific iso-surface in the reaction zone and how it is affected by turbulence. Second, the displacement speed Sd on this iso-surface shows a differentiate dependency on tangential strain rate and curvature. This dependency is modeled through an expression of Sd formally similar to the ones used in laminar flame theories, but using two effective turbulent Markstein lengths in place of the laminar ones. These lengths are shown to depend on the Lewis number and to decrease when the Karlovitz number increases, in agreement with previous studies showing a reduction of the effective Lewis number with the Karlovitz. From these DNS, an extension of the coherent flame model (CFM) to the TRZ regime is proposed, using a fine-grained flame surface density (FSD) located in the reaction zone. Models for the displacement speed, the tangential strain rate, and the stretch due to curvature are proposed. The a priori evaluation of these closures shows a significant improvement compared to the flamelet formulations.

Local flame displacement speeds of hydrogen-air premixed flames in moderate to intense turbulence

Comprehensive knowledge of local flame displacement speed, Sd, in turbulent premixed flames is crucial towards the design and development of hydrogen fuelled next-generation engines. Premixed hydrogen-air flames are characterized by significantly higher laminar flame speed compared to other conventional fuels. Furthermore, in the presence of turbulence, Sd is enhanced much beyond its corresponding unstretched, planar laminar value SL. In this study, the effect of high Karlovitz number (Ka) turbulence on density-weighted flame displacement speed, Sd˜, in a H2-air flame is investigated. Recently, it has been identified that flame-flame interactions in regions of large negative curvature govern large deviations of Sd˜ from SL, for moderately turbulent flames. An interaction model for the same has also been proposed. In this work, we seek to test the interaction model’s applicability to intensely turbulent flames characterized by large Ka. To that end, we investigate the local flame structures: thermal, chemical structure, the effect of curvature, along the direction that is normal to the chosen isothermal surfaces. Furthermore, relative contributions of the transport and chemistry terms to Sd˜ are also analyzed. It is found that, unlike the moderately turbulent premixed flames, where enhanced Sd˜ is driven by interactions among complete flame structures, Sd˜ enhancement in high Ret and high Ka flame is predominantly governed by local interactions of the isotherms. It is found that enhancement in Sd˜ in regions of large negative curvature occurs as a result of these interactions, evincing that the interaction model is useful for high Ka turbulent premixed flames as well.

Influence of molecular transport on burning rate and conditioned species concentrations in highly turbulent premixed flames

Apparent inconsistency between (i) experimental and direct numerical simulation (DNS) data that show the significant influence of differential diffusion on the turbulent burning rate and (ii) recent complex-chemistry DNS data that indicate mitigation of the influence of differential diffusion on conditioned profiles of various local flame characteristics at high Karlovitz numbers, is explored by analysing new DNS data obtained from lean hydrogen–air turbulent flames. Both aforementioned effects are observed by analysing the same DNS data provided that the conditioned profiles are sampled from the entire computational domain. On the contrary, the conditioned profiles sampled at the leading edge of the mean flame brush do not indicate the mitigation, but are significantly affected by differential diffusion phenomena, e.g. because reaction zones are highly curved at the leading edge. This observation is consistent with a significant increase in the computed turbulent burning velocity with decreasing Lewis number, with all the results considered jointly being consonant with the leading point concept of premixed turbulent combustion. The concept is further supported by comparing DNS data obtained by allowing for preferential diffusion solely for a single species, either atomic or molecular hydrogen.

Scaling of reaction progress variable variance in highly turbulent reaction waves

Self-propagation of a reaction wave, which consists of an infinitely thin reaction zone (front) and a thick inert mixing layer adjacent to the front, in constant-density statistically stationary, homogeneous isotropic turbulence unaffected by the wave is analytically studied. In the asymptotic case of a high turbulent Reynolds number, high Karlovitz number, and low Damköhler number Da, the scalar variance c′2¯ is shown to be proportional to Da for the statistically stationary stage of the wave evolution. This scaling is supported by newly analyzed Direct Numerical Simulation data discussed in detail by Sabelnikov et al. [“Thin reaction zones in constant-density turbulent flows at low Damköhler numbers: Theory and simulations,” Phys. Fluids 31, 055104 (2019)]. The obtained analytical results also show that, under conditions of the present study, spatial gradients of reactant concentration non-uniformities due to the reaction and spatial gradients of reactant concentration non-uniformities due to the turbulence are of the same order of magnitude. Accordingly, major statistical characteristics of the scalar field c(x,t), such as the mean area of an iso-scalar surface c(x,t)=const, the mean molecular flux through this surface, etc., can be found adopting results known in the theory of inert and passive turbulent mixing. Nevertheless, the reaction indirectly affects these characteristics by controlling the mean thickness of the reaction wave and, consequently, the spatial gradient of the mean reaction progress variable.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Ultra-Wet Methane Combustion Technique for Power Generation

Abstract Using steam as a heat carrier and working media has merits to increase electric efficiency up to 60% and decrease NOx emission to single-digit compared to dry gas turbine cycles. These attribute primarily to the physical properties of steam as having high heat capacity to reduce local flame temperature, and hence reduce emissions by inhibiting the thermal NOx forward reaction rate. In this work, ultrahigh steam content with a steam-to-air mass ratio of up to 40% is premixed with methane–air mixture before entering into a swirl-stabilized high pressure (HP)-burner for combustion. A significant change of flame from V-shape (attached) to M shape (detached) is observed through a transparent combustion chamber whilst changing steam content. The measurement of chemiluminescence OH* is conducted with an intensified CCD-camera bandpass filtered at 320 nm. Following these measurements, large eddy simulation (LES) is used to capture reacting flow features. Reasonably well agreements between experimental data and numerical results are obtained for both attached and detached flames in terms of the OH* distribution. Slight inconsistency of OH* intensity is mainly due to uncollected wall temperature, which leads to either over- or underprediction of chemical reaction rate depending on the experimental flame positions. Distributed flame front is clearly identified with LES for wet methane combustion associated with 35% steam-to-air ratio corresponding to a high Karlovitz number flame. Slightly unstable combustion is observed when the steam-to-air ratio exceeds 40% featuring an onset of flame blow-off. In addition, interaction between precessing vortex core (PVC) and the flame is presented for different level of steam dilution, and conclusions are drawn regarding the flame stabilization. The in-depth understanding of the ultrawet combustion is an important step toward the use of sustainable, steam-diluted biosyngas for electricity production.

Dissipation and dilatation rates in premixed turbulent flames

Velocity dilatation and total, solenoidal, and dilatational dissipation rates of the total flow kinetic energy are extracted from three different direct numerical simulation databases obtained by three independent research groups using different numerical codes and methods (e.g., single-step chemistry and complex chemistry flames) from six different premixed turbulent flames associated with flamelet, thin reaction zone, and broken reaction zone regimes of turbulent burning. The results show that dilatational dissipation can be larger than solenoidal dissipation in the flamelet regime and is substantial in the thin reaction zone regime. Accordingly, the influence of combustion-induced thermal expansion on the dissipation rate is not reduced to an increase in the mixture viscosity by the temperature. A simple criterion for identifying conditions associated with significant dilatational dissipation is discussed, and dilatational dissipation due to the influence of turbulence on mixing in preheat zones is argued to play a role even at high Karlovitz numbers Ka. In particular, the magnitude of dilatation fluctuations and probability of finding negative local dilatation are increased by Ka, thus implying that the impact of molecular transport of species and heat on the dilatation increases with increasing Karlovitz number.