Scalar Dissipation Rate Research Articles

Closure Relations for Fluxes of Flame Surface Density and Scalar Dissipation Rate in Turbulent Premixed Flames

In this study, closure relations for total and turbulent convection fluxes of flame surface density and scalar dissipation rate were developed (i) by placing the focus of consideration on the flow velocity conditioned to the instantaneous flame within the mean flame brush and (ii) by considering the limiting behavior of this velocity at the leading and trailing edges of the flame brush. The model was tested against direct numerical simulation (DNS) data obtained from three statistically stationary, one-dimensional, planar, premixed turbulent flames associated with the flamelet regime of turbulent burning. While turbulent fluxes of flame surface density and scalar dissipation rate, obtained in the DNSs, showed the countergradient behavior, the model predicted the total fluxes reasonably well without using any tuning parameter. The model predictions were also compared with results computed using an alternative closure relation for the flame-conditioned velocity.

Passive scalar mixing near turbulent/non-turbulent interface in compressible turbulent boundary layers

Direct numerical simulations for compressible temporally evolving turbulent boundary layers (TBLs) at Mach numbers of M = 0.8 and 1.6 are preformed up to the Reynolds number based on the momentum thickness Reθ ≈ 2200 to investigate a passive scalar field near the turbulent/non-turbulent interface (TNTI) layer that is formed at the edge of the TBLs. The passive scalar is diffused from the wall in the TBLs developing on the moving wall at constant speed. The outer edge of the TNTI layer detected by an isosurface of vorticity magnitude and passive scalar are compared by visualization, and it is shown that the passive scalar can be used for detecting the TNTI layer in compressible boundary layers. Conditional statistics are calculated as a function of the distance from the outer edge of the TNTI layer. The mean thicknesses of the TNTI layer, viscous superlayer (VSL), and turbulent sublayer (TSL), is about 15ηI, 4ηI, and 11ηI, respectively (ηI: Kolmogorov length scale in the turbulent core region near the TNTI layer). The conditional mean profiles of scalar dissipation rate have a large peak near the boundary between the VSL and TSL, where the fluid with a low scalar value locally entrained from non-turbulent region encounters the turbulent fluid with a higher scalar value. The scalar dissipation rate near the TNTI depends on the TNTI orientation: it is larger near the TNTI facing the downstream direction with respective to the mean flow in the boundary layer (leading edge). This is partially explained by the dependence of the production rate of passive scalar gradient. The conditional mean production rate of the scalar dissipation rate near the leading edge is as large as in the turbulent core region while it is close to the non-turbulent value when the TNTI faces the upstream region (trailing edge).

Characteristics of a Cavity-Stabilized Hydrogen Jet Flame in a Model Scramjet Combustor

The characteristics of a hydrogen jet flame in a one-sided divergent scramjet combustor are investigated using both experiments and large-eddy simulations. Optical observations provide macroscopic insight into the typical flow structures and reaction zone. The combustor operates in a cavity-stabilized combustion mode, in which a stable flame is anchored in the cavity shear layer and spreads into the jet wake. Particular attention is paid to the effect of turbulence on hydrogen combustion, which is often difficult or impossible to measure experimentally. Therefore, a high-fidelity simulation of sonic hydrogen jet injection into a scramjet combustor is conducted to provide a detailed description of the three-dimensional unsteady reacting flow. Autoignition occurs along the windward jet boundary, but the flame cannot be sustained due to the high local scalar dissipation rate. Two pairs of large-scale recirculation zones are generated in the cavity. Reflux with a long-flow residence time entrains hot intermediate products into the cavity, which continuously ignite the mixture in the jet wake. Then, the steady turbulent diffusion flame governs the combustion downstream of the cavity, and a large amount of chemical heat is released close to the stoichiometric mixture fraction.

Experimental and computational investigation of the influence of stoichiometric mixture fraction on structure and extinction of laminar, nonpremixed dimethyl ether flames

Experimental and computational investigation is carried out to elucidate the influence of stoichiometric mixture fraction, , on the structure and critical conditions of extinction of nonpremixed dimethyl ether (DME) flames. The stoichiometric mixture fraction represents the location of a thin reaction zone in terms of a conserved scalar quantity. The counterflow configuration is employed, wherein two reactant streams flow towards a stagnation plane. One stream is made up of DME and nitrogen (N) and the other stream is oxygen and N. Previous studies have shown that critical conditions of extinction depend on and the adiabatic temperature . Therefore, the present investigation is carried out with the composition of the reactants in the counterflowing streams so chosen that the adiabatic temperature is the same for different values of . The strain rate at extinction, , is measured for values of up to 0.8. Computations are performed using detailed kinetic mechanisms and critical conditions of extinction and flame structures are predicted. The measurements and predictions show that, with increasing , the strain rate at extinction first decreases and then increases. The predictions agree with measurements for , but significant deviations between measurements and predictions are observed at higher values of . The scalar dissipation rate at extinction, is calculated using measured and predicted values of . With increasing , the measured and predicted values of first increase and then decrease. It is noteworthy that changes in values of with for dimethyl ether flames are similar to those for methane flames, while the changes in values of with are remarkably different. Flame structures are predicted and they are found to be qualitatively similar to those for hydrocarbon fuels.

Large Eddy Simulation of a spray jet flame using Doubly Conditional Moment Closure

A spray jet flame is modelled using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) with Doubly Conditional Moment Closure (DCMC). Since turbulent spray flames may include multiple combustion modes, the DCMC model uses both mixture fraction and reaction progress variable as conditioning variables. Conditional spray terms were included in the DCMC model to consider the coupling between evaporation and the flame structure. In the case of spatial homogeneity and in the limit of negligible mixture fraction scalar dissipation rate (SDR), the DCMC equation is shown to reproduce the flame structure of freely propagating laminar flames. For the spray jet flame, a good agreement between the simulation results and the experiments is achieved, in terms of the spray statistics, as well as the instantaneous and mean flame shape. The simulation shows important differences in the flame structure between the turbulent inner and the quasi-laminar outer flame branch. The doubly-conditional parametrisation appears to be advantageous for resolving small scale effects related to droplet evaporation. Analysis of the DCMC equation suggests that the behaviour of the flame at its anchoring point is strongly influenced by non-premixed burning modes. The solution appears to be weakly affected by terms of convective transport in the DCMC equation, but significant spatial variations and temporal fluctuations of the conditional reaction rate, around 10% of the time-based mean, persist.

Assessment of small-scale anisotropy in stably stratified turbulent flows using direct numerical simulations

In this study, the validity of the widely used Kolmogorov hypothesis of local isotropy of dissipative scales in stably stratified turbulent flows is investigated using high-resolution direct numerical simulations. Departure from isotropy is investigated for the first time in terms of the turbulent Froude number defined as Fr = ϵ/(NEk), where N is the buoyancy frequency, Ek is the turbulent kinetic energy, and ϵ is the rate of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy. It is shown that for both ϵ and the rate of scalar (density) dissipation, ϵρ, the small-scale statistics are nearly isotropic in the weakly stratified turbulent regime (Fr > 1). For strongly stable flows (Fr<O(1)), the vertical gradients of the fluctuating velocity field as well as the scalar fluctuations overestimate, while horizontal gradients underestimate the true rates of dissipation computed directly using the three-dimensional fluctuating velocity and scalar fields. However, in practice, microstructure instruments are typically limited to one-dimensional measurements of the fluctuating fields and hence very likely to yield erroneous estimates of dissipation rates of turbulent kinetic energy and scalar variance. Thus, a new parameterization is proposed here that can be used to infer true dissipation rates from one-dimensional measured values in oceanic flows.

A Novel In Situ Flamelet Tabulation Methodology for the Representative Interactive Flamelet Model

ABSTRACTA priori flamelet tabulation methods have been used extensively to model premixed and non-premixed combustion in Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and large Eddy simulations (LES). Pre-tabulation of flamelet libraries have led to significant cost reduction of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. However, these tabulation methods rely on certain simplifying assumptions. The dimensionality of the flamelet manifolds and size of flamelet libraries are also constrained due to memory and computational limitations. This limits the applicability and predictive capability of flamelet models. The traditional representative interactive flamelet (RIF) approach with multiple flamelets on the other hand involves online solution of flamelet equations and presumed probability density function (PDF) integration at each computational cell, making it attractive but computationally expensive and not suitable for LES with large cell counts. The current work discusses the development of a novel methodology that combines the advantages of an online flamelet solver along with the computational efficacy of tabulated models. The novel in situ tabulation approach consists of creating a flamelet table at each computational time step using the unsteady flamelet equations. The flamelets are then integrated in real time based on their respective scalar dissipation rate histories. This approach is capable of including history effects and unsteady chemical kinetic effects as it involves the online solution of unsteady flamelets. Implementation and comprehensive validation of the new framework is carried out against gas-jet flames as well as spray flames at high pressures. The approach is first validated for a partially premixed methane gas-jet flame in a RANS framework. The temperature and species mass fractions are compared against experimental results at different locations of a lifted flame. The approach is able to capture the transient flame characteristics. The model is then validated against an n-dodecane spray flame at high pressures in an LES framework with a 103-species n-dodecane chemistry mechanism. The model is able to capture ignition delays and flame liftoff of the n-dodecane spray over varying ambient temperature conditions. Due to the offsetting of presumed PDF integration cost, the proposed framework is shown to be faster than the traditional RIF approach, and the speedup over RIF increases with an increase in the cell count. This framework enables use of the RIF model for large cell count LES simulations.

Characteristics of the hydrogen jet combustion through multiport injector arrays in a scramjet combustor

Large eddy simulation of the hydrogen jet combustion in a cavity-stabilized scramjet combustor with three parallel injectors is performed in this study, the emphasis of which is placed on the turbulent flame regime as well as the overall performance analysis. This combustor operates in a scramjet mode with a global equivalence ratio of 0.124, as the chemical heat released is not enough to form thermal chocking. The code framework utilizes an adaptive central-upwind weighted essentially non-oscillatory scheme with a low numerical dissipation to accurately capture turbulent structures in the flowfields, and an assumed probability density function approach to close the terms of the production rate of species. Turbulent fluctuations in the incoming boundary layer are initiated and sustained by a multi-wall recycling/rescaling technique, augmenting the mixing degree of the jet and crossflow. The numerical results show that the large scale vortices between the adjacent jet wakes interfere with each other in the downstream, resulting in a portion of the premixed flame. However, the turbulent diffusion combustion still dominates the whole combustor, occurring in a widespread range of Mach number. And the violent chemical reaction favours a high-temperature environment with a proper scalar dissipation rate. The diameter of multiple jets is smaller in comparison to that of the single injection, so that its penetration height is a little lower under the same spout pressure. Altogether, the parallel injection strategy is beneficial to improve the overall combustor performance, and will not lead to excessive total pressure loss.

Symmetric and Nonsymmetric Flame Spread between Parallel Plates of Thick Combustible Solid

ABSTRACT To identify the occurrence conditions of a symmetry-breaking phenomenon, numerical simulations of flame spread along parallel, combustible plates are performed. Two-dimensional, time-dependent conservation equations for gas-phase with a one-step global reaction coupled to one-dimensional heat conduction for the solid-phase are simultaneously solved. The flame spread having two leading edges was successfully simulated and the behaviors were examined under various flow velocities and channel heights. Based on the time histories of the leading edges, the simulated flame behaviors are distinguished into three modes: symmetric, asymmetric and oscillation, in addition to the extinction. The occurrence conditions of those modes are summarized. The results indicate that the local extinction caused by an excess of the scalar dissipation rate is a key process of the symmetry-breaking. Since coexistence of flames in narrow channel is unstable, the local extinction occurs to achieve a stable state for the system to burn.

Dynamics and kinematics of the reactive scalar gradient in weakly turbulent premixed flames

In turbulent flames, chemical species mixing rates are controlled to a large extent by the geometric alignment of the species composition gradients with the local velocity gradients. This alignment indeed characterizes the turbulence–scalar interaction (TSI), which is one of the leading-order source terms in the scalar dissipation rate (SDR) evolution. In situations featuring density variations, which may be relevant either to (i) non-reactive but multiphase or compressible flows, or to (ii) reactive flows such as those considered herein, it should be acknowledged that there is still some controversy about the role of dilatational effects and its connection with the rotation of the strain-rate tensor principal axes. These two issues are analyzed by considering direct numerical simulation databases of flame kernel growth in homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT). Two distinct conditions of turbulence–combustion interaction (TCI) are considered: the first is a quasi-laminar reference case while the second displays some local thickening of the preheating zone. Special emphasis is placed on the kinematics of the scalar gradient orientation, which is studied through the direct inspection of the reactive scalar gradient orientation budget. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is first time that such a budget is scrutinized in premixed combustion conditions. The analysis shows that, for the flow conditions that are presently investigated, the role associated to the rotation of the strain-rate eigenframe is of paramount importance: it is the leading-order term in the scalar gradient orientation budget. This study also confirms that, in the vicinity of the flame, the resulting evolution opposes the rise of the reactive scalar gradient norm (i.e., the rise of the SDR) but the corresponding effects are lessened as the normalized root mean square (RMS) of the velocity fluctuations is increased.

Effects of ambient pressure on ignition and flame characteristics in diesel spray combustion

This work reports on numerical investigation of effects of ambient pressure (Pam) on spray combustion under engine-like conditions. Three cases with different Pam of 42, 85 and 170 bar at a fixed ambient temperature of 1000 K are considered. Zero-dimensional calculations are first performed for autoignition of stagnant adiabatic homogenous mixtures to evaluate performance of the selected diesel surrogate fuel models and to identify the Pam effects on the most reactive mixture. An Eulerian-based transported probability density function model is then chosen for the three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics study. The results show the predicted ignition delay times and flame lift-off lengths are in reasonably good agreement with experiment, with the relative difference below 28%. The current work reveals that low-temperature reactions occur across a wide range of mixture fraction but a noticeable rise of temperature (>100 K above ambient temperature) is detected first on the fuel-lean side of the stoichiometric line in all three cases. The high-temperature ignition occurs first on the fuel-rich side in the 42 and 85 bar cases, where the igniting mixture appears to be more fuel-rich in the latter case. As Pam is further increased to 170 bar, the igniting mixture becomes more fuel-lean and the high-temperature ignition occurs on the fuel-lean side. The ignition behavior is found to depend on both physical and chemical processes. At 170 bar, the reaction rate increases and the associated transition from low- to high-temperature ignition is relatively fast, as compared to the transport of warmer products from the lean zone into the fuel-rich mixture. Also, within the fuel-rich region, the local temperature is low due to liquid fuel vaporization and the condition is not appropriate for ignition. These collectively cause the high-temperature ignition to occur on the fuel-lean side. Analyses on the quasi-steady spray flame structures reveal that, apart from poorer air entrainment due to reduced lift-off length, the higher rich-zone temperature and lower scalar dissipation rate also lead to a higher peak soot volume fraction at higher Pam.

Micromixing Models for PDF Simulations of Turbulent Premixed Flames

ABSTRACTTransported probability density function (TPDF) methods are attractive for modeling turbulent flames as the highly nonlinear chemical reactions appear in closed form. The ability of the TPDF methods to capture complex phenomena such as extinction and re-ignition has been well demonstrated for turbulent non-premixed flames. However challenges remain when applying the TPDF methods to turbulent premixed flames, for which modeling molecular diffusion is difficult because the local species gradients may be strongly influenced by chemical reactions. The specification of a constant mechanical-to-scalar timescale ratio to relate the scalar mixing timescale to the turbulence timescale is questionable for premixed flames in the flamelet regime. In this paper, recent progress on scalar mixing is reviewed with particular focus on the analysis and modeling of the scalar mixing timescales in turbulent premixed flames using direct numerical simulation (DNS) datasets. The scalar dissipation rate of the progress variable from temporally evolving turbulent lean premixed H2-air flames in the thin reaction zone regime is analyzed using the chemical explosive mode analysis to understand its dependence on combustion modes and transient flame features. Moreover, models for the mixing timescale of the progress variable are discussed, with a focus on a recently developed hybrid mixing timescale model. This work concludes with a discussion on modeling differential diffusion in turbulent premixed flames.

라그랑지안 조건평균방법을 이용한 난류비예혼합 연소의 LES 해석

Lagrangian conditional moment closure(CMC) is applied to large eddy simulation(LES) to analyze turbulent piloted nonpremixed flame(Sandia flame D). It is assumed that the sequentially injected fuel groups share the conditional flame statistics. Coupling between turbulence and chemistry is considered in modeling of the conditional scalar dissipation rate(SDR) which is composed of resolved and subgrid scale modeled terms. Since no additional grid system is required for Lagrangian CMC, LES study is possible without large computation burden. The LES-Lagrangian CMC predicts the major scalar variables(temperature, mixture fraction, and mass fractions of CO, OH, H₂) consistent with measurements both in physical and mixture fraction spaces.

An experimental/numerical investigation of the role of the quarl in enhancing the blowout limits of swirl-stabilized turbulent non-premixed flames

The blowout limits of methane/air non-premixed swirl-stabilized flames were measured with and without quarl. The addition of a quarl significantly enhances the flame blowout limits. The transition from attached flame to blowout was mapped. To explore the role of the quarl, a series of OH-PLIF/PIV experiments, coupled with large eddy simulations (LES) using a transported probability density function (PDF) model, were carried out on flames with and without quarl over a wide range of fuel jet velocity, Uf. The results show that the mean flow field is characterized by two recirculation zones. The existence of the quarl enhances this flow field by triggering a larger scale of reversal flow, penetrating deeply upstream into the quarl. This results in much earlier fuel, extending down into the air tube, where a diffusion flame is stabilized around the stoichiometric mixture contour and locally low scalar dissipation rates. The relative delay in fuel/air mixing in non-quarl flames results in a locally strong scalar dissipation rate layer overlapping the stoichiometric mixture contour, and thus, the flame is highly sensitive to local extinction with increasing fuel jet velocity. At high Uf, in the liftoff flame region, the existence of the quarl enhances the jet spreading and a weak recirculation zone around the highly strained jet is observed. Together with fuel jet spreading, partial oxidization of the mixture upstream the lifted flame base creates a wider range of burnable mixture along the axis in the quarl flames. On the contrary, the high scalar dissipation rate and the absence of a recirculation region in the proximity of the fuel nozzle in the non-quarl flame give rise to an earlier blowout.

Dynamics of triple-flames in ignition of turbulent dual fuel mixture: A direct numerical simulation study

Pilot-ignited dual fuel combustion involves a complex transition between the pilot fuel autoignition and the premixed-like phase of combustion, which is challenging for experimental measurement and numerical modelling, and not sufficiently explored. To further understand the fundamentals of the dual fuel ignition processes, the transient ignition and subsequent flame development in a turbulent dimethyl ether (DME)/methane-air mixing layer under diesel engine-relevant conditions are studied by direct numerical simulations (DNS). Results indicate that combustion is initiated by a two-stage autoignition that involves both low-temperature and high-temperature chemistry. The first stage autoignition is initiated at the stoichiometric mixture, and then the ignition front propagates against the mixture fraction gradient into rich mixtures and eventually forms a diffusively-supported cool flame. The second stage ignition kernels are spatially distributed around the most reactive mixture fraction with a low scalar dissipation rate. Multiple triple flames are established and propagate along the stoichiometric mixture, which is proven to play an essential role in the flame developing process. The edge flames gradually get close to each other with their branches eventually connected. It is the leading lean premixed branch that initiates the steady propagating methane-air flame. The time required for the initiation of steady flame is substantially shorter than the autoignition delay time of the methane-air mixture under the same thermochemical condition. Temporal evolution of the displacement speed at the flame front is also investigated to clarify the propagation characteristics of the combustion waves. Cool flame and propagation of triple flames are also identified in this study, which are novel features of the pilot-ignited dual fuel combustion.

A DNS assessment of linear relations between filtered reaction rate, flame surface density, and scalar dissipation rate in a weakly turbulent premixed flame

Linear relations between (i) filtered reaction rate and filtered flame surface density (FSD) and (ii) filtered reaction rate and filtered scalar dissipation rate (SDR), which are widely used in Large Eddy Simulation (LES) research into premixed turbulent combustion, are examined by processing DNS data obtained from a statistically 1D planar flame under weakly turbulent conditions that are most favourable for the two approaches (flamelet combustion regime, single-step chemistry, equidiffusive mixture, adiabatic burner, and low Mach number). The analysis well supports the former approach provided that the filtered reaction rate is combined with filtered molecular transport term. In such a case, both the RANS and LES FSD approaches are based on local relations valid within weakly perturbed flamelets. Accordingly, simply recasting RANS expressions to a filtered form works well. On the contrary, while the FSD and SDR approaches appear to be basically similar at first glance, the analysis does not support the latter one, but shows that a ratio of the filtered reaction rate to the filtered SDR is strongly scattered within the studied flame brush, with its conditionally mean value varying significantly with Favre-filtered combustion progress variable. As argued in the paper, these limitations of the LES SDR approach stem from the fact that it is based on a relation valid after integration over weakly perturbed flamelets, but this relation does not hold locally within such flamelets. Consequently, when a sufficiently small filter is applied to instantaneous fields, the filter may contain only a part of the local flamelet, whereas the linear relation holds solely for the entire flamelet and may not hold within the filtered flamelet volume. Thus, the present study implies that straightforwardly recasting well-established RANS equations to a filtered form is a flawed approach if the equations are based on integral features of local burning.

Reaction analogy based forcing for incompressible scalar turbulence

We present a novel reaction analogy (RA) based forcing method for generating stationary scalar fields in incompressible turbulence. The new method can produce more general scalar PDFs (e.g. double-delta) than current methods, while ensuring that scalar fields remain bounded. Such features are useful for generating initial fields in non-premixed combustion or for studying non-Gaussian scalar turbulence. The RA method mathematically models hypothetical chemical reactions that convert reactants in a mixed state back into its pure unmixed components. Various types of chemical reactions are formulated and the corresponding mathematical expressions derived such that the reaction term is smooth in the scalar space and is consistent with mass conservation. For large values of the scalar dissipation rate, the method produces statistically steady double-delta scalar PDFs. Quasi-uniform, Gaussian, and stretched exponential scalar statistics are recovered for smaller values of the scalar dissipation rate. The shape of the scalar PDF can be further controlled by changing the stoichiometric coefficients of the reaction. The ability of the new method to produce fully developed passive scalar fields with quasi-Gaussian PDFs is also investigated, by exploring the convergence of the third order mixed structure function to the "four-thirds" Yaglom's law.

Temporal Mixing Behavior of Conservative Solute Transport through 2D Self-Affine Fractures

In this work, the influence of the Hurst exponent and Peclet number (Pe) on the temporal mixing behavior of a conservative solute in the self-affine fractures with variable-aperture fracture and constant-aperture distributions were investigated. The mixing was quantified by the scalar dissipation rate (SDR) in fractures. The investigation shows that the variable-aperture distribution leads to local fluctuation of the temporal evolution of the SDR, whereas the temporal evolution of the SDR in the constant-aperture fractures is smoothly decreasing as a power-law function of time. The Peclet number plays a dominant role in the temporal evolution of mixing in both variable-aperture and constant-aperture fractures. In the constant-aperture fracture, the influence of Hurst exponent on the temporal evolution of the SDR becomes negligible when the Peclet number is relatively small. The longitudinal SDR can be related to the global SDR in the constant-aperture fracture when the Peclet number is relatively small. As the Peclet number increases the longitudinal SDR overpredicts the global SDR. In the variable-aperture fractures, predicting the global SDR from the longitudinal SDR is inappropriate due to the non-monotonic increase of the longitudinal concentration second moment, which results in a physically meaningless SDR.

A self-contained progress variable space solution method for thermochemical variables and flame speed in freely-propagating premixed flamelets

Flamelet models for premixed combustion, which are based on equations formulated and solved in progress variable space, have been proposed in the past, but have not been adopted for chemistry reduction methods. This is due to one limitation of these models: they need a closure for both the magnitude and the shape of the gradient (or scalar dissipation rate) of the progress variable, which is essential for an accurate prediction of the flame displacement speed. So far, solution methods for the aforementioned models require gradient information as an input, which is either modelled and non-generic, or extracted from a previous physical space flame solution for the analogous problem. The objective of this work is to provide a self-contained solution method for freely-propagating premixed flamelets in progress variable space, by solving an additional flamelet equation for the gradient of the progress variable. With this, the novel method provides both magnitude and shape of the gradient. Studying hydrogen-air and methane-air configurations, it is demonstrated that an accurate prediction of the laminar flame speed without the necessity for further input parameters can be obtained.

On the role of mixing models in the simulation of MILD combustion using finite-rate chemistry combustion models

The present work shows an in-depth analysis about the role of mixing models on the simulation of MILD combustion using a finite-rate combustion model, the Partially Stirred Reactor approach (PaSR). Different approaches of increasing complexity are compared: a simple model based on a fraction of the integral time scale, a fractal-based mixing model and a dynamic mixing model based on the resolution of transport equations for scalar variance and dissipation rate. The approach is validated using detailed experimental data from flames stabilized on the Adelaide Jet-in-Hot Co-flow (JHC) burner at different fuel-jet Reynolds numbers (5k, 10k and 20k) and different co-flow oxygen dilution levels (3%, 6% and 9%). The results indicate the major role of mixing models to correctly handle turbulence/chemistry interactions and clearly indicate the superior performances of the dynamic mixing model over the other tested approaches.